Piers Morgan pressed Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) on the question of abortion in the case of rape Friday in an interview on CNN.
Morgan asked the Republican presidential candidate whether he thought that, if one of his daughters were raped and impregnated, she should carry the baby to term.
Paul responded, "No. If it's an honest rape, that individual should go immediately to the emergency room. I would give them a shot of estrogen or give them..."
Morgan interjected, "You would allow them to abort the baby?"
Paul replied, "It is absolutely in limbo, because an hour after intercourse or a day afterwards, there is no legal or medical problem. If you talk about somebody coming in and they say, well, I was raped and I'm seven months pregnant and I don't want to have anything to do with it, it's a little bit different story."
(Video above via CNN.)
Paul, who was an obstetrician before becoming a congressman, said he believed life begins at conception. He added, "Well, you don't know if you're taking a life either, because this is an area that is -- but to decide everything about abortion and respect for life on this one very, very theoretical condition, where there may have been a life or not a life."
Morgan asked about a dilemma of a woman too ashamed to immediately go to the emergency room only to discover she is pregnant weeks or months later.
"This is like the proposal that the people who like abortion, endorse abortion because it's the woman's right to her body. You say, well, does that mean one minute before birth, you can kill the baby?" responded Paul. "I did this on one of the TV programs where some women were opposed to what I was saying." Paul continued, "I said, this nine-pound baby is in the woman. She has the right. She argues her case. I said you would abort this baby because the woman has had unfortunate circumstances, so the doctor gets paid a handsome fee to kill this nine-pound baby?"
He went on: "Oh, that's not what we're talking about. But that is what they are talking about. They are talking about a human life. So a person immediately after rape, yes. It's a tough one. I won't satisfy everybody there."
Paul has described himself as "strongly pro-life" and said that the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade was one of the "most disastrous rulings of this century." However, he says that it's up to the states to ban abortion.
Morgan previously asked Paul's GOP rival, Rick Santorum, a similar hypothetical question about what he would do if his daughter were raped and wanted an abortion. Santorum responded that he would counsel her to "accept this horribly created" baby, because it was still a "gift in a very broken way." He added, "I can't think of anything more horrible, but nevertheless, we have to make the best out of a bad situation, and I would make the argument that that is making the best."
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