And now: Air Republicans

By Gail Collins

Saturday, Jan. 31, 2015 | 2 a.m.

Last week was tough for the House Republicans. Speaker John Boehner’s high point must have been not clapping when President Barack Obama talked about job growth in the State of the Union.

After that, things went downhill fast. Anti-abortion groups converged on Washington on Thursday to protest the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision. The plan was for the House to welcome them into town by passing a bill banning abortions after 20 weeks. Didn’t work out.

The signs had been bad for the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. In committee, its sponsor, Trent Franks, R-Ariz., claimed that the number of rapes resulting in pregnancy was “very low.” He did not actually say a woman can’t get pregnant if she didn’t enjoy the sex, but it seemed for a minute as if we’d returned to that neighborhood.

Whoops. The bill was amended to provide an exemption for women who had been raped. But that sparked a new fight over whether the exemption should be for all victims of rape or just the ones who had reported the crime to the police. A group of Republican women, including Rep. Renee Ellmers of North Carolina, pointed out, correctly, that most victims don’t file such reports.

You may remember that Ellmers was challenged last fall by former “American Idol” runner-up Clay Aiken, whom she defeated handily. Now Aiken, who turns out to have been filming his campaign, is moving forward to become the star of a TV reality series on elections. And probably having more fun than Ellmers.

“I’m sorry Clay Aiken lost,” the conservative blogger Erick Erickson tweeted when Republican leaders gave up and pulled the 20-week bill from the calendar. A contributor on the Red State blog followed up with the somewhat less playful: “Is Renee Ellmers Worthy of Life?”

Actually, it turns out Ellmers is a co-sponsor of the Sanctity of Human Life Act, which holds that every fertilized egg has “all legal and constitutional attributes and privileges.” Her concerns about the language of the rape exemption seem to have been a mixture of legal, philosophical and political concerns, all of them nuanced in the extreme. She suggested to National Journal that her party shouldn’t be starting off the year with an issue that wasn’t of interest to millennials.

Rape exemptions have come to dominate the abortion debate. Abortion rights groups use lack of concern for rape victims as an illustration of the heartlessness of their opponents. Their opponents propose exemptions to show they’re reasonable. But, really, it makes no sense either way. The question of when a fetus inside a woman’s body becomes a human being is theological. If you truly believe human life begins the moment a sperm fertilizes an egg, you can’t admit any exceptions. The only real debate is whether you get to impose your religious beliefs on the entire country.

Not that anybody’s trying to be that rational.

“I’m going to need your help to find a way out of this definitional problem with rape,” Sen. Lindsey Graham told the anti-abortion marchers.

This was four days after Graham announced that he was considering a run for the Republican presidential nomination. It’s very possible that the phrase “this definitional problem with rape” will last longer than his candidacy.

In his speech, Graham gave a shout-out to exemptions for rape and incest.

“Some disagree, including the pope,” he noted to the marchers.

Francis I has, indeed, been clear and consistent on this matter, despite the moment on a flight back from Manila when he expressed concern about people breeding “like rabbits.” One theologian told CBS News that people should understand that there was a difference between the pope-on-a-plane and the pope-on-the-ground, the latter’s comments being more official.

Perhaps we could all use this distinction in our daily lives. When your spouse quotes something you wish you’d never said, just explain that was an “in-the-air” remark.

Anyhow, about the House and abortion.

The moderate Republican women scored a big win — at least until a backlash from the right had their aides shooing away reporters. But other party members said they, too, were sick of fooling around with the Tea Party’s agenda.

“Week 1, we had the vote for the speaker. Week 2, we debated deporting children. Week 3, we’re debating rape and incest. I just can’t wait for Week 4,” Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania complained to Jeremy Peters of The Times.

Humiliated by the collapse of the 20-week bill, House leaders quickly substituted one banning federal funding for abortion, which already is banned.

“This was such a high priority that they didn’t think about it until late last night,” Rep. Daniel Kilddee, D-Mich., sniped during the rather lethargic debate.

The bill passed easily. No matter. It was all just in the air.

Gail Collins is a columnist for The New York Times.