Written by @saywooord
Wednesday, August 14, 2019, U.S. Rep Steve King told a crowd that if not for rape and incest throughout human history, there would be no humanity.
“What if we went back through all the family trees and just pulled those people out that were products of rape and incest? Would there be any population of the world left if we did that?” King asked the audience at the Westside Conservative Club in Urband, according to video coverage by The Des Moines Register. “Considering all the wars and all the rape and pillage that’s taken place and whatever happened to culture after society I know I can’t certify that I’m not a part of a product of that.”
King was explaining his defense of not allowing exceptions for rape and incest in the anti-abortion legislation he attempted to pass in congress. Republican leadership had been preventing the bill he sponsored, which aimed to ban abortions, from advancing through the House, despite GOP support, King says.
He argued that just because things happen under bad circumstances, the results still yield a person.
“It’s not the baby’s fault for the sin of the father, or of the mother,” King, a Catholic, said.
King, who has served nine years as a congressman, has previously been criticized for his comments regarding race and immigration. But now, many politicians are looking to remove King of his seat and plan to challenge him for his Republican nomination.
In a tweet, U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, the No. 3 Republican in House leadership, called King’s comments “appalling and bizarre” and added, “it’s time for him to go.”
