How Will Mourdock's Rape Comments Affect Indiana's U.S. Senate Race?

During Tuesday's final debate between candidates for Indiana's U.S. Senate seat, Republican Richard Mourdock said he does not believe in abortion in cases of rape.

"I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize life is that gift from God, And I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen," he told the audience.

Later that night, the Romney campaign told the Associated Press in an e-mail that "Govenor Romney disagrees with Richard Mourdock's comments and they do not reflect his views."

But the Tea Party activists who helped Mourdock defeat longtime U.S. Senator Richard Lugar in the Republican primary election, appear to be standing by him.

Monica Boyer, a Tea Party activist who helped lead the effort to defeat Lugar, told the Indianapolis Star newspaper she is “unapologetically pro-life and support(s) his stand on life. I believe life begins at conception no matter how the baby is conceived.”