Ryan joins McCain in mocking the 'health of the mother'

Four years ago, Barack Obama beat John McCain among women voters by a healthy 13-point margin. That gap was doubtless made larger by McCain's shameful performance in the final presidential debate, when during an exchange about reproductive rights he used air quotes to mock the very idea of the "health of the mother." Now, just as the Republican Party risks immolating itself with a draconian anti-abortion platform consistent with the views of Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin, Americans are learning that Paul Ryan, too, dismissed the health of the mother exception as "a loophole wide enough to drive a Mack truck through."

Ryan's jaw-dropping disregard for the health and safety of American women came during the 2000 debate over the so-called "partial birth abortion" bill. As NPR explained, the very rare intact dilation and extraction (used only 2,200 times out of 1.3 million procedures performed in 2000) was resorted to precisely to protect the health of the woman in certain late-term pregnancies. The alternative, NPR noted, "can involve substantial blood loss and may increase the risk of lacerating the cervix, potentially undermining the woman's ability to bear children in the future."

Mitt Romney's new running mate was having none of it. During a House debate on April 5, 2000, Wisconsin Rep. Tammy Baldwin told the House that "the women I have spoken to wanted nothing more than to have a child and were devastated to learn that their babies could not survive outside the womb. They made difficult decisions with their doctors and families to terminate pregnancies, to preserve their own health and in many cases their ability to try to have a child again." Afterward, Paul Ryan rose to denounce that position:

Mr. Speaker. I just have to take issue with the comments that have been preceding this debate. This is not a political issue. This is a human issue. Let me just say this to all of my colleagues who are about to vote on this issue, on the motion to recommit. The health exception is a loophole wide enough to drive a Mack truck through it. The health exception would render this ban virtually meaningless.

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