During a debate on Tuesday night, Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock said that pregnancy was a gift from God, even if it was the result of rape.

“I believe life begins at conception,” he said. “The only exception I have for to have an abortion is in the case of the life of the mother. I struggled with myself for a long time but I came to realize life is that gift from God, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape. It is something that God intended to happen.”

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Mourdock’s campaign website describes the tea party candidate as “unapologetically pro-life” and says the landmark ruling Roe v. Wade was a “serious misreading of the original intent of those who established our Constitution.”

During primary elections this year, Mourdock defeated Richard Lugar, the longest-serving Republican currently in the Senate. Mourdock is currently running against Rep. Joe Donnelly (D-IN).

Donnelly told the Associated Press after the debate that he doesn’t believe “my God, or any God, would intend that to happen.”

Watch video, uploaded to YouTube, below: