Top Republicans had not embraced Richard Mourdock, a candidate for the Senate from Indiana backed by the tea party after ousting a longtime Republican from office.

Eventually however, he started to win their support and money, but that might all end after he told a live audience on television that when a woman is raped and becomes pregnant it is something that God intended. The Senate candidate has been in an expensive and close Senate race. He was asked Tuesday night during a debate’s final minutes if he thought abortion was ok in cases of incest or rape.

He said, I struggled for quite a time with it myself, but came to understand that life is a gift from God. I think when life starts in the horrible situation of being rape that is something God had intended to take place.

This is the second time a Republican Senate candidate has found himself in a defense posture over comments made regarding rape and pregnancy. In August, Todd Akin a candidate for Missouri Senate said women’s bodies have ways of stopping pregnancy from happening in cases of what he said were legitimate rape.

Akin has made repeated apologies since he made the comments but refused to drop out of the Senate race even after leaders called for him to do so, including Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

No one is certain what effect the comments Mourdock made would have during the final week before the election in his tight race with Joe Donnelly the Democratic challenger.

However, they might be problematic as Romney attempted to distance himself from Mourdock Tuesday night, even though an ad started running on television in Indiana where the former governor of Massachusetts is shown supporting the candidate.