West Virginia’s Republican, anti-choice, and conspiracy theorist Senator Robert Karnes has said an awful lot of ridiculous things on Twitter, but his comments during a debate on an abortion bill on July 31 were outright dangerous.
There were arguments on both sides of the controversial bill, but Karnes’ comments were particularly repugnant. Karnes used his time to suggest that children who’ve been raped “romanticize” their sexual abusers. His thinking, apparently, is that a minor victim of sexual abuse believes they’re in a “relationship” with their rapist and even see them as a “boyfriend.”
“You know the dynamic in these relationships quite often is that the child has a very romanticized view of what’s happening. … They think that this is their boyfriend,” Karnes said.
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