WV State Lawmaker Makes Controversial Rape Comments
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iStock/Thinkstock(CHARLESTON, W.Va.) — A West Virginia state lawmaker has come under criticism after comments about rape at a public hearing on Thursday.
According to the Charleston (W. Va.) Gazette, Brian Kurcaba, a Republican member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, said that “obviously rape is awful…what is beautiful is the child that could come from this.”
The comments came while discussing the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would ban abortions after 20 weeks, based on the belief that at 20 weeks, a fetus can feel pain.
A similar bill was passed by legislators last year but vetoed by Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin on the grounds that he had been advised that the bill was unconstitutional.
In 2012, Missouri Rep. Todd Akin was resoundingly criticized and lost a re-election bid after claiming that pregnancy can’t be a result of rape, because “if it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down.”
That same year, Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock said that pregnancy as the result of sexual assault is a “gift from God.”
According to his campaign website, Kurcaba is a financial advisor with degrees in psychology and labor relations.
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