Videos React to Republican Party Platform, 'Legitimate Rape' Comments

September 7, 2012 — The following summarizes select women's health-related videos.

Responses to GOP platform : Several commentators weighed in this week on the Republican Party platform's opposition to abortion rights in all circumstances. On MSNBC, Melissa Harris-Perry discusses the platform with Irin Carmon of Salon, social commentator Nancy Giles, author Rebecca Traister and author Monica Mehta (Harris-Perry, "The Melissa Harris-Perry Show," MSNBC, 9/1). On CNN, Brooke Baldwin speaks with physician Sanja Gupta about support for a "personhood" bill by Mitt Romney running mate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and how granting rights to fertilized eggs could affect in vitro fertilization (Baldwin, CNN, 8/31).

Delegates on 'Choice': On the "Daily Show," Samantha Bee asks delegates at the Republican National Convention why Mitt Romney's position on exceptions to abortion bans differs from the GOP platform. They tell her Romney is free to make his own decision on the matter. "It is up to any human being to choose, to decide what is best themselves," one says. "Who are we to tell somebody how to act?" adds another (Bee, "Daily Show," Comedy Central, 8/29).

'Legitimate Rape' Mock Ad: A satirical pharmaceutical ad from Funny or Die touts a new contraceptive for women: "legitimate rape." According to the ad, the treatment "activates the body's natural method for preventing pregnancy," offering hope to women suffering from "Sexually Liberated Uterine Tendencies" -- a "serious medical condition" (Funny or Die, 8/29). Elsewhere, Steven Colbert compares various comments from antiabortion members of Congress on abortion in cases of rape (Colbert, "Colbert Report," Comedy Central, 8/28).