Rep. Trent Franks

Rep. Trent Franks

"The incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low."

After the 2012 elections, Republicans vowed not to be tripped up by any more Todd Akin -style comments alienating women voters by minimizing rape, defying science, and sheer force of idiocy. Apparently Rep. Trent Franks did not get that message , though. Franks is pushing a bill that would make abortion illegal after 20 weeks, and in opposing a Democratic amendment creating exceptions for rape and incest, he had this to say:Actually, as we all found out after Akin's claim that "If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down," pregnancy from rape is not rare at all. But Republicans like Todd Akin and Trent Franks don't really give a damn how rare or common it is for women to face an unwanted pregnancy after being raped. That's what absolutism is—there is absolutely no circumstance under which they are willing to allow a woman to decide to end a pregnancy. Rape and incest just don't register for them.

Franks went on to echo the logic of Ron Paul's "honest rape" comments: There shouldn't need to be a post-20 weeks rape and incest exception because "when you make that exception, there’s usually a requirement to report the rape within 48 hours." So not only does he reject the facts on pregnancy and rape, he doesn't begin to get all the reasons women don't always immediately report rape.

And while the party's post-2012 rebranding efforts have tried to keep top Republicans from publicly saying this kind of stuff, no exceptions for rape or incest remains the official Republican position on abortion.