Herman tells CNN he's pro-choice on conceived-in-rape

By Bryan Fischer

Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"

Just three days after Herman Cain told a Sunday morning talk show that he is pro-life with no exceptions even for rape and incest (and he was right: in America, we don't execute children for the sins of their fathers), he told Piers Morgan of CNN that he's actually pro-choice on the conceived-in-rape issue:

"It comes down to: it's not the government's role, or anybody else's role, to make that decision ... So what I'm saying is, it ultimately gets down to a choice that that family or that mother has to make. Not me as president. Not some politician, not a bureaucrat. It gets down to that family, and whatever they decide, they decide. I shouldn't try to tell them what decision to make for such a sensitive issue ... I can have an opinion on an issue without it being a directive on the nation. The government shouldn't be trying to tell people everything to do, especially when it comes to social decisions they need to make."

Herman seems to be saying that he is pro-life with no exceptions for rape and incest — unless the family wants an exception, and then it's none of his business.

Ouch.

In other words, Herman's position on conceived-in-rape is virtually indistinguishable from the typical liberal position: personally pro-life, politically pro-abortion.

Although the rape and incest issue is obviously controversial, and a subset of the larger pro-life debate, this will create real problems for Herman in the campaign. It will be difficult for him to walk this one back.

What Herman seems to be missing here is that the most basic and profound role of government is to protect innocent human beings at all stages of life. It is in fact the role of government to tell its citizens that they cannot destroy innocent human life. Justice is the essential God-given role of government, the purpose for which God established government in the first place, and the most basic form of justice is preventing one member of society from taking the life of another.

We should not, in America, allow children to be put to death for the sins of their fathers. If it's a baby in the womb — and it is — then it has a right to life regardless of the circumstances under which it was conceived. Children out of the womb who have bad parents do not forfeit their right to life because their parents are bad. Neither do children in the womb.

If it's a baby in the womb, it has a God-given, unalienable right to life and it is government's sacred responsibility to protect that right.

Herman will have to come out today and try to repair the hole he's punched in his own boat, and it may be a difficult hole to patch. He might ship too much water on this one to be able to pump it out in time to save the vessel.

I like Herman. I like him a lot. He has brought warmth, charisma, humor and life to the Tea Party and the presidential campaign. If he doesn't find a way to quickly repair the damage from this latest mis-step — and that will be a challenge — we'll be looking back saying It was great while it lasted.

(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)

© Bryan Fischer