North Dakota Senate Candidate Rick Berg: Todd Akin on Steroids
Posted: September 4, 2012 Filed under: 2012 elections, fetus fetishists, PLUB Pro-Life-Until-Birth, the GOP, U.S. Politics, War on Women, Women's Healthcare, Women's Rights | Tags: abortion, Class AA felony, Heidi Heitkamp, homicide, incest, minimum wage, murder, North Dakota, Paul Ryan, rape, Rep. Rick Berg, Republican National Convention, Senate candidates, Todd Akin 30 Comments
North Dakota Senate candidate Rick Berg
Rick Berg is currently the at-large Representative for North Dakota, and is running for the Senate seat held by retiring Senator Kent Conrad. Yesterday evening, Buzzfeed reported that in 2007, when Berg was a state representative, he voted for a bill that would make abortion a “Class AA felony,” punishable by life in prison without parole. This penalty would be applied to a woman who obtained and abortion and anyone who helped her do so. Here’s the relevant text from Think Progress:
A new section to chapter 12.1-16 of the North Dakota Century Code is created and enacted as follows:
Intentional termination of human life – Preborn children. A person is guilty of a class AA felony if the person intentionally destroys or terminates the life of a preborn child. A person that knowingly administers to, prescribes for, procures for, or sells to any pregnant individual any medicine, drug, device, or other substance with the specific intent of causing or abetting the termination of a preborn child is guilty of a class AA felony.
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A person that intentionally or knowingly aids, abets, facilitates, solicits, or incites a person to intentionally destroy or terminate the life of a preborn child is guilt of a class C felony. For purposes of this section, “preborn child” includes a human being from the moment of fertilization until the moment of birth.
The bill contains a separate section that says that a doctor who “provides health care” to a pregnant woman must “make every effort” to save both mother and fetus. If there is “accidental or unintentional injury” during this care, the doctor is not guilty of homicide. But the bill doesn’t specify whether the health care could include an abortion or whether the women who sought the abortion would still be considered a murderer.
According to Think Progress,
Berg was quick to denounce the comments of a fellow Senate Candidate, Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO), when he claimed that a woman couldn’t get pregnant from “legitimate rape.” Berg called the statement “insulting and reprehensible,” and “condemn[ed] them in the strongest terms possible.”
But like vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, Berg didn’t indicate to the media that he essentially agrees with Akin that a woman who is impregnated through rape or incest should be forced to carry the perpetrator’s child against their will. I was somewhat shocked to learn that Rick Berg’s wife is a primary care doctor.
But the most shocking part of this story is that Rick Berg was given a brief speaking role at last week’s Republican National Convention. From the Bismark Tribune:
North Dakota Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rick Berg got a few moments in the spotlight at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday.
The Republican congressman spoke for two minutes about North Dakota’s low unemployment, job growth and state budget surplus. He says North Dakota provides a contrast to the sluggish national economy.
Berg says North Dakota doesn’t “burden our job creators with red tape” and that people “trust the individual, not big government.”
Here’s Ed Schultz talking about Berg, who is a millionaire, and admitted he didn’t know what the minimum wage is.
North Dakota Senate Candidate Heidi Heitkamp
Fortunately, Berg has a Democratic opponent, former North Dakota Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp. In a poll taken in late July, Heitkamp was leading Berg by 6 points. Unfortunately, it’s not clear what Heitkamp’s views on abortion rights. I’ve posted a video of her below. She sounds fairly conservative, but she would obviously be far better than Rick Berg!
Here’s her website.
peej
Carissa
dakinikat
ecocatwoman
grayslady
mablue2
NW Luna
peggysue22
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
This is the most insane election season I’ve ever seen. It makes 2010 look almost good in comparison and that’s saying a lot!
Bill Moyers: Why did you leave the party? You’d been a Republican, what, all your life?
Mike Lofgren: I left the party because it was becoming an apocalyptic cult. Because you cannot govern a country of 310 million people that is the greatest economic power on earth and the greatest military power on earth as if it’s a banana republic. You can’t govern it with people who think that Obama was born overseas or who believe in all manner of nonsense about climate change. They don’t even know, apparently, where babies come from, if we’re to believe Todd Akin.
yup, yup, and YUP … apocalyptic cult is right.
A voice of santity? I’ll reserve judgement. They lie so much one wonders how they can look at themselves in the mirror in the morning. I know I should give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but these days it’s not as safe as it used to be.
The proof of the pudding in what one does – not what the pandering words that comes out of one’s mouth.
Where do these people come from and where are they getting their educations? They must be being sprouted in some back room of a building some where guarded and raised by idiots.
Did you see that Berg’s wife is a doctor?!
That didn’t surprise me — where I live many of the MDs are conservative hacks. When a religious wingnut ran for Governor awhile back — the MDs in the local medical center gave her office space. And the wives of these wing nuts were busy managing the anti-abortion groups. The 80s were a real nasty time — it is like we already went through the wingnut attempt to take over this state. Eventually people figured out that the wingnuts are evil — and refused to vote for the most radical. Eastern WA still has religious wingnuts. And I don’t trust the doctors in this county where I live.
For a doctor to be in favor of forced abortion and putting an incest or rape victim in prison sounds unethical to me.
Damn, it just keeps getting worse and worse. I’ve got MSNBC on, and it was just like a horror show, a bunch of screens with Paul Ryan’s face. Eeeek!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/04/mitt-romney-paul-ryan-medicare_n_1855143.html
If the Democrats can’t win this argument the Party is over.
Agreed with a caveat. If the person is a low or no information voter, like too many are now, these kind of robocalls freakin’ work. They do the same thing when push-polling and some people continue to believe it no matter what else they hear.
This is my greatest fear. Florida is a push-polling, robo-calling haven. I know I live here and I get them all day. I got a call from Huckabee!
Actually I have one more issue with these and that’s simply that it’s too early for this kind of robocalling to go unanswered before election day. Makes me wonder if Rmoney’s campaign has so much money that he or Rove’s superpac aren’t just burning it to see what happens.
Wow, good point, and that is even more a problem.
I kept thinking about this and I wish the DNC would play this robo-call at the convention and demolish it.
You know, I am wondering how I got on a religious nut like Huckbee’s call list. I am by the way, suspicious that it has something to do with underwater home owners. You would not believe the Romney yard signs in a neighborhood of houses (that where built by the army corp of engineers in the 50’s and early 60’s) for retirement couples.
Speaking of batshit crazy, Michele Bachmann says President Obama is too wealthy to connect with the average American.
Good grief! Bwahahahaha
Is there a twinge of jealousy there? Just wondering, cause Ms Bachmann is worth quite a bit herself.
I found out where the GOP/TP gets it’s crazy ass candidates. A bear shits in the woods, then the GOP/TP goes out and scoops it up and runs it for office. 🙂
Where did people get the idea that Lyin’ Ryan was this brilliant guy? You have to feel sorry for Brit Hume here. He’s even giving him the answer before but this moron doesn’t even get it.
Btw, don’t walk, run over to TNR and read this epic take down of Paul Ryan by Leon Wieseltier. After reading it, even I feel bruised. Yaowzer!!!
His Grief, and Ours
Paul Ryan’s nasty ideal of self-reliance.
I could start with David Brooks, anyone, hello Charles Pierce help me!
Thanks for the link. Really good takedown.
Good God, this is what happens when I don’t read before hitting “comment”. mablue2, that is eye scratching.
I just re-read that again, it’s like ” As God is my witness” from Gone with the Wind. Please everybody here help me debunk and scream at Paul Ryan.
According to the canonical version of his life, the death of his father when Paul Ryan was 16 taught him to despise “dependency” and to extol “self-reliance.” “It was just a big punch in the gut,”
Yes. It was such a punch in the gut that he had to us his father’s social security to pay for his obviously wasted university education.
Paul Constant has a funny picture of The Full Force of the Republican DNC “Counteroffensive” here. It’s a nice one.
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/09/04/the-full-force-of-the-republican-dnc-counteroffensive
Oh, Ralph it’s really hard to get really rich people off the yacht or jet skis this time of year.
You may be on Huckabee’s list but I get mail from Romney’s campaign practically every day. How I got there is a good question.
On the subject of abortion- don’t these idiots remember back when it was illegal, the rich people would just get on a plane and go to a country where abortion was legal. It was done all the time. I imagine that if they pass all these draconian laws, the rich people won’t obey them, they will just get on a plane.