(Originally intended as a letter to the Syracuse Post-Standard)
In light of Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock's rather ignorant statement, and it's subsequent catastrophe that pregnancy - even as a result of rape was God's will, it is appropriate for us to revisit Ann Marie Buerkle's faux pas in one of her last ads.
In it she entirely misses the point behind Dan Maffei's ad about Buerkle's sponsorship of Todd Akin's bill restricting emergency abortions to women who have 'legitimately raped."
The point at the time when Buerkle co-sponsored the bill, was to create a narrowly defined construct of what rape would be in order to so severely restrict abortions, as to make them virtually impossible. The term "forcible rape," was withdrawn only after vigorous protest from Democrats and Liberal publications, and a fear that it would be taken as further evidence of the GOP's "War Against Women."
ADDENDUM:
So extreme are Buerkle's positions that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's super pac Independence USA has made a media buy of $294000 to endorse Dan Maffei and oppose Buerkle's re-election.
Don't believe me? Look at this:
FEC filing