Kansas Rep. Pete DeGraaf: Being impregnated during a rape is just like getting a flat tire

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http://blogs.pitch.com/plog/2011/05/pete_degraaf_rape_flat_tire.php
By Peter Rugg, Mon., May 23 2011 at 7:21 AM

​Rape is often called the ultimate violation of self. A crime of absolute contempt for personal integrity, leaving the women caught in its wreckage to labor under the trauma for years. What reprehensible event could possibly have the same consequences as the spiritual dead zone rape victims are left in?

Well, getting a flat tire, according to Kansas state Rep. Pete DeGraaf. Last Friday, Kansas legislators approved a ban on insurance companies offering abortion coverage as part of their general health plans. The one exception: when a woman's life is at risk.

DeGraaf, who is in his first term and who is an associate pastor, also called for banning coverage for abortions of rape pregnancies. (Women could get around this if they purchased separate, "abortion-only policies.")


During the House discussion there was predictably some disagreement over whether excluding rape pregnancies from coverage was perhaps the sort of callous treatment a recently violated woman shouldn't have to deal with. Here's DeGraaf's response to Rep. Barbara Bollier's challenge, as reported by the McPherson Sentinel:

Rep. Pete DeGraaf, a Mulvane Republican who supports the bill, told her: "We do need to plan ahead, don't we, in life?"

Bollier asked him, "And so women need to plan ahead for issues that they have no control over with pregnancy?"

DeGraaf drew groans of protest from some House members when he responded, "I have a spare tire on my car."

"I also have life insurance," he added. "I have a lot of things that I plan ahead for."

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[Blue_In_AK]

1. I heard about this guy yesterday.

What a sick bastard. I don't know how these Republicans can look at themselves in the mirror every morning.

[The Wielding Truth]

2. Clueless and and heartless. I don't want this guy making any decisions for me.

[Maru Kitteh]

3. Anymore, when I have to drive through Kansas I try to accomplish it without stopping.

Somehow, just 20 years ago it seemed so much more vibrant, open-minded and diverse than it does now.

[saras]

4. He needs to experience traumatic insemination, insect style

Nothing less will 'sink in', so to speak.

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5. Or we could send one of the hillbillies

from Deliverance after him--the same one who took Ned Beatty and raped him!