Gwen Moore, Congresswoman And Rape Survivor, Reacts To Richard Mourdock's Abortion Remarks

During an appearance on MSNBC on Thursday, Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wisc.) reacted to Indiana GOP Senate candidate Richard Mourdock's suggestion that pregnancy resulting from rape is "something God intended."

"I have to say of experience that many women and many rape victims and rape survivors have, that there is a visceral reaction," Moore said on Thursday of Mourdock's remarks on the issue of abortion. "I can tell you, after his comments I had to take a lot of deep breaths, to collect myself. A lot of people have sleep problems. Rape survivors, men and women, find that they have a higher degree of alcohol and drug abuse, thoughts of suicide, rape is very serious."

The congresswoman continued, "Most rape victims are women. I think that men really don't realize that all of these comments really minimize the impact of rape on women." She added on the notion "the zygote, the egg and sperm meeting, that's more important than women's lives and women's health, you know, these comments really circle back to a belief that somehow women just want to use the excuse of rape as a giant loophole, so that they can obtain abortions on demand, and it minimizes the tragedy that rape is in women's lives, and the tragedy that it would be to force women into motherhood based on these men's and the government's belief system that women ought to give birth even in the cases of rape and incest."

Moore, a rape survivor, recounted her own past experience of sexual assault in a House floor speech earlier this year.

Mourdock sought to do damage control after igniting controversy with his remarks on abortion, but that hasn't stopped the Republican candidate from facing backlash on both sides of the aisle.