NEW JERSEY SENATE PRESIDENT STEVE SWEENEY & SENATE MAJORITY LEADER LORETTA WEINBERG

SWEENEY/WEINBERG CALL ON CHRISTIE TO DENOUCE INDIANA SENATE CANDIDATE, REVERSE ENDORSEMENT AFTER MOURDOCK CALLS PREGNANCY FROM RAPE ‘GOD’S INTENT’

 
    Senate President Steve Sweeney and Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg today called on Governor Christie to renounce his endorsement of Republican Indiana Senate Candidate Richard Mourdock after comments made during a televised debate in which he called pregnancy from rape “God’s intent.”


Last week, Christie traveled to Indiana to campaign alongside Mourdock, telling a crowd in Merrifield, IN, that the Tea Party Republican has "a principled background and courage.”
    During last night’s debate, Mourdock answered a question regarding whether a woman should have the right to choose abortion in the case of rape or incest by saying, “I think, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.”


     “Richard Mourdock’s ideas are as antiquated and cowardly as those made by Todd Akin in Missouri,” said Sweeney (D-Gloucester/Cumberland/Salem). “And just as he did with Akin, Gov. Christie needs to swiftly denounce them, and he also needs to revoke his endorsement. I’m sure the governor will give his stock answer about how he doesn’t agree with everyone in his party on everything, but these comments are so egregious that excuse will not fly.”


     The lawmakers noted that last month, when asked on ABC’s This Week about whether the national GOP should back Akin – who started a firestorm over the summer with his assertion that women who suffer a "legitimate rape" do not get pregnant – Christie replied, “No. No I don’t.” They said the governor must apply the same standard to Mourdock.


     “Richard Mourdock’s comments are an insult not only to women, but to anyone with any shred of intelligence, and compassion and empathy for victims of rape,” said Weinberg (D-Bergen). “These comments don’t belong in our public discourse, let alone anywhere in the last century. Governor Christie, the women of New Jersey are watching and waiting for your response. But given your antipathy towards women’s health and your defunding last year of a center for sexually abused children, we aren’t holding our collective breath.”


    Christie is out-of-state today, campaigning for Republicans in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.