This article is from the archive of our partner .

Update: After Paul's interview gained national attention, it appears his chief of staff is now clearing up what Paul meant by "thousands of exceptions" to his pro-life stance. According to an with interview Lifesitenews, a non-profit pro-life news site, Sen. Paul's chief of staff, Doug Stafford is insisting that Paul's "thousands of exceptions" only applies to when the life of the mother was at risk. They write:

Paul “was speaking medically,” Stafford said. By “thousands of exceptions,” Stafford told LifeSiteNews.com, Paul meant that a singular exception to save the life of the mother would likely cover thousands of individual cases – for example, ectopic pregnancies or others that directly threaten the mother’s life.

Stafford did not address Senator's position on abortions in the case of rape or incest in the interview.

Original: Republican Senator Rand Paul has described himself as "100 percent pro life" but on Tuesday, he told CNN that there are "thousands of exceptions" to the "Life at Conception Act" he introduced on March 15, which suggests that one of those two things is not precisely true.

Here is Paul's exchange with Wolf Blitzer on The Situation Room talking about his pro-life sounding bill:

Blitzer : Just to be precise, if you believe life begins at conception, which I suspect you do you would have no exceptions for rape, incest, the life of the mother is that right? Paul: I think that once again puts things in too small of a box. What I would say is there are thousands of exceptions. I’m a physician and every individual case is going to be different. Everything is going to be particular to that individual case and what is going on that mother and the medical circumstances of that mother…. There are a lot of decisions made privately by families and doctors that really won’t, the law won’t apply to, but I think it is important we not be flippant one way or the other and pigeon hole and say this person doesn’t believe in any sort of discussion between family and physician. Blitzer: It sounds like you believe in some exceptions. Paul: Well, there is going to be like I say thousands of extraneous situations where the life of the mother is involved and other things that are involved so I would say that each individual case would have to be addressed and even if there were eventually a change in the law let’s say people came more to my way of thinking there would still be a lot of complicated things the law may not ultimately be able to address in the early stages of pregnancy that would have to be part of what occurs between the physician and the woman and the family.

The idea that people shouldn't be boxed into a set of stringent rules set by others sounds ... familiar. Forget for a moment that the junior Kentucky Senator said this, and what you essentially have there is basically what pro-choice advocates have been arguing.