GREGORY: Fair– fair point, Rachel, one of the things you’re seeing it was Tina Fey speaking this week in New York who– who seem to me sort of strike that cord about be– going beyond abortion, about do you trust women enough to let them make decisions about their own lives, this is how– how she talked about it?

TINA FEY: If I have to listen to one more grave-faced man with a two dollar haircut explain to me what rape is, I’m going to lose my mind.

(End videotape)

GREGORY: And frankly to be– to be fair, I mean, the Romney campaign is probably singing the same thing. I’m going to lose my mind if we had to keep talking about rape in this election, because it– its association with the Republican Party that he does want to be associated with.

MS. MADDOW: Right. But then, he picked Paul Ryan. They have the fight over forced ultrasounds, the government telling you that you need to have a medically unnecessary procedure at the order of the state regardless of what you want and regardless of what your doctor says. And then he picked a guy, who picked a forced ultrasound bill for the country, Paul Ryan was onboard with that. Paul Ryan was a cosponsor with Todd Akin with bill to redefine rape. Paul Ryan was a cosponsor with bill to have personhood federally, which would not only ban all abortion it would ban in vitro fertilization. It would ban most hormonal forms of birth control. If you wanted to avoid this fight, don’t put Paul Ryan on the ticket. There’s a reason that Paul Ryan has been in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina…