Steve King goes full Handmaid's Tale: If not for rape and incest, 'would there be any population left?'

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) on Wednesday defended his opposition to letting victims of rape or incest get abortions on the grounds that rape and incest have been vital to sustaining the human population.

The Des Moines Register reports that King told the Westside Conservative Club that humanity might not exist anymore if there hadn't been incidences of rape and incest throughout history.

"hat if we went back through all the family trees and just pulled out anyone who was a product of rape or incest?" he asked rhetorically. "Would there be any population of the world left if we did that? Considering all the wars and all the rapes and pillages that happened throughout all these different nations, I know that I can't say that I was not a part of a product of that."

King also said it would be wrong to abort a fetus that was conceived through rape or incest because it would be punishing the baby for "the sin of the father, or of the mother."

King also told the audience that he's been happy that President Donald Trump has been one of the few Republicans who did not castigate him for racist comments he made earlier this year in which he wondered why "white nationalist" and "white supremacist" were offensive terms.

"[There's] no signal from Donald Trump that he's anything other than supportive of me," King said.