To most women, Paul Ryan's ideas are pretty much the political equivalent of menstruating forever. But it seems like some new analysis of legislation he wrote really takes the cake: if Paul Ryan had his way, theoretically, a rapist would be able to sue his victim in order to prevent her from having an abortion. Hey girl, no means baby.


Since Ryan received the nod from Romney, abortion rights supporters have brought up the little, teensy point that although Paul Ryan likes to make it out like Paul Ryan is all about budgets and dollars and deficits and stuff, he's also all about the highly fiscally irresponsible practice of advocating against birth control and the legality of abortion (unplanned pregnancies cost US taxpayers about $11 billion a year). And remember that forced pre-abortion transvaginal ultrasound bill in Virginia that was received so poorly that it caused the state's staunchly anti-abortion governor to back off? Paul Ryan supported the national version of that. Penalty dicks for everyone!

And while right wing pundits helpfully point out that Paul Ryan doesn't want to make abortion illegal (which: hahahahahahah), he just wants to give states the right to make abortion illegal, Mother Jones' Kevin Drum notes that Ryan's Sanctity of Human Life Act states,

(B) the life of each human being begins with fertilization, cloning, or its functional equivalent, irrespective of sex, health, function or disability, defect, stage of biological development, or condition of dependency, at which time every human being shall have all the legal and constitutional attributes and privileges of personhood; and (2) the Congress affirms that the Congress, each State, the District of Columbia, and all United States territories have the authority to protect the lives of all human beings residing in its respective jurisdictions.


Which actually means that states would have the right to ban all abortions with no exception for rape, incest, or the life of the mother. Further, in those states, if a woman was raped and wanted to have an abortion in another state, her rapist could theoretically sue her to stop the abortion, and Drum suspects that he'd probably win.

Further, yesterday another Mother Jones columnist pointed out that if the Sanctity of Human Life Act had become law, it likely would have made many forms of IVF illegal, and since Mitt Romney's two newest adorable grandbabies are the product of IVF and a surrogate mother, Ryan's big idea would turn Romney's kids into criminals. Most awkward political bromance ever.

G/O Media may get a commission LG 75-Inch 8K TV Buy for $2150 from BuyDig Use the promo code ASL250

[Mother Jones]