House Adds Rape Exception to Abortion Ban Bill

Photo Credit: M.Scott Mahaskey

Rep. Trent Franks’s (R-Ariz.) bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks nationwide now includes an exception for rape and incest after his remarks about rape and pregnancy created an uproar.

And it’s not Franks’s bill anymore — or more precisely, he won’t be managing his own bill when it goes to the House floor Tuesday. He’s being replaced with a high-profile House GOP woman…

Franks caused a stir Wednesday when during a House Judiciary markup of the bill, he said that “the incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low” when stating his opposition to a Democratic amendment that would have allowed abortions in the case of rape and incest.

The GOP change to the bill on rape includes a requirement that the rape or the incest had been reported to the appropriate legal authorities. The Democrats’ amendment had not included such language…

Democrats said Franks’s rape comment was reminiscent of Republican Todd Akin’s quote regarding “legitimate rape” during his failed Senate campaign last year.

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