Linda Lingle

Linda Lingle

Republican Linda Lingle, running for the open senate seat in deep blue Hawaii, has been trying to portray herself as a moderate, going so far as to publish a photo of her all buddy-buddy with President Obama. So, of course, she fell all over herself running away from Todd Akin and his comments about rape and abortion.

Unfortunately for Lingle, she's got a record from her tenure as governor, and her record on rape and abortion is extreme.



When she was Governor of Hawaii, Lingle vetoed a bill that would have required hospitals to provide emergency contraception to rape victims who wanted it, citing hospitals with religious objections. She even boasts about the veto on her website. At the time, there was only one Catholic hospital system in the state, St. Francis Medical Center, which would probably not have received any rape victims anyway, since it did not host an OB-GYN program.

She does indeed boast about the veto on her website, here:

With the stroke of a pen, Lingle potentially denied critical health care to raped women, potentially forcing them to become pregnant by their rapists. That's just as extreme as Todd Akin, or Paul Ryan, or any other Republican.

It provides a very clear contrast in this race with Democrat Mazie Hirono, the candidate who would truly represent Hawaii, not to mention all of mainstream America, in the Senate.

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