The GOP Appalls Anew

[Trigger warning for sexual violence; misogyny.]

Just when you think elected members of the Republican Party could not get any more contemptible, along comes Kansas State Representative Pete DeGraaf to lower the bar even further: After the Republican majority in the state legislature passed a bill banning insurance companies from covering abortion under general health plans, DeGraaf's colleague State Representative Barbara Bollier expressed concern that her party might be creating insurmountable barriers for women who want to terminate unintended pregnancies.

During the House debate, she "questioned whether women would buy abortion-only policies long before they have crisis or unwanted pregnancies or are rape victims."

But state Rep. Pete DeGraaf (R) was ready with a shocking retort. DeGraaf said women should plan ahead for situations such as rape because, after all, "I have a spare tire on my car":

During the House's debate, Rep. Pete DeGraaf, a Mulvane Republican who supports the bill, told [Bollier]: "We do need to plan ahead, don't we, in life?"

Bollier asked him, "And so women need to plan ahead for issues that they have no control over with a pregnancy?"

DeGraaf drew groans of protest from some House members when he responded, "I have spare tire on my car."

"I also have life insurance," he added. "I have a lot of things that I plan ahead for."

DeGraaf's belief that women should plan and prepare for their own rape is more than groan-worthy, it's woefully out-of-touch. As Jezebel's Margaret Hartmann notes, DeGraaf is basically telling sexual assault victims that "the state isn't AAA" so a Kansas woman is responsible for the consequences of her attacker. And by comparing it to life insurance, DeGraaf goes further to insinuate that rape is as inevitable as death.

And not just that rape is as inevitable as death, but that he finds the allegedly ineludible nature of rape to be an acceptable situation.

And why wouldn't he, really? If rape is as certain as death and taxes, then he's got no responsibility in its prevention (although, I'll bet he's spent some time on behalf of tax prevention, ahem), nor need to abstain from engaging in vile rape culture narratives like rape is natural and inescapable.

Or, ya know, like rape is no more serious than a flat tire.

Rep. Pete DeGraaf's office can be contacted here.