Platform politics: If Akin has to go, why does Ryan get to stay?
Today Todd Akin said he would stay in the running. Meanwhile, Republican leaders are running away from the Missouri senatorial candidate. They have denounced Akin’s ideas about abortion and said that he won’t be welcome at their convention next week. But unfortunately his extreme ideas will be there, front and center.
Earlier this year Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell backed a controversial bill that would force women to undergo a medically unnecessary procedure — a transvaginal ultrasound — in order to get an abortion. And today, under his leadership as platform party chair, the GOP gave its support for states to push extreme laws like the ultrasound bill.
But here is what the rest of the country thinks: 81 percent of Americans believe that abortion should be legal in cases of rape or incest and only 15 percent think it should be illegal, even in the most extreme situations like rape and incest. The catch 22 is that as the Republican Party has moved further and further to the right, Mitt Romney has attempted to push a more moderate message while his vice presidential candidate is not exactly on the same page. Paul Ryan co-sponsored several pieces of anti-choice legislation with Akin, including the “let women die act,” which allows hospitals to refuse to treat a woman seeking an abortion even when it would save her life.
So why does Paul Ryan get to stay and Todd Akin have to go?
Jennifer Granholm will kick off the show with this topic and will be discussing it all with Michelle Bernard, founder and CEO of the Bernard Center for Women, Politics & Public Policy, Democratic strategist Donnie Fowler and Republican strategist Rob Stutzman.
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