Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock said Wednesday that his controversial comments regarding conception following rape are being taken out of context. At a Tuesday night debate versus Democratic opponent Joe Donnelly, he said that when women become pregnant after being raped, “that’s something God intended.”

The Indiana state treasurer said Tuesday in response to a question about abortion rights: "I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize that life is that gift from God and I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape that it is something God intended to happen."

Mourdock, a favorite of Tea Party supporters, said Wednesday that his comments were inelegantly stated, and subsequently mischaracterized by Democrats.

"I am a much more humble person this morning. Because so many people mistook, twisted, came to misunderstand the points that I was trying to make," he said at a press conference in Indiana. "And if, because of the lack of clarity in my words, that they came away with the impression other than I stated a moment ago -- that life is precious, that I abhor violence and that I'm confident God abhors violence and rape -- if they came away with any impression other than that, I truly regret it."

Mourdock's comments not only threaten to make a competitive Senate race more challenging for the GOP, but also, by proxy, exacerbate Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's struggles with female voters.

Romney appeared in a television ad on Monday that endorsed Mourdock, the only such ad the GOP standard-bearer has cut for a Senate candidate this cycle. The Romney campaign released a statement on Tuesday evening taking exception to the Indiana Senate candidate's comments, and Mourdock said on Wednesday that he hadn't spoken to Romney or any other Republican who had urged him to apologize.

Romney's campaign issued a statement on Wednesday reiterating its support for Mourdock, while emphasizing its differences from Mourdock on allowing abortion in cases of rape and when the mother’s health is in danger.

Democrats have tried to make hay of the controversy, releasing a flurry of statements demanding that Romney more forcefully disavow Mourdock and take down the television ad. (Mourdock said Wednesday that the ads continued to run in Indiana.)

"For those who kind of want to twist the comments, and use them for partisan, political gain -- I think that's wrong with Washington these days," Mourdock said of the response his comments had provoked. "I'm confident that Hoosier voters are going to be moving on and supporting us in big numbers in 13 days."

The controversy threatened to remind voters of other Republicans' comments this election about rape, most notably Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin's comments earlier this summer asserting that "legitimate rape" rarely results in pregnancy. Republicans more sharply distanced themselves from Akin, a congressman, and urged him to drop out of the race.

Akin never withdrew, though, a move which is widely regarded to have hurt the GOP's chances of beating Democratic incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill in Missouri and, by extension, retake the U.S. Senate. Republicans must pick up a bet of four seats on Nov. 6 -- three, if Romney is elected president -- in order to wrest control of the upper chamber from Democrats. The GOP entered the 2012 elections with hopes of achieving that goal, but candidates' missteps and better-than-expected performances by some Democrats have made control of the Senate an open question in this election.

Whether this hurts Mourdock's race versus Donnelly -- or is able to translate into a political millstone for Romney -- is an open question in the waning days before Election Day. Mourdock took strides toward reassuring important women voters of his stance.

"I don't think God wants rape, because rape is evil," he said. "I want to assure every woman who hears this, who hears the story of this, that I abhor it, and I'm confident God abhors this."

INDIANAPOLIS, IN -- After Thursday night's vice presidential debate, former President Bill Clinton said he now sympathizes with Paul Ryan, the man he said had the "brass" to criticize President Barack Obama's Medicare savings in health care reform.

Stumping here for the Indiana Democratic party on Friday, Clinton said Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan "let the cat out of the bag" when he squared off against Joe Biden in Kentucky last night.

"You know, I kind of sympathize with Congressman Ryan, he has to defend now Gov. Romney's position that the $716 billion in Medicare savings in the president's budget -- that the congressman voted for -- is somehow a ripoff even though it was in his budget too."

Fact checkers have debunked GOP claims that Obama cut $716 billion from Medicare, and on the stump Clinton has vigorously attempted to defend Democrats record on the hot button issue, most notable at the Democratic National Convention, when he satirically quipped that Ryan had "brass" for critiquing cuts so similar to ones proposed in the budget he authored.

Romney campaign spokesperson Amanda Henneberg countered that "[Obama] has done nothing to reform Medicare for the long haul and prevent it from going bankrupt. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have a plan that protects Medicare for current seniors and preserves and strengthens it for future retirees."

Related: Biden plays aggressor in debate as Ryan argues GOP case

But it was more than just Ryan's stance on Medicare that stood to Clinton during last night's debate.  He used his stop in Indiana, where the auto industry plays an important role, to take a jab at Ryan's answer to a debate question about Romney's opposition to the auto bailout.

"When Mr. Ryan said last night that Gov. Romney was a car guy, I thought 'Well if having an elevator to stack them counts, I guess he was,' Clinton said. "Let me tell you something about this car thing, it was not a bailout, it was a restructuring that we as taxpayers participated in because the banks were unwilling to save the automobile companies."

The high profile Democratic surrogate was here for the "Hoosier Common Sense" rally for Indiana Democratic senate candidate Joe Donnelly and gubernatorial candidate John Gregg. Both races have garnered plenty of national attention and give the Hoosier State a rare chance to elect both a Democratic senator and governor in the same year.

Clinton, who stressed the need for bipartisanship in Washington, sought to paint Donnelly's opponent, Republican Richard Mourdock, as an extremist unwilling to work across the aisle.  It's a position Mourdock himself has seemed to at times endorse, like in May when he told NBC's Chuck Todd that "bipartisanship ought to consist of Democrats coming to the Republican point of view." The Republican senate candidate unseated 36-year incumbent Sen. Richard Lugar in a primary where one of his main attack lines dealt was Lugar's history of bipartisanship.

Related: Ryan wades deep into lengthy Afghanistan argument

"I was raised to believe that nobody's right all the time. Now, maybe Mr. Mourdock is, I don't know. He's way right all the time, I know that," Clinton said to loud applause at North Central High School.

Clinton painted Rep. Mike Pence, campaigning against Gregg for governor, as an equally partisan politician largely void of a record of accomplishment. "It would be like a cold shower for Congressman Pence if he were to become governor, because in the statehouse, you don't have an option of arithmetic rules. And you can't not pass bills. you can't get re-elected like you can to Congress, apparently you can get re-elected for a dozen years and never pass a bill," said Clinton.

Also joining Clinton on stage in the Hoosier State was was former Sen. Even Bayh. Clinton told the crowd that all four men were more fiscally conservative than both Romney and Ryan "because, as I said in Charlotte, we believe in arithmetic."

The former president has had a packed schedule campaigning both for Obama and Democratic congressional candidates around the country. From Indiana, Clinton headed to Iowa to help raise funds for Democrats in the Hawkeye State.

"I didn't expect to be quite so involved in this campaign. I have now a daughter who's working for  television network and a wife who's got one of only two jobs in the government, the other being secretary of defense, that are prohibited from participating in electoral politics, so you're stuck with me," Clinton said.

Updated 8:50 p.m. — Mitt Romney added to his delegate count on Tuesday by sweeping the first set of primaries since his main Republican rivals have both ended their campaigns.

The presumptive Republican nominee won the primaries in Indiana, West Virginia and North Carolina, according to Associated Press projections. Between those three states, a total of 107 delegates were at stake in Tuesday's primaries.

Follow full primary results here

Romney entered the contests having won 856 of the 1,144 delegates needed to formally secure the nomination. North Carolina awards 52 delegates, allocated proportionally by statewide vote, while Indiana awards three delegates to winner of its nine congressional districts. West Virginia's delegates are all elected directly on the ballot.

These contests were the first since former House Speaker Newt Gingrich dropped his bid for the Republican nomination, and the first since former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum's late-night endorsement of Romney on Monday.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul has continued with his campaign, which has involved an additional strategy of picking off delegates in states that delay formal allocation of delegates to candidates.

Mitt Romney will stay neutral in the Indiana Senate primary, one of the biggest battles in 2012 between establishment Republicans and the insurgent, conservative wing of the GOP.

A Romney campaign official said Friday that the former Massachusetts governor has no plans to endorse either six-term Sen. Richard Lugar, or his challenger, state Treasurer Richard Mourdock, in the May 8 primary.

MSNBC.com's Tom Curry writes Friday of the upcoming showdown:

As Lugar struggles to fend off Mourdock’s challenge, Democrats hope their candidate, Rep. Joe Donnelly, will profit from the GOP schism and pick up the incumbent’s seat in November.

That schism, between the party's establishment and conservative wing, is on full display in Indiana. Tea Party groups like FreedomWorks have backed Mourdock, as did the fiscally conservative Club for Growth.

But Republicans like Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels have endorsed Lugar, setting up a proxy fight between the two wings of the GOP in a couple of weeks.

Romney has generally steered clear of involvement in Senate primaries this cycle as he had focused on winning his own presidential primary. However, he backed Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch -- another veteran Republican targeted by the GOP's Tea Party wing -- against conservative challengers in this primary season.

Democrats have also complained about the neutrality of Indiana Rep. Mike Pence, a recognized conservative who's seeking the Hoosier State's governorship, in the primary.