Want the best of VICE News straight to your inbox? Sign up here.Rep. Steve King, in an awkward attempt to justify his complete opposition to abortions even in cases of rape or incest, vocally considered the upsides to such crimes on Wednesday.
For example, our collective existence."What if we went back through all the family trees and just pulled out anyone who was a product of rape or incest? Would there be any population of the world left if we did that?" King, a Republican from Iowa, told the Westside Conservative Club in Urbandale, according to the Des Moines Register."Considering all the wars and all the rapes and pillages that happened throughout all these different nations, I know that I can't say that I was not a part of a product of that,” he continued.This isn’t King’s first time presenting himself as one of the most anti-abortion politicians out there. He’s long said he doesn’t support abortions in cases of rape or incest, in contrast to his more moderate, conservative peers. And he’s criticized the National Right to Life, a powerful anti-abortion organization, for supporting more moderate abortion legislation.When VICE News went to two of his campaign stops in November, King even had an anti-abortion logo of tiny footprints pinned to his suit lapel.The nine-term Congressman reiterated Wednesday that his harsh stances don’t always have the support of Republican leadership— but they’re important to him, regardless."It's not the baby's fault for the sin of the father, or of the mother," he told the crowd, according to the Register.J.D. Scholten, the Democrat who is running to unseat King in 2020, said Wednesday that King was extolling “selfish, hateful ideology.” Scholten ran against King in 2018 and lost.“Excusing violence — in any way — is entirely unacceptable," Scholten said in a statement Wednesday.Immediately after news of King’s anti-abortion comments broke, several 2020 Democrats including Sen. Cory Booker and Julian Castro shared support or donation links for Scholten’s campaign.Earlier this year, King was also stripped of his committee assignments — not for his extreme views, even by GOP standards, on abortion — but because of his history of racist comments. In an interview with the New York Times (which King later said he was misquoted in), the congressman admitted that he didn’t understand how the term “white nationalist” became offensive.“White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” King said in the interview, which was published in January. “Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?”
Cover image: Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, speaks during a town hall meeting, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2019, in Boone, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
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