August 22, 2012 12:11 AM UTC

They're All Todd Akins Now

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: FOX 31’s Eli Stokols:

[T]the GOP officially opposes abortion in all cases including rapes, incest and protecting the life of the mother.

After Akin’s controversial remarks, Romney said that he personally does support exceptions in those cases; now, he’ll have to work harder to let voters know that the official GOP platform is not a carbon copy of his own personal views – a difficult political tightrope of appealing to moderate voters while satisfying the many social conservatives among the Republican base.

Akin Tuesday also refused to bow to roughly his entire Party and declared his intention to stay in the race, which will keep his candidacy – and controversial comments – in the news during the run-up to a convention that the GOP wants to be about Romney and Ryan.

—–

CBS News:

As Republicans across the country call on fellow Republican Todd Akin to withdraw from the Missouri Senate race over controversial comments he made on rape and abortion, the Republican Party on Tuesday quietly approved a platform that calls for a constitutional amendment banning abortion, and which does not provide exceptions for victims of rape or incest, or to save the life of the mother… [Pols emphasis]

The party platform states that “the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed.”

“We support a human life amendment to the Constitution, and we endorse legislation to make clear that the 14th Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children. We oppose using public revenues to promote or perform abortion and will not fund organizations which advocate it,” says the platform. “At its core abortion is a fundamental assault on the sanctity of innocent human life. Women deserve better than abortion.”

…Romney has said he would not oppose abortion in instances of rape, and has rebuked Akin for his Sunday remarks, in which the Missouri Senate hopeful suggested pregnancies rarely result from “legitimate rape.” His position, however, puts him at odds with the official GOP party platform.

It’s worth noting that the Republican Party campaign plank calling for a “National Life Amendment,” considered analogous to the “Personhood” abortion ban amendment we’ve seen in Colorado several elections now, isn’t new: a similar campaign plank was approved for the 2004 and 2008 GOP platforms. But approval of this platform plank comes at the worst possible time for Mitt Romney’s campaign and the GOP brand generally.

Between the delicate fending off of questions about vice-presidential presumptive nominee Paul Ryan’s stridently anti-abortion record, and the enormous controversy that’s erupted over Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin’s comments about “legitimate rape,” by officially enshrining these views on abortion into the party’s platform at the same time they try to push Akin out, we really couldn’t imagine a more confused message being given to voters today.

The timing of this so bad that it almost seems intentional. Are they trying to gum the issue to death in August? Or is this really the wholesale breakdown of the GOP’s message it looks like?