"Rape is terrible. Rape is awful," but rape victims' rights come secondary to those of an unborn child, GOP presidential hopeful Sen. Sam Brownback said on Saturday.

Survey: Abortion For Rape Victims?

Campaigning before the National Catholic Men's Conference, Brownback questioned whether rape victims should get abortions.

"Is (rape) made any better by killing an innocent child? Does it solve the problem for the woman that's been raped?" the Kansas Republican asked at the St. Joseph's Covenant Keepers gathering.

"We need to protect innocent life. Period," Brownback said, bringing the crowd of about 500 to its feet.

Brownback also talked about keeping marriage between a man and a woman, saying nations that have allowed same-sex marriages were engaging in bad social experiments, with bad results.

He also encouraged married couples to stay together, saying unspecified studies have shown that if couples weather hard times for five years, their marriages tend to last. After five years, "people are happier than those who have had a divorce," Brownback said.

Brownback was the only presidential hopeful invited to speak, said Steve Wood, president of Family Life Center International. Organizers said that the event was about families, not politics, and that Brownback -- a Roman Catholic -- was there to talk about bringing his faith into public life. However, they criticized politicians who say they oppose abortion personally but don't seek to outlaw the procedure.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is also Catholic, is the lone Republican candidate for the presidency to support abortion rights.