Senate hopeful Kathy Barnette, born from rape, 'grateful' for serious national abortion discussion

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GOP Senate candidate: Something 'fundamentally wrong' with how America is being governed

Republican Senate primary candidate Kathy Barnette, R-Pa., says abortion is the most important discussion in America after revealing she was conceived by rape when her mother was 11 years old.

Pennsylvania Republican Senate primary candidate Kathy Barnette spoke out Monday about her experience as the "byproduct of a rape," and why she is running for the U.S. Senate. 

Barnette, a conservative author and retired military reservist, criticized the leak while adding she is heartened to see a serious national debate on abortion and life.

She disclosed during a recent debate she is the "byproduct of a rape" – discussing how her then-11-year-old mother was impregnated by a 21-year-old man. 

"Regarding the leak, whether it was truly that -- just a leak -- or whether it was some kind of tactical operation, we will figure that out sooner rather than later," said Barnette, who would be the first Black female Republican in the Senate.

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Kathy Barnette (Twitter)

"I am so grateful that our nation is at a point where we're having this discussion: I don't think there's any discussion more important than how we, as a nation, view life," she said.

Barnette told "America's Newsroom" that if the story about how she was born "saves one life" from being aborted, it was worth the sensitive disclosure.

"My life was valuable then. I was a person then. I took no part in how I was conceived. And yet there I was."

Kathy Barnette, Mehmet Oz, moderator Greta Van Susteren, Carla Sands, David McCormick, Jeff Bartos. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)  (AP )

She also said President Biden hasn't been clear enough in condemning "violence" related to the leak, as a Wisconsin pro-life organization was targeted with Molotov cocktails and justices' homes were converged upon by angry demonstrators.

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Barnette, whose campaign budget has been dwarfed by GOP front-runners Dr. Mehmet Oz and David McCormick, rose to a statistical tie with the two men in Sunday's Trafalgar poll.

The poll, with a 2.99% margin-of-error, showed surgeon and television host Oz leading with 24.5%, followed by Barnette at 23.2%, and businessman McCormick neck-and-neck with 21.6%.