Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee visited with CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday morning, perhaps in an effort to out-Trump Donald Trump‘s mansplaining statements on abortion. In doing so, Huckabee touched upon a sad current event to make his point.
Dana Bash asked Huckabee about the 10-year-old rape victim in Paraguay who was denied access to an abortion. This case does not technically involve incest, as the girl’s stepfather is the father of the unborn baby, but the experience is no less horrific to the victim. Paraguay officials ruled that the girl must carry the pregnancy to term despite the inherent risks of childbirth to a preteen’s body. Huckabee said, if he had it his way, the United States would carry the same requirement:
“Let’s not compound a tragedy by taking yet another life. A 10-year-old girl being raped is horrible. But does it solve a problem by taking the life of an innocent child? And that’s really the issue. There are two victims. One is the child; the other is that birth mother who often will go through extraordinary guilt years later when she begins to think through what happened — with the baby, with her. And again, there are no easy answers here.
“I just come down on the side that life is precious; every life has worth and value. I don’t think we discount the intrinsic worth of any human being, and I don’t know where else to go with it than just to be consistent and say, if life matters, and that’s a person, then every life matters.”
Huckabee does not appear to register the very real danger to the 10-year-old girl in carrying this pregnancy to term. The Paraguay government agrees with him. At least on this issue, Trump appears to be a little more rational than Huckabee, but surely, Trump will one-up his competitor at the next available opportunity.
Twitter mustered up a fair amount of outrage for Huckabee’s hard-line stance.
Mike Huckabee supports Paraguay in their decision not to let a 10-year-old incest victim receive an abortion. And that is revolting.
— hesitant final girl (@retroartiste) August 17, 2015
https://twitter.com/RickR6/status/633121708141092864
Mike Huckabee doesn't believe in abortion under any circumstance, including the rape of a 10-year-old girl. Like he should be president #NOT
— RebelCore® (@iAmRebelCore) August 17, 2015
Media should ask this of all supporting amnesty & open borders. But no, let's ask Pro-life Huckabee about abortion instead & act shocked.
— Nadine Elhindi (@NadineElhindi) August 17, 2015
(Via CNN)
