The Denver Post on Sunday became the first major news outlet in Colorado, with the exception of the Associated Press, to report that Ken Buck opposes abortion even in the case of rape and incest. That’s weeks and at least two blog posts after the Colorado Independent reported the U.S. Senate candidate’s hard-line position.
Ken Buck not only opposes a women’s right to choose abortion if she’s a victim of rape and incest but in such cases also supports a ban on the use of the morning-after pill or other types of birth control.
He articulated his position on KHOW’s Caplis and Silverman show Aug. 4:
Craig: …Let’s say, god forbid, that a 13-year-old boy impregnates his 14-year-old sister and does it by forced rape. You’re saying that the 14-year-old and anybody involved in the abortion should be prosecuted, if they choose to terminate the pregnancy, either through surgical abortion or a morning after pill?
Buck: I think it is wrong, Craig. I think it is morally wrong. And you are taking a very small group of cases and making a point about abortion. We have hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of abortions in this country every year. And the example that you give is a very poignant one but an extremely rare occurrence.
Craig: Incest happens. I’m sure your office prosecutes it. And we know rape and sexual assault happen all the time, and your office prosecutes it. So it’s not completely rare. I agree that most abortions have nothing to do with that. I don’t know if I’d go with rare.
As the Independent has reported, Buck supports the personhood amendment, which grants zygotes citizenship rights and therefore sets up an unequivocal set of positions on these questions.
It’s also a fact, pointed out repeatedly by the Colorado Independent, that Buck is not alone among this year’s major GOP candidates in his support for the personhood position. Every politician who supports the amendment, whether or not they dodge or equivocate on these questions, takes the same stance as does Buck. A fertilized egg with full citizen’s rights can’t be killed or experimented on or destroyed through attempts to implant it into someone else’s womb and so on, no matter how the egg came to be fertilized, without drawing the full attention of the law. Under the statutes that personhood would write, any of the above actions that results in a destroyed fertilized egg opens a homicide file for the authorities to pursue.
Again for the record: Does Ken Buck support a ban on the use of the morning-after pill even for a woman who is raped by a family member? Yes he does, because these are the laws he is endorsing by endorsing the personhood amendment– as does Cory Gardner and Dan Maes and every other candidate who supports the personhood amendment.
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Additional writing and reporting by John Tomasic.
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