Appearing on Democracy Now on Tuesday, Michelle Goldberg of The Daily Beast said that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) share many of the same views when it comes to abortion policies.
Akin created a firestorm after he claimed over the weekend that victims of "legitimate rape" were unlikely to become pregnant. His comments have been condemned by many fellow Republicans, including the Romney-Ryan campaign.
But Goldberg noted that Akin and Ryan had collaborated on abortion-related legislation -- though Ryan has never made any statements as outrageous as Akin's recent comment.
"Paul Ryan, like Todd Akin, does not believe that there should be any exceptions to a total abortion ban for cases of rape and incest," she explained. "He, in the past, has only supported exceptions that would save a mother’s life, not save a mother’s health, you know, and again. So he believes and has always believed and has sponsored legislation to the effect that a woman who gets pregnant through rape should be forced by the government to carry that baby to term."
"They co-sponsored what was basically a federal personhood amendment, which would give the full rights of an American citizen to a fertilized egg and which a lot of legal scholars say would not only outlaw all forms of abortion but would outlaw the morning-after pill, would outlaw some forms of birth control, would outlaw common forms of in vitro fertilization," Goldberg continued.
"Akin and Ryan have also both opposed legislation that would allow funding for abortions for female servicemembers who have been raped. And as you know, you know, rape in the military is at kind of epidemic levels."
Watch video, uploaded to YouTube by Democracy Now, below:
