I've never seen the point of including insest as a criteria. Either the girl is being raped by a relative, or she's a sicko woman having sex with a relative. In the first case a rape exception covers it, in the second case you are just arguing that you can kill babies if their parents are brother/sister, father/daughter but not for other reasons?

If the argument is that children of near relatives are likely genetically damaged, then genetic damage ought to be a qualification for abortion.

But John "Zinger" McC*nt has gone beyond imposing criminal sentences on women and now advocates the death penalty.

Orange

I have had that discussion with my wife. I am very opposed to abortion, but also very pro-choice. While I would not, under normal circumstances, consider counselling my wife to have an abortion, I would if her life were in danger. To me it is a simple matter of probabilities. It is possible that we could conceive again, and even that the child would be identical to the one lost. It is impossible to replace my wife.
As to McCain, again he shows that there is nothing that he holds so dear that he would not cast it away for the chance to be President.

I'm pretty sure the media will ignore this outrage completely, because a) abortion is yucky to think about and b) the wingnuts will descend like like locusts onto anyone who doesn't use their framing.

But yeah, if you managed to get this question onto a ballot the people who currently rule the Republican party would be getting less votes than Ralph Nader.

Luckily for us those people will stick to their guns over this issue rather than give any head fakes that they're not crazy, and crazy people dig their own graves all you have to do is get the camera rolling and let them provide all the ammo to blow themselves up.

Get the video, folks. Get video of them exposing their true positions, saying that /they would rather see women die/ than see unwanted or even dangerous pregnancies terminated.

When you really think about it, the chance of two people existing is improbable. So many things, chemically and biologically, need to happen just right for a person two exist. Therefore, much less is the chance that the two people mentioned will have a child.....makes you think about the value of your life, no?

How dare you criticize John McCain's position on abortion rights? He was a POW, you know.

It is impossible to replace my wife.

Consider becoming a Republican presidential candidate. It seems to be quite easy for them.

Lance said

But John "Zinger" McC*nt has gone beyond imposing criminal sentences on women and now advocates the death penalty.

You've almost got it right, but since there's that one chance of Divine Intervention to save the woman's life, it's more like giving a person a death penalty with an option to make a run for it.

Dale

SecularAnimist: "How dare you criticize John McCain's position on abortion rights? He was a POW, you know."

Not quite the right phrasing. It should be
"John McCain spent five and a half years not being able to change his mind about abortions."

Maybe someone should ask McCain how many abortions his girlfriends have had. By his own admission he's had plenty of affairs, so either he was very careful, or very lucky, or he's the biggest hypocrite since George W Bush.

Tony Perkins had a "abortion of the conscience" along with everyone else at the "Family Research Council" and most of the Republican party. John McTrollop and his "friends" have once again stuck to the old standard and have painted themselves into an entropic and inhuman corner on so many issues that its mind numbing to consider. Of course, it can't be easy to thrive under that kind of pressure. As an abomination, I at least have the option of being a bitter, elitist progressive. Sucks to be a murderous Republican I guess, although I do understand the logic in preserving offspring no matter what the cost so that they can die in wars for Jesus!

Stefan: Needlessly cynical. Republicans do not have exclusivity on heartless martital terminations. Newtonsthird makes a good point in his statement, but let's carry it further. Anyone would defend a loved wife from danger and probably kill some scondrel bent on killing her. The husband would be touted, if not feted. Yet a loving husband is to stand back and allow an unborn child to kill her?

If I were to try to replace my wife, well I guess that being a GOP Presidential candidate would be a slightly better version of hell. I mean instead of losing the love of my life, I would only need to lose my morals, my convictions, and my conscience.

Different subject, as I was talking to my wife last night about the McMansions, I thought of a tag line.
"John McCain spent five and a half years in the Hanoi Hilton, but he has spent the last 30 living like he was a Hilton"
Maybe the wrong tone, but I am not an adman.

OT.. Isn't this radio button actually supposed to remember my personal info? Anyway, it's "Tony Perkins had an "abortion of the conscience". Let's face it folks, how many people in this country have trivial abortions? Oh, that's right, that answer would be None. So there you have it, non-issue brought to bear time and again by murderous and delusional zealots.

Stefan: Consider becoming a Republican presidential candidate. It seems to be quite easy for them.

Do you not know by now that I usually have a cup of tea at this time of the afternoon? More to the point, do I not know by now to avoid sipping it while reading one of your posts?

Colbert really needs to get a Green Screen Challenge (or maybe, Help McCain Explain Himself Challenge) series for this -- run one every weeks or two weeks:

Challenge 1: Help John McCain explain why he lost count of his houses

Challenge 2: Help John McCain explain why he can use his POW status and nobody can question him on it

Challenge 3: Help John McCain explain why he can't tell the Iraqi sects apart

Challenge 4: Help John McCain

Challenge 5: Help John McCain explain why he is not a flip flopper even though he changed changed his position on torture, budget, tax, etc

That would be the best thing since sliced bread. It'll be a theme that systematically attack McCain. It'll be something the MSM will feel compelled to cover. It can be endless syndicated.

Is this going in the flip flop list?
The Official McCain Flip-Flop List

Banning abortions does not stop abortions, they just go underground, to filthy kitchens and to questionable doctors.

Sure, like its only Democrat women who are having abortions now. There are plenty pro-lifers who have taken a life not conceived by a relative or by force. When do those hpyocrits stand up for having their own right to choose?

And of the 6 million babies aborted during the 8 years of the Bush Reign of Morality and Ethics (yes, snark), who is standing up for them out of this great conservative party?

Obama doesn't lie about his stance.

Bush and now McCain, talk the talk at campaign time and forget about it after the elections. Many conservatives nation-wide don't give the topic much more effort than that themselves.

Therefore, much less is the chance that the two people mentioned will have a child.....makes you think about the value of your life, no?

No. There are over 6.5 billion humans destroying the planet and everything else on it right now. With those overlarge (and growing) numbers, there is nothing "chancy" about people getting together...and barring the MINORITY that have some biological issues, making a baby is as easy as f*cking. No big whup.

Most fertilized eggs self-abort. Most women never ever realize that an egg was fertilized in their womb because it simply never goes anywhere or spontaneously aborts so early that you cannot distinguish it from a normal period.

Abort or not. No big whup. And you can always make another. Dime a dozen (or dime a billion or so and counting).

Banning abortions doesn't eliminate abortions...true. NO country is abortion-free. Not a single one.

In any case, it is not necessary to resort to "iffy" doctors. Any doctor who will prescribe you methotrexate or ANY other anti-cancer drug(s) will suffice to terminate a pregnancy - and there isn't lick anyone can do about that.

There are also herbal methods, and a tried-and-true (through generations) midwifey-method: the method used to terminate a period will also terminate a pregnancy just as well. No doctor's necessary (and no coathanger necessary).

There are options beyond the alleyway or the iffy doctor, and they are means that no jesus nut can do jack about.

Dear Republican Party,

"The Handmaid's Tale" is a work of fiction. It is not a how-to manual.

For a party that consistently advocates children as blessings and motherhood the ultimate goal of every (white) woman, they sure enjoy making pregnancy a punishment.

I want someone to ask McCain this: You said life/rights begin at conception. . . Will you push for parents to be able to claim an unborn child as a dependent on their tax returns, from conception?

Nobody's said it yet, so I will. Welcome to the Monthly, Hilzoy.

McCain, the 'kept' man...

Greenwald has more, doing a compare/contrast with various right-whingers' treatment of Kerry in 2004:

Rush Limbaugh Online, "John Kerry's Resume":

[Kerry] has lived the life of a millionaire living off the inherited wealth of his two wives. As an Ivy League educated millionaire who did not have to work for his fortune, Mr. Kerry never had to worry about the money he earned..

And this from TNR is interesting as well:

McCain was a relative nobody when he married Cindy Hensley--a middle-aged divorcé working a mid-level job in a far-off bureaucracy. It was the Hensleys who would breathe life into his prospects and provide a springboard for his ascent. Their ambitions burned every bit as brightly as his did. Except that, unlike McCain, they'd long since hidden their motives from public view.

Fun stuff to read.

...and, uh, sorry...back on topic...

Even women who described themselves as "pro-life" said that the latter positions cast McCain as a man who is "unrealistic," "out of touch" and "stuck in the past," according to the memo. And those same women were especially disappointed because they had expected him to hold the moderate views that the media has so often ascribed to its favorite...

...McCain used to expound sensible centrist positions on choice -- until the senator flip-flopped to please his party's right-wing base. The evidence is simple and devastating.

...an August 1999 speech that McCain delivered to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco:

"I'd love to see a point where [Roe v. Wade] is irrelevant, and could be repealed because abortion is no longer necessary. But certainly in the short term, or even the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade, which would then force x number of women to [undergo] illegal and dangerous operations."

Then he flashes forward to 2006, as McCain prepared for this year's presidential race, when the senator declared that he does not merely favor overturning Roe, but supports a constitutional amendment that would ban abortion in almost all circumstances. Schecter provides another quote, from a McCain appearance last year on "Meet the Press," when he claimed that he has "always been pro-life, unchanging and unwavering"..

I have always wanted to ask a pro-lifer: if a fetus is an "unborn child", does that mean that you are an "undead corpse"?

The outrageous far-right Republican platform will disappear into the ether - only if we allow it to. I've really gotten worked up about this in the last couple of weeks, but it really, really pisses me off the way, every four years, Democrats smirkingly note the wildly extreme positions in the GOP platform, positions opposed by a clear majority of voters, then do nothing to exploit the opportunity.

Publicise the platform, everyone! Write about it! Talk about it! Challenge Republicans, and McCain most of all - do you support your party's platform or not? And if you don't, will you denounce it?? Go to McCain rallies wearing platform shoes! Don't let the issue die!!!

Whats next, masturbation is murder of the unborn!!

People "get it" Mr. McCain, the GOP & church opine abortion is unacceptable, a large number of people just don't care what you folks think. You're ignored with a yawn.

Deal with the influence impudence as just the way it goes, try minding your own business, go count your houses or something.. Trying to force that many people to OBEY an opinion they disagree with will never work... people will go under, over, and whiz by on all sides of your opinion enforcement laws. Once again you'll be ignored, only this time Women will be paying with their lives in back ally "you rape en we scrape em" abortion clinics.

Let's be fair how do you expect the man to remember what he said about women's rights when he cannot remember what kind of car he drives.

If it wasn't for rape, how would Republicans propagate?

And ten generations of hillbilly incest goes a long way toward explaining the Christian Right.

If there were any logic in the "no exception for the life of the [expectant] mother" position, its holders would also oppose self-defense as an exoneration for murder. But typically, these folks are all for shooting their assailants. ("Turn the other cheek" be damned.) In the end, it just comes down to devaluation and control of women.