Paul Ryan Says All This Talk About Rape Is Just A Distraction... But His Voting Record Needs To Be Examined

Guess which clown has a WORSE voting record on women's health

Paul Ryan is trying to work that etch-a-sketch thing Romney carries around with him at all times. But records are records-- and Ryan's is crystal clear. As Kate Sheppard pointed out in Mother Jones, Ryan was a co-sponsor of every extreme anti-Choice piece of legislation that any right wing crackpot wanted to propose.

Over his career in the House, GOP VP candidate Paul Ryan has endorsed a number of measures that would limit or completely bar abortion in the United States. Although Ryan's anti-abortion credentials have gotten plenty of coverage since he was announced as Romney's veep choice, the full extent of the measures he's endorsed is breathtaking, and includes cosponsoring a measure that would allow hospitals to deny women access to an abortions even if their life is in immediate danger.

The House passed the "Protect Life Act" in October 2011, with Ryan as one of its 145 cosponsors. The measure would allow hospitals to refuse to "participate in" or "provide referrals" for abortions. Current law states that any hospital that receives government funds is required to provide emergency care for anyone. If a hospital is affiliated with a religious institution that refuses to provide abortion care under any circumstance, they're legally required to transfer the patient to a hospital that will. But the measure Ryan cosponsored would remove that obligation, leading opponents to criticize the bill for letting women "die on the floor."

Here's a rundown of other extreme anti-abortion measures Ryan co-sponsored:

• The Sanctity of Human Life Act: This bill would have written into law that zygotes are legal people from the moment of conception. Like other, similar bills, it grants fertilized eggs the same rights as adult humans, and would make in-vitro fertilization and some forms of contraception the legal equivalents of murder.

• The Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act: Ryan cosponsored this bill in 2006, 2007, and 2010. It would require doctors to provide medically dubious information to all women seeking an abortion after 20 weeks gestation. The bill includes specific language that the Department of Health and Human Services would need to include in a brochure that doctors would be required to give to women. The brochure includes language like "the process of being killed in an abortion will cause your unborn child pain." It would also require doctors to offer "anesthesia or other pain-reducing drug" for the fetus.

• The Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act: This bill, introduced in 2005, 2007, and 2011, federalizes state laws on parental notification for minors seeking an abortion. The bill requires doctors to notify the minor's parent or guardian in writing and wait 24-hour hours before providing an abortion.

• The District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act: This 2012 bill would ban abortions in the capital after 20 weeks gestation. It failed in the House on July 31.

In addition to cosponsoring these bills, Ryan has cast 59 votes on abortion issues, all of them anti-choice, according to a tally by NARAL Pro-Choice America, a leading pro-abortion rights group.

So where does the etch-a-sketch come in? Ryan did an interview with KDKA in Pittsburgh Tuesday. He spoke to the station's political editor, John Delano who quotes Ryan denouncing Todd Akin: "His statements were outrageous, over the pail. I don’t know anybody who would agree with that. Rape is rape period, end of story."

Ryan, like Romney, distanced himself from Akin’s remarks, but in Congress, he joined Akin in opposing abortions even when a woman has been raped.

Delano: “Should abortions to be available to women who are raped?”

Ryan: “Well, look, I’m proud of my pro-life record. And I stand by my pro-life record in Congress. It’s something I’m proud of. But Mitt Romney is the top of the ticket and Mitt Romney will be president and he will set the policy of the Romney administration.”

Despite Ryan’s views, Romney says he will allow exceptions for rape and incest. Ryan also seemed to back away from earlier views on types of rape.

Delano: “You sponsored legislation that has the language ‘forcible rape.’ What is forcible rape as opposed…”

Ryan: “Rape is rape. Rape is rape, period. End of story.”

Delano: “So that forcible rape language meant nothing to you at the time?”

Ryan: “Rape is rape and there’s no splitting hairs over rape.”

As for the president’s claim that Romney-Ryan will restrict birth control, Ryan calls that ridiculous.

“Nobody is proposing to deny birth control to anybody,” says Ryan.

Is that so? Nobody? Ryan's voting record shows he has repeatedly proposed just that in Congress-- along with almost all his GOP colleagues and a small handful of reactionary Blue Dog enablers. Every major media outlet other than Fox News has been pointing out that Ryan and Akin have identical voting records when it comes to anti-Choice extremism.

As a U.S. House member from Wisconsin, Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan has co-sponsored 38 anti-abortion measures, including some that make no allowance for rape.

Ryan’s level of support outdoes that of his House colleague Todd Akin, who is under pressure from party leaders to step down as the Republican Senate nominee in Missouri after saying that “legitimate rape” rarely leads to pregnancy.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney yesterday called on Akin to quit the race, and campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg said Aug. 20 that “a Romney-Ryan administration would not oppose abortion in instances of rape.”

Ryan’s co-sponsorships include bills that would restrict government funding and declare that states have the right to protect life beginning at fertilization... Since voters in Wisconsin’s 1st District, south of Milwaukee, first elected him in 1998, Ryan hasn’t voted against any bills backed by the National Right to Life Committee. The group gives him a lifetime voting score of 100 percent.

The group scored Akin at 90 percent support during one of his six terms and at 100 percent for the rest of his tenure. Akin co-sponsored every abortion bill supported by Ryan in the almost 12 years the two Republicans have served together in Washington.

The AP is reporting that the Beltway Democratic Machine is trying to tie Akin to every Republican congressional candidate. The hypocrisy there is that the DCCC and DSCC are supporting-- even extra supporting the Democrats-- like Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog-NC) and Joe Donnelly (Blue Dog-IN) who co-sponsored this bills along with Akin and Ryan. Ugly. But what's ugly for the DCCC and DSCC is fine for genuine pro-Choice advocates running for Congress-- the kind usually not given much encouragement by characters like Steve Israel and Joe Crowley. Blue America's latest endorsee, Dr. Syed Taj (D-MI), for example, went to work on his deranged anti-Choice opponent, Kerry Bentivolio. As a doctor he has been telling his patients-- and now Michigan media-- that rape does lead to pregnancy. "It bothers me," he told Michigan media yesterday, "that in this day and age we have to discuss what constitutes rape and the basic science of human reproduction. However, let me state unequivocally that I support a women's right to choose. Of course, this extends to cases of rape, incest, and when the woman's life is at risk. I am deeply troubled by the statements of Mr. Akin and by the fact that he and Paul Ryan are co-sponsors of H.R. 3, that bans federal funding for abortion in all cases. What's even more troubling is that my opponent has not condemned the statements of Mr. Akin. This makes me wonder where Mr. Bentivolio stands on these issues." And he went on to pose a series of questions-- as yet unanswered-- to Bentivolglio:

• Do you support a rape, incest, and life of the mother exception?

• Would you vote for Paul Ryan's and Todd Akin's H.R. 3?

• Do you support the so called "Personhood Amendment?"

• Do you support the Republican Party platform plank that calls for a ban to abortion in all cases?

• Do you agree with Todd Akin's definition of rape? If so, what exactly is "legitimate rape?" If not, why haven't you condemned Rep. Akin's statements?

• You claim to be a libertarian but yet also state that you "will stand with the pro-life movement in Washington." How do you square these two competing values? How can you argue that the government has no role in regulating business but yet think it should regulate women's choices about their bodies? As a person that purports to follow the Constitution how can you ignore the Commerce Clause and claim a Constitutional mandate to ban abortion in all cases?