Des Moines, Iowa — Republican Congressman Steve King says he wishes he had phrased a recent statement about abortion differently, but he says the statement “was objectively honest and accurate.” On August 14th, King told a central Iowa group that given “all the rape and pillage” over the centuries, there might not be any population of the world left if all the “products of rape and incest” were removed from “all the family trees.” King hosted a news conference in Des Moines on Friday to discuss the topic.
King says the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” carries that message, as an angel showed the film’s main character what life in his community would have been like had he not been born. King was joined at Friday’s news conference by a handful of people who, like King, support an abortion ban without exceptions for rape and incest. “Save the One” president Rebecca Kiesling thanked King for his comments and accused King’s critics of classifying those who are conceived in rape as “sub-human.”
Personhood Iowa executive director Tim Overlin says King is among the few politicians who have “gone to the wall” on the abortion issue.
Tamara Scott, host of a program called “Truth for Our Time” on YouTube, says the evidence of rape and incest is destroyed if there’s an abortion.
Scott is also the Iowa Republican Party’s National Committeewoman and a lobbyist for the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, but Scott said she was not at the news conference to endorse King or get involved in King’s Republican Primary. Three Republicans in the fourth congressional district are challenging King’s bid for a 10th term in the U.S. House.
