US Congressman: Rape Victims’ Bodies ‘Shut Down’ Pregnancies

[Dark Silver]

Normally I wouldn't repost this from a source...but..hell..there's video to prove what was said. I just can't find it on any other news site at the moment

So...
via NewCivilRightsMovement.com

Todd Akin, a Tea Party Republican six-term U.S. Congressman who is now running for the U.S. Senate from the state of Missouri, says that women’s bodies know if they are “legitimate rape” victims and automatically can just “shut down” a resulting unwanted pregnancy — so there’s no need to even discuss abortion in cases of rape.

Asked about abortion in cases of rape, Rep. Akin responded, “From what I understand from doctors… if it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

Congressman Akin was appearing on a local St. Louis Fox station talk show (second video, about four minutes in.)

Akin, 65, clearly is opposed to a women’s right to choose, is running against Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill.

So, let’s be clear here. If Congressman Akin becomes Senator Akin, he will be voting on Supreme Court nominees — not to mention many nominations of federal judges. No doubt at some point he would be voting on ENDA, and the repeal of DOMA.

If you know anyone in Missouri, send to to them.

[youtube][/youtube]

Talking Points Memo adds:

Akin is perhaps the boldest among a crop of conservative 2012 nominees who could hamperGOP efforts to take back the Senate in the fall. Akin has called for an end to the school-lunch program and a total ban on the morning-after pill.

His claim about “legitimate” types of rape is not completely foreign to the current Republican Congress, however. In 2011, the House GOP was forced to drop language from a bill that would have limited federal help to pay for an abortion to only victims of “forcible rape.”

Nor is this Akin’s first time suggesting some types of rape are more worthy of protections than others. As a state legislator, Akin voted in 1991 for an anti-marital-rape law, but only after questioning whether it might be misused “in a real messy divorce as a tool and a legal weapon to beat up on the husband,” according to a May 1 article that year in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

So yeah...he really did say it...

Wow...

I think my brain just broke...

[Dark Silver]

oh hey....TalkingPointsMemo has it too....

EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO AUGUST 19, 2012, 2:06 PM 138713
This post has been updated.

Rep. Todd Akin, the Republican nominee for Senate in Missouri who is running against Sen. Claire McCaskill, justified his opposition to abortion rights even in case of rape with a claim that victims of “legitimate rape” have unnamed biological defenses that prevent pregnancy.

“First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare,” Akin told KTVI-TV in an interview posted Sunday. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

Akin said that even in the worst-case scenario — when the supposed natural protections against unwanted pregnancy fail — abortion should still not be a legal option for the rape victim.

“Let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work, or something,” Akin said. “I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child.”

Video, clipped by the Democratic tracking outfit American Bridge (the full interview is below):

[youtube][/youtube]

A 1996 study by the American Journal of Obstetricians and Gynecologists found “rape-related pregnancy occurs with significant frequency” and is “a cause of many unwanted pregnancies” — an estimated “32,101 pregnancies result from rape each year.”

In a tweet, McCaskill said she was “stunned” by Akin’s comments.

Akin is perhaps the boldest among a crop of conservative 2012 nominees who could hamper GOP efforts to take back the Senate in the fall. Akin has called for an end to the school-lunch program and a total ban on the morning-after pill.

His claim about “legitimate” types of rape is not completely foreign to the current Republican Congress, however. In 2011, the House GOP was forced to drop language from a bill that would have limited federal help to pay for an abortion to only victims of “forcible rape.” Akin was a co-sponsor on the bill.

Nor is this Akin’s first time suggesting some types of rape are more worthy of protections than others. As a state legislator, Akin voted in 1991 for an anti-marital-rape law, but only after questioning whether it might be misused “in a real messy divorce as a tool and a legal weapon to beat up on the husband,” according to a May 1 article that year in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The PollTracker Average shows Akin leading McCaskill by a margin of 49.7 percent to 41.3 percent.

[frigidmagi]

You got to be joking. What hack doctor told him that bullshit? It wasn't one that came out of a medical school.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Indeed, because the exact opposite is true. A woman is more likely to get pregnant from rape as opposed to unprotected consensual sex. Rape triggers ovulation, for evolutionary reasons that are a bit fucked up when discussed without the clinical detachment we can have when discussing birds.

[SirNitram]

...Thank you, Alyrium, for triggering my brain working it out without the necessary layers of detachment.

But yea, right down to the old 'Legitimate Rape' crap.

[Josh]

Talk about a walking argument for fucking abortion.

Or stoning.

[General Havoc]

Congratulations on your re-election victory, Senator McCaskill.

[frigidmagi]

Credit where credit is due. The GOP senior leadership has denounced Akin, with the tea party candidate from Texas (whose name I can never remember), Romney and Scott Brown calling on him to leave the race. Romney and Brown in specific have taken Akin to the whipping post calling his comments indefensible and inexcusable. Given both men have daughters, I'm comfortable assuming personal reasons for doing so on top of any political ones. Recently a member of the national organization revealed that the GOP will not be spending any money on an Akin's campaign. Which is a multi-million dollar lost for this man.

If he drops out by tomorrow the GOP can replace him, but this late in the season... Well, I think Havoc has called this one.

[Josh]

Oh cool. So I'll start boiling the tar, somebody else get the feathers.

[LadyTevar]

Fuck feathers. Get me flax, chains, and a torch. We'll make an Or-ang-au-tang out of him, POE-style. Throwing him under the bus isn't going to help the GOP escape this one.

And on MSNBC's "Ed Show", Terri O'Neil, a commentator, just asked for the names of the "doctors" who told Akin that, so she could have "A Talk" with them about women's bodies and what Rape does.

The attempts to re-define Rape v/s Forceful Rape needs to have the lack of difference demonstrated on their own bodies. As Obama stated bluntly: "Rape is RAPE". Date-Rape, marital/domestic violence rape, rape by strangers, it doesn't matter. If the woman said NO, it's RAPE. There's no fuckin' reason to deny Abortions or Abortion Pills to a Rape Victim.

And I bet if it was THEIR CHILD they'd not be asking if it was Legit or not.

[Derek Thunder]

Looks like he's staying in. Despite the lingering influence of the Tea Party I think we can call this one for McCaskill. At least I hope voters are decent enough to make that call.

I mean, normally I tend to think of these issues as culture-war distractions but this is so beyond the pale it makes my stomach turn.

[frigidmagi]

Some guys got more balls then brains.

[General Havoc]

McCaskill was expected to pound this guy anyway. This should make her feel a lot more secure.

EDIT: Apparently I was entirely wrong about this. McCaskill was supposed to lose to this guy. We'll see what happens now.

[frigidmagi]

National committee of the GOP just comfirmed. That cool 5 mill they had for his campaign? They ain't spending it on him, they're going elsewhere. Akin's is standing alone in this race, as even most tea party officials aren't touching him.

[Derek Thunder]

Now, now, he was simply using the term "legitimate rape" to differentiate actual rape-rape from "false rape." Seems fair enough, the rising tide of false rape accusations is one of the greatest threats to this country - Women hurling themselves with reckless abandon into the inefficient, uncaring justice system to have their entire sexual history examined with an electron microprobe just so they can ruin some innocent guy's life in the name of the "womyn's menstruarchy."

[Dark Silver]

MSNBC has a decent blog on this

By Steve Benen - Wed Aug 22, 2012 8:00 AM EDT

Todd Akin, for now the Republicans' U.S. Senate candidate in Missouri, came up with a new tack last night, arguing that the "liberal media is trying to make me drop out" of the race. He apparently wasn't kidding.

Putting aside the fact that the left doesn't want him to quit, what's especially amusing about Akin's sense of victimization is that he seems to think the "liberal media" includes the Republican Party, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, and Sean Hannity. Even among Akin backers, this one's going to be a tough sell.

The larger issue now, however, is appreciating the scope of the damage Akin is causing. All of a sudden, women's health, reproductive rights, and the Republican "war on women" are at the center of the political world's focus, and people are starting to notice that Akin's right-wing views on abortion are "largely indistinguishable" from most of his GOP colleagues.

That agenda -- largely eclipsed for two years by a protracted fiscal crisis and the fight over how to manage the federal deficit -- has wedged its way, for now at least, to the center of the 2012 campaign. It is focusing attention on an issue that helped earn Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, a reputation as a flip-flopper, threatening the Republican quest for control of the Senate, and leaving Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, Mr. Romney's vice-presidential pick, in the uncomfortable position of distinguishing himself from Mr. Akin, with whom he has often concurred.

It is an agenda that has enjoyed the support of House leaders, including Speaker John A. Boehner and Representative Eric Cantor, the majority leader, who has called anti-abortion measures "obviously very important in terms of the priorities we set out initially in our pledge to America." It became inextricably linked to the near-shutdown of the federal government last year when an agreement to keep the government open was reached only after it was linked to a measure restricting abortion in the District of Columbia.

As Rachel explained last night, even the Republican Party platform, generally overlooked and ignored, is suddenly quite relevant given that its provisions on reproductive rights are in sync with Akin's far-right views -- most notably on rape victims impregnated by their attacker.

Indeed, Akin talked to NBC's "Today" show this morning, noting that Paul Ryan personally urged him to withdraw, which only serves as a reminder that Ryan and Akin co-sponsored legislation to redefine "rape" for the purposes of abortion and a federal "Personhood" measure that would ban abortion, some contraceptives, and in-vitro fertilization.

Akin has changed the trajectory of the 2012 race, and to put it mildly, this isn't what the party had in mind.

[frigidmagi]

If they're right, which isn't a given... Well it couldn't hurt the people we're rooting for. That said, I think jobs is gonna hold the limelight. The damn thing of it is, Romney and the Republicians have given me no reason to believe they would be any better at generating jobs and more reasons to believe they would do things that would hurt the nation and me personally.

[rhoenix]

This is a bit of trolling of Candidate Akin, but it made me laugh.

[frigidmagi]

And rasmussen reports that Senator McCaskil is now 10 points ahead. Given that Akin is now low on funds, abandoned by the national party and spiraling... Well, the GOP is likely cursing as the Senate slowly slips away.