CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Well, the Republican National Convention adopted an official stand that could jail American women, girls and doctors who halt pregnancies. It also would force rape victims to bear their rapists' babies.

Good grief, what a narrow-minded assault on women's rights. The "human life" plank in the party platform was reaffirmed Tuesday to please the GOP's fundamentalist and Tea Party extremes. It says each fetus has "a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be abridged" -- which would criminalize all terminations, even those by rape and incest victims.

This action at the Tampa convention puts the GOP in an awkward bind. The entire party embraced the position of Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo. -- even though most Republican leaders urged Akin to quit a Senate race because of his beliefs about women's rights.

How can national Republicans denounce Akin, then adopt his views?

The only difference is that Akin tossed in an extra crackpot belief, claiming that rape victims can't get pregnant because their bodies reject an attacker's sperm. Except for that, he and the party are in lockstep. Both would criminalize abortion, which would require prison sentences for women, girls and doctors who end pregnancies.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch warned that Missouri Republicans have shifted to "the brink of extremism" in their outlandish far-right views. Incoming House Speaker Tim Jones in the state legislature helped file a lawsuit claiming that President Obama's Hawaii birth certificate was faked a half-century ago. The paper said the GOP nominee for state attorney general, Ed Martin, will "say anything to win and is running a campaign of pure hatred and dishonesty."

Many moderate Republicans have retired from office, rather than face fanaticism of the GOP fundamentalist-Tea Party fringe.

"The Republican Party has moved so far to the right that the extreme is now the mainstream," The New York Times commented. "The mean-spirited and intolerant platform represents the face of Republican politics in 2012."