Salon.com > Trent Franks

House GOP quietly adds rape and incest exception to abortion bill

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 14:03:00 +0000

After Rep. Trent Franks' comment that pregnancies resulting from rape are "very low," House Republicans went into quiet damage control mode on his bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks - first adding an exception for rape and incest, and then putting conservative Rep. Marsha Blackburn in charge of overseeing the legislation.

Politico reports:

A spokesman for Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) confirmed Friday to POLITICO that she’ll be managing the debate, and that the bill is being changed to include the new exception.

Trent Franks fundraises off of rape comment

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 16:07:00 +0000

Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., is asking supporters to help defend him against the "taxpayer-funded abortion lobby" that is attacking him for his remark that pregnancy rates from rape are "very low."

"NARAL, Planned Parenthood and the taxpayer-funded abortion lobby is attacking me for one reason -- I'm 100 percent unapologetically pro-life and I won't back down," Franks wrote to supporters in an email, the Arizona Republic reports. "Will you contribute $25, $50, $100, or even $500 right now to help me fight back?"

“Now they will spend whatever it takes to destroy me, remove me from Congress, and stop me from protecting any more unborn children," he continued.

Franks was referring to comments he made during a House Judiciary Committee debate on his bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks. Democrats were pushing an amendment to create an exception for rape or incest, which ultimately failed. “Before, when my friends on the left side of the aisle here tried to make rape and incest the subject — because, you know, the incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low,” Franks said, the Washington Post reported.

White House responds to “alarming” Trent Franks rape comment

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 20:40:00 +0000

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney responded to comments by Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., that the rate of pregnancy resulting from rape is "very low," saying that Franks' remark shows an "alarming disregard for women."

Franks made the comments in a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, during the debate on his bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks at the national level. Franks was voicing his objections to an amendment that would create an exception for rape or incest. “Before, when my friends on the left side of the aisle here tried to make rape and incest the subject — because, you know, the incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low,” he said.

The Huffington Post reports:

GOP Senate candidate calls House Republican “moron” for rape comment

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 20:14:00 +0000

Gabriel Gomez, the Republican candidate in the special election for senator of Massachusetts, said that Republican Rep. Trent Franks is a "moron" for commenting that most rapes don't result in pregnancy.

“I think that he’s a moron and he proves that stupid has no specific political affiliation,” Gomez told ABC News.

“I have no idea what goes into the mind of a moron like that,” he continued. “These kinds of comments only come from a moron and they shouldn’t be tolerated one bit.”

House GOPer: Rate of pregnancy from rape is “very low”

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 16:53:00 +0000

During a House Judiciary Committee debate on his measure to ban abortions after 20 weeks, Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., got a little Todd Akin-esque, arguing that the chances of a pregnancy resulting from rape are "very low," and therefore a Democratic amendment that would create a rape and incest exception to the ban is irrelevant.

“Before, when my friends on the left side of the aisle here tried to make rape and incest the subject — because, you know, the incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low,” Franks said, according to the Washington Post. He continued: “But when you make that exception, there’s usually a requirement to report the rape within 48 hours. And in this case that’s impossible because this is in the sixth month of gestation. And that’s what completely negates and vitiates the purpose for such an amendment.”

Is abortion about to doom Republicans again?

Tue, 21 May 2013 20:56:00 +0000

Recently, I asked Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, one of the most fiercely pro-choice members of Congress, why she thought the House of Representatives had been so muted this year in its introduction of anti-abortion and anti–Planned Parenthood bills. “It pays to fight,” she said.

The implication was that House Republicans had decided that the lesson of the bruising 2012 election was to back off on anything that Democrats could tar as a war on women. (In the meantime, their allies in the states could push through real changes in abortion and contraception access, with very few political barriers.) But that fragile detente may be over, both nationally and in this year’s key state races. The question is whether it's a battle Republicans even want to fight.

Michele Bachmann’s hateful cronies

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 17:31:00 +0000

Rep. Michele Bachmann is standing by her quest to investigate unsubstantiated claims of Muslim Brotherhood infiltration in the U.S. government. Glenn Beck said on his radio program today that he spoke to the congresswoman this morning, who told him, “There are decent people up on the Hill that are trying to expose the Muslim Brotherhood, and it is spreading ... This disease is spreading so rapidly, it is breathtaking."

But it’s important to remember that while Bachmann has led this charge, four other members of Congress signed onto her initial round of letters demanding investigations from the inspectors general of five national security agencies, some of whom also have troubling records of Islamophobic conspiracy theorizing.