Republican apologises for rape remark

A US Senate candidate at the center of a women's rights storm offered a partial apology for saying pregnancy from rape is something 'God intended,' but accused Democrats of twisting his comments for political gain.

Richard Mourdock, an anti-abortion US Senate candidate from Indiana, triggered an uproar with his comments and gave President Barack Obama a new opening to attack the record of his Republican challenger Mitt Romney on women's rights less than two weeks before the November 6 elections.

The Romney team quickly backed the candidate away from the remarks, but not from Mourdock himself, for whom Romney had recently taped campaign advertisements.

"We disagree on the policy regarding exceptions for rape and incest but still support him," Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said.

Romney made no mention of the controversy during a 19-minute address at a rally in Reno, Nevada. But the former Massachusetts governor has said he would be a "pro-life president" if elected, and is opposed to abortion except in the cases of rape, incest or threat to the life of the mother.

The Mourdock controversy, and Romney's refusal to stop backing him, highlights a potentially critical clash over women's rights in the last leg of a brutal campaign.

The political firestorm erupted late Tuesday during a Senate debate in Indiana.

Mourdock said he believes that life begins at conception and opposes abortion in all cases except when the mother's life is in danger.

Then he said: "I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize life is that gift from God, and I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen."

Mourdock, who defeated veteran moderate Senator Richard Lugar in a bitter Republican primary earlier this year, sought to put out the flames, holding a press conference to express regret over the way he framed his remarks.

"I abhor any kind of sexual violence. I abhor rape. And I am absolutely confident, as I stand here, that the God that I worship abhors violence, abhors sexual violence and abhors rape," Mourdock said.

He also stressed that he made his comments "from my heart."

"For those who want to kind of twist the comments and to use them for partisan political gain, I think that's what's wrong with Washington these days," the Senate candidate said.

"It is win at any cost. Let's make up issues when we can't find real ones. Let's twist, let's distort, let's deceive."

Obama's campaign has seized on the original comments and sought to link Romney to Mourdock's views.

"The president felt those comments were outrageous and demeaning to women," campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

"This is a reminder that a Republican Congress working with a Republican president Mitt Romney would (feel) that women should not be able to make choices about their own health care."

She said women needed to consider the potential for abortion rights to erode under a Romney administration.

The Democratic National Committee and other groups cobbled together a video highlighting Romney's association with Mourdock.

"We've long known Mourdock was extreme, but that didn't stop Mitt Romney from cutting an ad exclaiming, 'This fall, I'm supporting Richard Mourdock for Senate,'" the political action committee American Bridge said in a statement accompanying the video.

With the presidential candidates locked in a virtual tie, women voters in swing states could decide the election. The fresh row over abortion also distracts from Romney's focus on the sluggish US economy.

"It's amazing how many conservative Republican candidates, whom Mitt Romney supports, express such outrageous views," Pam duPre, executive director of the Democratic Party in Nevada's Washoe County, told AFP as she protested outside Romney's rally in Reno.

"It's as if violent crimes against women are OK. That's what they're saying."

Another Republican Senate candidate, Todd Akin of Missouri, sparked controversy in August when he said that a woman's body could prevent conception in cases of "legitimate rape."

Those remarks brought an avalanche of condemnation from both political parties and from Romney himself. Akin apologized, but refused Republican demands to quit the race.