'We hope she would understand': National Right to Life official thinks 10-year-old should have birthed rapist's baby

The top lawyer for an anti-abortion group compared a 10-year-old girl to a woman after she became pregnant when she was raped.

Jim Bopp, an Indiana lawyer who serves as general counsel National Right to Life Committee, has written model legislation for states to adopt after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and he told Politico that his law would have required the child to carry out her pregnancy to term and somehow come to accept her situation.

“She would have had the baby," Bopp said, "and as many women who have had babies as a result of rape, we would hope that she would understand the reason and ultimately the benefit of having the child."

The girl's case became international news after she traveled in Indiana from her home in Ohio, which bans abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, to terminate her pregnancy.

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Multiple publications and various conservative elected officials and pundits cast doubt on the story, which the Wall Street Journal described as "too good to be confirm," but the girl's rapist was arrested Wednesday in Columbus.

Indiana's legislature will likely hold a special session later this month to consider a ban on abortion, which is currently legal up to 22 weeks of pregnancy, and Bopp said his legislation encourages states not to allow exceptions for rape or incest, but allow them in some cases where the pregnant person's life is in danger.

“Unless her life was at danger, there is no exception for rape,” Bopp said. “The bill does propose exceptions for rape and incest, in my model, because that is a pro-life position, but it’s not our ideal position. We don’t think, as heart-wrenching as those circumstances are, we don’t think we should devalue the life of the baby because of the sins of the father.”