Ron Paul’s Position on Abortion in Cases of Rape is Confusing [Video]
Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul is in the headlines again for saying something that enrages people on both sides of the aisle. This time it was in response to a question he got from CNN‘s Piers Morgan about what his position was on abortion in the case of rape of the mother.
The exchange went as follows:
MORGAN: You have two daughters. You have many granddaughters. If one of them was raped — and I accept it’s a very unlikely thing to happen. But if they were, would you honestly look at them in the eye and say they had to have that child if they were impregnated?
PAUL: No. If it’s an honest rape, that individual should go immediately to the emergency room. I would give them a shot of estrogen or give them –
MORGAN: You would allow them to abort the baby?
PAUL: It is absolutely in limbo, because an hour after intercourse or a day afterwards, there is no legal or medical problem. If you talk about somebody coming in and they say, well, I was raped and I’m seven months pregnant and I don’t want to have anything to do with it, it’s a little bit different story.
But somebody arriving in an emergency room saying, I have just been raped and there is no chemical — there’s no medical and there’s no legal evidence of a pregnancy –
MORGAN: Life doesn’t begin at conception?
PAUL: Life does begin at conception.
MORGAN: Then you would be taking a life.
PAUL: Well, you don’t know if you’re taking a life either, because this is an area that is — but to decide everything about abortion and respect for life on this one very, very theoretical condition, where there may have been a life or not a life.
Ron Paul has a tendency to enrage his critics on the Right and Left with things like this. Morgan decided for the next segment of the interview to dwell on what an “Honest Rape” was (he meant the case where someone lies about being raped in order to get free abortion services).
Those on the Right found his comments interesting because he basically said that since we don’t know if the woman is pregnant yet we can assume she isn’t and give a shot of estrogen which would forgo any chance of the woman getting or staying pregnant.
Do you think Ron Paul is right on this one? Does life begin at conception?
Watch the interview for yourself and decide what Dr. Ron Paul meant.
