Victoria Jackson, a former cast member on ‘Saturday Night Live’ and conservative activist, has responded to the claims made by Representative Todd Akin about rape and abortion. Jackson said that if she were ever raped she would give birth to the baby. She said the baby ‘would be a blessing’ and that the baby ‘has its own DNA.’ Jackson also said that the baby would not have the DNA of the father.
While at the Republican National Convention last week, Jackson said during an interview with Michelangelo Signorile of the Huffington Post, “The Todd Akin thing was so blown out of proportion — it’s a joke. How many times do people get pregnant from rape? It’s point zero zero one percent. It’s a joke. I read lots of articles. I know people, because I’m 53. I’ve know a lot of people, and I’ve actually never known anyone who got pregnant from being raped.”
Jackson also said, “And guess what? If I got raped, I would have the baby. And if I didn’t want to keep it because I had these [mocking tone] horrible nightmares, I would adopt it out. But I think that God can turn a bad thing into a good thing. And that, if I got raped and a beautiful baby who was innocent was born out of it, that would be a blessing. The DNA of a baby is individual. It’s not the mother’s DNA. It’s not the father’s DNA. And that’s why I believe abortion is murder, because it’s not the woman’s body. It has it’s own DNA. If there’s a boy baby inside of me, he has a penis. That’s not my body.”
She also discussed her thoughts on Dan Steadman’s blog post in Gay Voices of the Huffington Post. Steadman wrote that he ended his friendships with Jackson and Kirk Cameron because of their stances on homosexuality.
“I didn’t see [the post] but I love my gay friends,” she said. “My best friends who are gay, I’ve actually never seen them with a boyfriend. It’s like — we’ve never talked about sex. I don’t think people should identify themselves by their sexual life. My identity is in Christ. Some people’s identity is in what country they come from. But I don’t think people should make their identity about their sex life. That should be private. Why are they in the middle of the street in a parade? Why don’t they just have sex in their bedroom alone?”