Progress Illinois

Reporting on the 6th Congressional District race today, NBC 5's Mary Ann Ahern noted Democratic challenger Jill Morgenthaler's criticism of a comment made by GOP Rep. Peter Roskam at a recent editorial meeting.  Ahern reported that Roskam "would not talk about that abortion statement, refusing to clarify it or even discuss it today":

Here's Roskam's full statement at the Pioneer Press editorial meeting, via Capitol Fax:

You know, my position is the same as Henry Hyde’s. And Henry Hyde put it best when he said, when somebody is the victim of a crime, the law currently says that a rapist can’t be put to death. That’s the law. A rapist under the court doctrines can’t be put to death. He said, why is it that the baby who is the result of that criminal behavior can be put to death? He said, isn’t that a sad, sad thing. So my feeling is, look, in the case of that, that’s the hard case, right? That’s the ultimate painful and difficult case. And what we need to do is love that person and encourage them and support them. But once people are categorized by how they were conceived and the circumstances of their conception, you end up going down a route that ultimately I don’t think we want to be.