I knew this would happen! I predicted that Republican party apologists would blame Richard Mourdoch and Todd Akin’s losses on the fact that they are 100% pro-life, instead of acknowledging that the losses were due to how poorly they expressed their positions. And sure enough, the day after the election, Ann Coulter did just that. In her article entitled, “Don’t Blame Romney,” she spent half of the article blaming these two Senate candidates for daring to defend the life of every pre-born child. Her exact words were, “because these two idiots decided to come out against abortion in the case of rape and incest,” calling them “pro-life badasses,” “purist grandstanders,” with “insane positions,” who were “showing off.” Unfortunately, Coulter has a huge following and will surely influence many uninformed readers with her misstatement of the facts and her flawed reasoning. I have great concern that these Senate losses will have a chilling effect on pro-life legislators and voters. Hence, a swift and thorough response is in order.
Ann Coulter referenced “all the hard work intelligent pro-lifers . . . in the trenches” and what they have accomplished, as if she was one of them. Well, I’ve been in the trenches since 1995, and I must point out that Ann Coulter has been missing in action. I’ve never once seen her in here, so I can’t comprehend how she could possibly include herself in this group. I’m a hard-working intelligent pro-life activist, and I’m 100% pro-life – for good reason. I was not only conceived in rape, but nearly aborted at two back-alley abortionists. The only reason I wasn’t killed through a brutal abortion is because I was legally protected. My heroes are those pro-life legislators and activists who were hard-working and intelligent enough to understand that mine was a life worth saving.
Coulter went on to erroneously write that Mourdoch and Akin lost because they had “abortion positions that less than 1 percent of the nation agrees with.” Her figure is way off, and she has totally ignored the fact that their abortion position adheres to the Republican party platform! All she’s doing is further alienating the base. Mitt Romney alienated the base – not only by making the rape exception, but also by his own gaffes, such as when he said, “There’s no legislation with regards to abortion that I’m familiar with that would become part of my agenda.” Pro-life leaders were left to mop up that mess, from which he never recovered. Many pro-lifers who were already skeptical either voted third-party or stayed home. Three million Republicans stayed home, compared to 2008. Making matters worse, Romney ran ads in battleground states suggesting that it’s extreme to be 100% pro-life. How could anyone deny that such ads hurt Senate candidates like Akin in Missouri, Mourdoch in Indiana, and Smith in Pennsylvania (as well as congressional candidates like Koster in Washington and Bachmann in Minnesota?) And let’s not forget how the party leadership threw these candidates under the bus – something Democrats do not do to their own.
Additionally, the 1% figure Coulter threw out there is just not even close to being true. Polls in the last few years have consistently shown that the number is between 20 to 24% of Americans who believe abortion should be illegal in cases of rape. The other 31%+ of Americans who are pro-life with exceptions are 99% of the way there, and only need to be nudged another 1%. My experience shows that this is easy to achieve – if you try, just as how my story changed the heart of Gov. Rick Perry during his presidential campaign. And that’s the key. Who has really tried? I know that the number of 100% pro-life Americans would be much higher if the pro-life movement as a whole actually went after this ground. Instead, Coulter is right in pointing out where the effort has been focused – on things like parental notification laws and efforts to ban partial birth abortion. The lives of children conceived in rape are often minimized with the standard dismissive language of: “Well, it’s only 1%.” Why continue to minimize? Why not stand up and really defend our lives? We need to try to gain ground on this issue by educating the public, by equipping candidates and legislators on how to most effectively respond to the rape question, by making ads with children conceived in rape available for anyone who wishes to utilize them, and by removing rape exceptions from the law, beginning with the Hyde Amendment.
My response to people like Ann Coulter is – WE ARE NOT CANNON FODDER! You do not get to put us out on the front lines and then take a giant step back. The “burning building” analogy fails because you have no interest in working to save all. You do not get to call yourself pro-life by shutting off the water and sending the fire trucks home, while you stand there watching the building burn down with the 1 inside of it. If you want to see who the real extremist is, Ann Coulter, come on Fox News with me, look me in the eyes, and tell me how you think my birth-mother should have been able to abort me. Tell me that my life was not worthy of protection and that I don’t deserve to be living, and I’ll show you the one who is extreme.
Some strategists will suggest that you have to accept rape exceptions in order to get candidates elected and legislation passed. This is untrue – just look at Right to Life of Michigan as the model. They have been a standard-bearer in this cause and have never accepted the rape exception. You can’t get their PAC endorsement if you make the rape exception, and they will not put their stamp of approval on legislation if it has an exception. When they didn’t have the votes to pass the ban on Medicaid funding of abortion without a rape exception, they worked on the exception-legislators to convince them to change their positions. When they still didn’t have the votes, RLM targeted them in their primaries, got them voted out, and then passed the ban without exceptions. That’s how you get it done!
Now Right to Life of Michigan has mentored many other state NRLC affiliates to go to this model of being a standard-bearer, maintaining the principle that all are worthy of protection. Since the change on their Board of Directors nearly 12 years ago, Georgia Right to Life has passed more pro-life legislation then they’d ever passed before. They were told at the time by the Republican party leaders that they were dead, irrelevant, and extremists. Now, every constitutionally-elected official – Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State -are all 100% pro-life with no exceptions. The lobbyist for Georgia Right to Life, Dan Becker, wrote a book about it, titled “Personhood: A Pragmatic Guide to Prolife Victory in the 21st Century and the Return to First Principles in Politics.” Tennessee Right to Life and Alaska Right to Life are other examples of state affiliates who successfully transitioned from the compromising model of accepting the rape exception to being a standard-bearer with no exceptions.
We must not discriminate! Children conceived in rape are surely the most outcast members of our society, being unfairly demonized and portrayed as a “horrible reminder of the rape,” “the rapist’s baby,” “tainting the gene pool,” and even “demon spawn.” This not only affects the pre-born, but also those born under such circumstances. Can you imagine if a law was introduced with an exception in cases of bi-racial rape? I could hear the rationale, “Well, it’s only 1% of 1%,” and “the child would look more like the rapist and would surely be more of a reminder of the rape” – an argument which I’ve actually heard before. There would be a national outcry for such discrimination! Civil rights leaders would be outraged and demand that the exception not only be removed, but that the legislator who introduced it must immediately step down. And yet, half of pro-lifers think nothing of discriminating against children conceived in rape, and it’s wrong!
If we are going to gain ground in this effort to protect unborn children, we must maintain a standard, and we must make more of an effort to educate. I believe that the best people to do so are those of us who have been on the frontlines as pro-life speakers who were conceived in rape and who have been spending our entire adult lives defending our right to life. We’ve heard every question, every challenge, and every argument. Why not utilize us? Just to name a few, there is Ryan Bomberger, Susan Jaramillo, and Pam Stenzel. On my website, there are dozens of stories of others conceived in rape and who became pregnant by rape. We’ve publicly shared our stories for a reason – please use them! I’m partnering with Personhood Education to form Save The 1 – an organization which will implement the strategies necessary to defend the 1%, as well as the 99%. Here are three of our new ads which will be launched soon.
Back to Ann Coulter’s article – she wrote that “No law is ever going to require a woman to bear the child of her rapist.” I don’t believe that. Laws DID protect children like me, and these protections can and should be restored. She went on to add: “Yes, it’s every bit as much a life as an unborn child that is not the product of rape.” Ann, your words speak volumes as to what you really believe. A preborn child is not an “it.” He or she is a life, a human being, a person, a son or a daughter. They have a gender. This is not a mere philosophical or political exercise, but real people’s lives are at stake. When I represented the mother in Michigan’s “frozen embryo” case, the fertility doctors testified at deposition that from one cell, they are literally male and female, and ascertainably so! Just as it says in Genesis, “male and female, He created them.” Using words of gender serve to demonstrate the humanity of these children.
Lastly, Ann Coulter goes on to suggest that being 100% pro-life is not wise because too much of a good thing can harm you – like too much iron, or too much sugar in your coffee. I couldn’t help but think of the words of Mother Teresa: “How can you say there are too many children? That’s like saying there are too many flowers.” No offense, Ann, but I’d rather heed the words of a godly woman like Mother Teresa than you.
To learn more about Rebecca Kiessling, visit her website.
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I’ve been trying to tell conservatives for years that Ann Coulter harms the right wing movement. Ann Coulter is in this for herself, for self-glory, and for the money.
I will warn you though, that people don’t take kindly to someone going against what the majority go along with. But something tells me that, like me, you can hold your own.
Great article!
Debra…
Informing Christians Writer
Note: My comment is referring to the main part of the article that talks about what Ann Coulter did, blasting people for being pro-life. — (My comment does not refer to the last paragraph.)
I agree, Debra. Ann Coulter sounds like a lukewarm, wishy washy pro-lifer. I think she does harm to the pro-life movement as does the lukewarm Republcan leadership. We are either for life or against life. You can’t be inbetween when it comes to the God-given Right to Life. And this right belongs to everyone that God makes. God DOES NOT discriminate and exclude the child conceived in rape or incest. Only man, in his selfishness, disciminates against the innocent unborn child. God IS NOT pleased with this. I think this is why Romney lost. He wasn’t truly pro-life. SAD day for the unborn. Now, more of them will be brutally slaughtered because of man’s selfishness. Why do the innocent suffer? See website: http://www.haasstrep68.com page 2 and 3 reg. abortion.
Thank you, christian.
I agree with your comment too. And thanks for the link. I will go check that page out right away.
Debra…
Just like Obama, the RNC blames someone or something for their own lacks and their desire to keep their seats, money and supposed power. They willfully did NOT back Repub candidates for the Senate and that is an egregious error. They did not listen to the Tea Party nor other conservatives. Pox on them and let’s get them out of the Congress the sooner the better by impeachment or non-re-election. If they want their party to survive, they need to shape up. I like the idea of a 3rd Party because we need a Party that supports us and that their agenda. Ann has her good and bad points, but at least she speaks up, where the media and Repub scum do not. That is important for freedom of speech! like it or not.
I haven’t had any use for Ann Coulter for a long time. She’s what I call a ‘pseudo’ Christian. She is only affiliated with the Republican party because the Democrats won’t have her. When she was so gung ho over allowing homosexuals as active participants in the GOP, even inviting them to speak at some rallies, that did me in for her. And, no matter who blames who, God is the one who allowed Obama to retake the WH. He is fixing to judge America harshly, & it’s not going to be pretty. He isn’t going to just overlook the murders of 50 million babies, nor those taking the stand of allowing same sex marriage. America basically turned its’ back on God Tuesday night, & now we WILL reap what we’ve sown.
In a godly society there would be no rape. God bless you, Rebecca, I really cannot comprehend what you must have been put through your whole life and pray God gives you the strength to continue being the strong woman you are. Historically, rape in many societies has been a capital offense. I wish we could go back to standards like these: “…for when Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.” (Isaiah 26:9b) A rapist put to death will rape no more and his execution would serve as a serious warning to anyone who might be tempted to commit such a violent crime against women. The prophesied “Iron Rod Rule” of the Messiah in the coming Kingdom of God on Earth will undoubtedly use this standard.
Does Benghazi ring a bell to any of you; Narcissistic Losers? The Akins and Mourdoch stories were just, idiot fodder to divert attention from one of the biggest stories of the century!! If you; God Knows I Tried Losers would think of something besides your uterus’s this nation might not be saddled with what you helped elect as a president. How dare you pretend this, fabricated idiotic dribble has any real meaning?/ With all the important news during those weeks, this is what you chose. You despicable bunch of , foul balls make a great argument for taking away woman’s right to vote. I do not know which of our enemy will take this country that you are betraying, but real life with hit you and it will not just be in the uterus !!!
Yes, Benghazi rings a lot of bells but how do you or any one else similarly disposed justify ignoring the continued unprecedented holocaust in all of mankind’s history, in which 50 plus million (that’s million with an “M”) innocent defenseless human beings (yes, human beings from conception) have been slaughtered on the altar of hedonism in America? Yes, I am sympathetic with rape and incest victims and if push came to shove I would be tempted to side with their desire to rid themselves of what they consider in their dispirited state of mind as a detestable being growing inside them. But, (there’s always a but) the fact remains as Debra clearly pointed out, the child is innocent of any wrong doing and should not be made to pay the ultimate price, a grotesque and painful death, for an act some miserable selfish and sinful creature deigned to commit (the rapist) only to be compounded by another act (abortion) of incredible consequences not only for the innocent child but eventually and ultimately for the mother who will live her life with the burden of having killed her own child.
I rank Coulter as yet another pathetic loud mouth who should cease passing up opportunities to keep her mouth shut. When she dares to open it and spew forth with her usual invective criticism of those who defend life as the reason they lost an election, or the basis for her disdainful name calling, she like you only discredits herself. The reason Romney lost the election is Romney. He is and has always been a RINO, a liberal, who try as he might and did during this election campaign, could not reinvent himself because actions speak louder than words and his actions as governor and his statements (gaffes) during the campaign clearly marked him as a weak candidate, like McCain in 08, among the conservative base. Accordingly many in the base stayed home who had they voted might have pushed Romney across the finish line. Who knows? I was tempted to forgo the election myself early on but eventually came around to thinking I had no choice. Anything but Obama! No moderate republican establishment candidate, aka RINO, can win, period. Coulter is the idiot, not Akin or Mourback.
Benghazi was never going to make it into the headlines prior to the election even if Coulter and all the other so-called conservative talking heads had made it their number one topic of discussion which many did. The liberal in-the-tank-for-Obama MSM saw to that. For what its worth, I agree with you, that this one little man, Obama, who from the beginning illegally usurped the office of POTUS and who didn’t have the guts or the political will to “pull the trigger” on saving innocent America lives in a foreign land who were under attack by a barbaric enemy and crying out for help in real time for 7 long hours when an overwhelming military response was well with reach should be at the very least be removed from office, tried for treason and sentenced accordingly. No military man or woman should show any allegiance to him ever again.
The truth will eventually come out on Benghazi-gate, of that you can be sure, even the so-called MSM will eventually join in the chorus when they finally see the end coming, they won’t want to be stained permanently. Patraeus’ closed door testimony may hold the key irrespective of his timely resignation. Whether that will be the actual outcome of Benghazi-gate, I can’t be certain, I have no crystal ball. I only know that the Lord God Almighty is on His throne and he will mete out whatever His will may be for America, for Obama and for all of mankind. But of one thing I am certain, He absolutely abhors the killing (murder) of the most innocent and defenseless of His creation, children. His patience is long suffering but it is not infinite. History is replete with examples of His judgement. And if you don’t think it can’t happen to America that only confirms that you are a short sighted fool. The signs are all around us even now that we may be experiencing the early stages of His judgement, His warnings in the form of natural disasters and lest we forget, 911. Obama may himself be an instrument of His judgement for all we know. The failings of fallen man, be it in the form of a destructive leader and his government, one destructive of what was once consecrated to God, America, are nothing compared to God’s judgement. Benghazi may get swept under the rug temporarily if not permanently depending on Israeli actions in the M.E. vis-a-vis Iran. Time, oh these perilous times, will tell for sure.
Rebecca, yes!!! Life is sacred, including the lives of children conceived through rape. For those who don’t get it, including Ann Coulter, I would suggest they google/read former abortionist, Dr. Bernie Nathanson’s “Confessions of an Ex-Abortionist”. The legalization of abortion in our country was based on lies and he lays it out for all to see in his confessions. Dr. Nathanson also produced a video, “The Silent Scream” of an abortion, for those who only believe by seeing. That can be viewed online as well. Rebecca, keep doing what you are doing. You are in my prayers.
This was a great post! I feel inadequate to respond, but this article gave me these thoughts and I can’t justify holding back…
Imagine if the government decreed that VICTIMS of ANY OTHER crime should be put to death because of the embarrassment of exposing the sinful nature of society they represented? Imagine if official government policy AND “majority opinion” decreed that if YOU were shot and wounded to within an inch of YOUR life in an armed robbery it would mean that YOU should be put to death while the one who shot YOU is to be forgiven and set free for exercising their rights? This would be exactly how much sense, nay heartless hypocrisy it makes to murder living unborn children because of one of the parent’s sin.
I wonder if Ann Coulter would likewise suggest that she herself should be put to death if she was the victim of someone else’s crime. After all, if she was victimized, and if her “reasoning” was actually virtuous, wouldn’t it likewise be reasonable that she be compassionately spared from carrying with her for the rest of her life the intolerable shame of having been a victim?
That is what she is implying. She wants us to believe that she cares for, and champions the cause of the victimized mother, so she is willing to justify committing the murder of the “other” voiceless, innocent victim. That is hypocrisy. That is exactly what real Pro-Lifers have against Pro-Choicers, or at least so I thought.
I believe authentic Christians (and certainly others whom I can’t speak for) inherently understand this. LIFE begins at conception, and Ann Coulter has just demonstrated that pseudo-right-to-lifers like her just don’t “get it.” For us, as with God, the sanctity of life by far trumps the embarrassment or inconvenience or even discomfort and even pain of sin. Do not recompense evil for good. Just because a sin has been committed doesn’t mean, as in the case of what King David did to Uriah, another greater sin should be committed to try to cover up or in any way alleviate a previous one. Again, that is exactly what Ann Coulter is suggesting. If she truly understood in her heart that abortion is murder and all that entails, she could not possibly consider, let alone condone having the innocent victims of the crimes of incest or rape murdered. Nor, I would think, could any victim mother of a rape think to MURDER what nevertheless is still biologically as much her child as any other child she may bring into the world.
How convenient it has become to call the destruction of life “abortion” rather than “murder.” Especially when we consider that the concept of “convenience” (which really just means escape from the labors of motherhood) is exactly the reason behind the stand of “pro-choicers” to begin with! What hypocrisy to claim to be Pro-life and then condemn to an untimely death the innocent in the same article as Ann has done! How could a sincere Pro-Lifer ask the victim mother of a rape: would you like to “choose” the “convenience” of “murdering” your son or daughter so you don’t have to endure an unwanted pregnancy?
Abortion=murder, abortion stops a beating heart. And those of us who know in our hearts what it is no matter what it is called just aren’t able to override our hearts and bring our heads to define abortion any other way than what it is and what it does.
It only takes one example like Rebecca here to justify what Ann calls this “extreme” stance. Therefore it won’t change our minds if the majority opinion sides with such hypocrisy as Ann’s! What else should we expect? After all, the Master warned us all by saying, “wide is the road that leads to destruction, and many go in thereat”! Ann has only blessed us by calling us “Purist conservatives”. If the wide road leading to destruction is the path she wants, she can have it!
In praying for our enemies, I must say, may God have mercy on those who discern a difference between abortion and murder- because there are no such distinctions in God’s eyes.
So thank you, Rebecca, for speaking out against Ann Coulter’s hypocrisy, and that of any and all other pseudo-right-to-lifers along with her. Coming from you, it’s much more powerful than it could be from the likes of me in the cheering section. Thank you for being a voice for the living unborn! I’m pretty sure Ann would be singing a different tune if she had been the victim in your shoes who had been given the right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness like our constitution is interpreted as guaranteeing most other people with beating hearts.