Tampa, Florida—As Republicans saluted their vice-presidential nominee in person for the first time at the party’s national convention, they offered split views on his hard line on outlawing abortion — but not split enough, they claimed, to prevent them from voting for the Romney-Ryan ticket.
Wisconsin State Rep. Paul Ryan took the stage Wednesday night at the Tampa Bay Times Forum to formally accept his nomination for vice-president and to kick off his role as attack dog for former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the presidential nominee. For the first time, a major national party has nominated a vice-presidential candidate who officially proposed outlawing all abortion, even in cases of rape.
Pepper Dombroski (pictured), a 50-year-old Hawaiian delegate, said she’s with Romney, not Ryan, on allowing abortions after rape. (Romney, unlike Ryan, support legal aobrtions in case of rape and incest.) But she’s still a Ryan fan, Dombroski said.
“He’s an economic hero,” she exclaimed. She said she’s willing to look past his views on abortion because of his economic plans. She said she’s not looking for her president and vice-president to have the exact same views she has on every issue. “We don’t have clones in the White House.”
Anita Greenberg and Debbie Walker, delegates from New Jersey, offered a similar view. They said they’re opposed to government involvement in abortion at all, including outlawing it or funding it. But that’s only one issue, and not the most important one in these difficult economic times, they said.
Focusing on abortion is a red herring perpetrated by the media. “The liberal media likes to incite hysteria,” Greenberg said.
“It’s an attempt to polarize us on religion,” Walker said.
Thomas MacMillan Photo
Republicans cheer for Ryan and his family.
Ryan’s appearance on the stage came 10 days after Missouri U.S. Rep. Todd Akin touched off a firestorm of controversy for his comments during an interview with a St. Louis TV station about abortions after impregnation by rape. Akin said that in the case of “legitimate rape,” a woman’s body “has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” At any rate, the unborn child should not bear the “punishment” for the rape, he said.
The comments drew broad condemnation, with even Romney calling on Akin to withdraw from the Missouri U.S. Senate race. The comments also brought the issue of abortion to the fore, and highlighted Ryan’s far-right views on the matter. Ryan and Akin together sponsored “The Sanctity of Human Life Bill,” in 2009, which, if passed, would have defined life as beginning at conception and outlawed all abortions without exception for cases of rape or incest. They were also two of the original sponsors of the “No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion Act,” which introduced the term “forcible rape,” a cousin of the concept of “legitimate rape.” The “forcible” was dropped after outcry.
Akin’s remarks — and the subsequent media fallout that revealed a deep strain of GOP support, including Ryan’s, for his views — caused a national headache for the Republicans. They need support from independent female voters and some moderates in general to win the November general election. Romney’s camp has tried hard to keep the focus on economic issues, where President Obama is weak, rather than on social issues.
At the convention Wednesday, at least, the issue didn’t appear to be rupturing the party’s own base of support.
Ryan has said that he continues to hold the belief that all abortions should be illegal, a stance that’s enshrined in the official Republican party platform approved on Tuesday. But Romney has said that he believes in exceptions in the case of rape, incest, or threat to the life of the mother.
Conversations at the convention arena on Wednesday revealed that Republican delegates are similarly split on the question of abortion in the case of rape.
“I don’t think abortion should be legal at all,” said 37-year-old Alan Couchman (pictured), an alternate delegate from Texas. A fetus “is a person entitled to the protection of the law.” Aborting a fetus conceived through rape amounts to “punishing an unborn baby for the sins of the father,” Couchman said.
“I’m against abortion. I’m pro-life, all the way,” said Frances Manning (pictured), a delegate from Ohio. She said she nevertheless supports Romney and said she realizes he can’t push through outlawing abortion, given public opinion.
“Romney has to speak for the whole country, which isn’t ready to outlaw abortion,” she said. “Abortion should remain legal.”
“I’ve always believed that the right to life is part of being created by God,” said Rex Teter, another Texas delegate. He said he believes abortion should be illegal with not exceptions. “It’s taking away life.”
He said he doesn’t mind that Romney disagrees. “I can live with that.”
Christine Hill (at right in photo), a 61-year-old delegate from Anchorage, Alaska, said she also believes it should be outlawed without exception, but she’s willing to support Romney regardless. She offered a personal story about the basis for her belief.
“My close relative was raped by her husband and she had a child,” Hill said. The child, a daughter, is now a grown woman. “Her daughter is beautiful, is married, and has four or five beautiful children. … I admire my relative very much.”
“The government has a role in protecting life,” Hill said. “We are a culture of death.” Abortion should not be taken so “offhandedly and so easily.”
“Look I’ve just killed millions of cells,” said Texas delegate Chris Daniel, brushing his right hand across the fingers of his left. Questions about abortion come down to the mystery of “when does the soul enter the body,” he said. That question has not been settled and he’s comfortable existing in the gray area of the unknown, Daniel said.
Alaskan delegate Pam Raygar (at left in photo) had an answer to the question of whether a fetus is a child: “The issue is whether or not that’s a human being. And so we know it is, correct? And so, if this is a human being, we save that person’s life.”
“Rape, while in itself is hard, and there are psychological value system to be dealt with, it’s still not the fault of the child,” Raygar said. “So we are no executing the child for something they have nothing to do with.”
Raygar said she’s opposed to abortion across the board. There may be exceptions when the mother’s life is in danger, but even that has to be scrutinized, she said. A mother’s life being in danger means that she will die “not be uncomfortable or have her life situation change, but actually may come to death. Then the decision has to be for the life of the mother, but only in that case.”
Previous convention coverage:
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• Coronation Goes Off-Script
• Convention Begins In The Streets