For a long time the leaders of the Republican Party have said that “abortion is murder,” but, until now, they haven’t meant this literally.
All the Republican presidential candidates from George H.W. Bush to Mitt Romney have opposed abortion, but made exceptions, such as for women who are pregnant as the result of rape or incest.
No such exception would be allowed by Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Ted Cruz, Dr. Ben Carson, Rand Paul or Mike Huckabee, according to a report by Thomas B. Edsall of the New York Times.
If you honestly believe that abortion is murder, it is logical to say, as Huckabee did, that friends of a 10-year-old girl in Paraguay who became pregnant after being raped by her step-father has no more right to commit murder than anybody else.
Edsall noted that the top 15 Republican candidates, including Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and Carly Fiorina, all agree that life begins at conception. This sounds strict to me, but Edsall pointed out that, to some of the most powerful anti-abortion groups, it is not enough. To these groups, life begins at fertilization.
The difference is that conception begins when the fertilized egg is implanted in the womb. Most fertilized eggs fail to be implanted.
The importance of this difference is that the “morning after” birth control pill works by preventing implantation of a fertilized egg. Experts disagree on whether IUDs prevent implantation of fertilized eggs. Extremist anti-abortionists think such forms of birth control are the same as abortion.