Earlier this month, far-right Christian nationalist pastor and Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith appeared on the "Shively & Shoulders" program to discuss a range of issues. Among the topics discussed was abortion, particularly the idea of allowing for exceptions when enacting anti-choice legislation.
Co-host Pat Shoulders grilled Beckwith about the view stated by James Bopp, a fellow Hoosier and general counsel for the National Right to Life, who declared in 2022 that a 10-year old girl who had to travel from Ohio to Indiana to receive an abortion after being raped should have, instead, been forced to carry the pregnancy to term.
Beckwith responded by proclaiming that he supports exceptions in cases of rape, provided that the rapist is charged with murder for the ensuing abortion.
"I believe in the case of life that life begins at conception," Beckwith said. "There's horrible things that happen in life, though, so when things like rape—especially rape of a child happen—there needs to be severe consequences for the person who did that."
"What I've said is if we're gonna allow one carve out, that would be the carve out where I would say, 'Hey, this would be the carve out. If you're gonna have an abortion, in this consequence, you can do it here,'" he added. "However, this is my stipulation: I want that man who raped and caused that child now to be killed, I want that man to be charged for first degree murder as well."
"Now the justice system will carry out justice on that man for ending an innocent life, bringing an innocent life into the world and then ending that life," Beckwith declared. "Now there's justice, and I've always said I would be OK with that."
"But that's the stipulation," he continued. "I want to make sure that that person who does the rape and causes the killing of that child in the womb is prosecuted justly for that."
Beckwith also said that he supports exceptions in cases involving the life of the mother, insisting "that's not abortion, that's triage" where doctors sometimes need to make a "battlefield time decision" and "look at one life and say, 'OK, that life actually has a chance, this life unfortunately doesn't,' and you're going to put your resources and your efforts towards that."
When Shoulders attempted to understand Beckwith's position regarding rape exceptions, noting that no law actually charges rapists with murder, Beckwith replied, "we should."
"That's what I would want," he said. "Bring justice. I want justice."
