"When a mother’s life is in danger, I’m not going to make that decision. Incest is so rare, I mean, it’s so rare. But the rape thing…you know, I know a woman who was raped and kept her child, gave it up for adoption, she doesn’t regret it. In fact, she’s a big pro-life proponent. But on the rape thing, it’s like, how does putting more violence onto a woman’s body and taking the life of an innocent child that’s the consequence of this crime, how does that make it better? You know what I mean?"  John Koster, Republican running for Congress, in answering a question. 

First: even in America, having a baby is more dangerous than having a midterm abortion. Pregnancy is often a time that domestic violence begins or worsens. But being pregnant is always dangerous because you are trying to grow a second person inside you. And the baby could die, or get stuck, or cause you to bleed to death. Pregnancy is always an invasion of your body. Happy pregnant people like sharing their body for nine months. But I thought nine months was a long time to share my bladder and lung space. And suddenly mom’s needs are second to possible harm to fetus from prescriptions, any OTC pills, lunch meat, coffee, carousels, you name it. Nine months is a long time to live in pain: nausea, headache, backache, carpal tunnel, diabetes, bloody noses. Constant doctor’s visits. New wardrobe. Bigger shoes. And the grand finale: pushing a seven-pound baby out of a whole normally the size of a quarter.  Considering the obvious forced labor to the mother of bearing a child she did not want, I think the Supreme Court should have based the Constitutional right to a choice of bearing a pregnancy on the 13^th Amendment: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Second: Incest is so rare? I hope that Koster knows more than me on incest being rare – sexual assault rates have been falling and maybe suddenly incest is rare? I will grant that many victims of incest are not old enough or the right gender to get pregnant, and we are only discussing pregnancies from incest.  Incest is not nearly rare enough! 

Third: “The Rape Thing.” Letting a rape victim chose an abortion is giving her back control of her body not "putting more violence on it." Any forced abortion would be horrible, and probably does happen in some domestic violence situations, but we are talking about giving the woman the choice. The "Rape Thing" can be physically painful but its major pain is the loss of control of your most intimate privacy. They need to be allowed to control their own bodies, and they might not want to have to prioritize the needs of a fetus for the next nine months while they recover. Women who survive rape need to be trusted to make their best choices for them.

And, like, Koster sounds like a Valley girl, you know what I mean?