GOP Senate candidate: ‘Legitimate rape’ rarely causes pregnA

[Ralar]

Todd Akin, GOP Senate candidate: ‘Legitimate rape’ rarely causes pregnancy.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2012/08/19/todd-akin-gop-senate-candidate-legitimate-rape-rarely-causes-pregnancy/

:doh:

[E Street Fan]

It's amazing to me that somebody so mind-blowingly ignorant managed to get elected. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/19/todd-akin-abortion-legitimate-rape_n_1807381.html

Mods: I wasn't sure which discussion this topic belonged in. Please feel free to move.

[OddlyAmused]

I was about to post this. I have no words to describe my absolute disgust with this man.

[Gil]

I think the fact that his opponents spent money to make sure he was the candidate speaks volume about this man.

[QueenNocturne]

When I was in high school, a girl in one of my classes tried to argue that rape couldn't cause pregnancies because "it's so violent the egg doesn't get released" or some shit like that.

Thankfully, she grew up and no longer spouts off such nonsense. This guy, however, is obviously no longer an immature teen, so I don't know what his excuse for being stupid is.

[Peas n carrots]

Wow. These new con men really do want to punish women. However, it sounds like Sen. McCaskill has been shrewd and actually donated money to his primary campaign so she would run against him. MO is conservative, but I think that statement will make even many hard liners think twice.

[lilah]

I think my reaction can be summed up best in gifs

Seriously wow just wow.

“If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.â€

I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

ETA

On a slightly more serious note, the notion that many antichoicers have that rape victims represent a small amount of abortions, do they factor how often rapes go unreported?

[samurai_sarah]

“First of all, from what I understand from doctors, (pregnancy from rape) is really rare,†Akin told KTVI-TV in a clip posted to YouTube by the Democratic super PAC American Bridge. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.â€

The medical profession completely agrees. Well, they did up till the late 18th century or so, but who's counting right? Misinformation, slut-shaming and a lack of biological understanding all rolled into one. Frightening to hear that this man sits in the US Senate!:?

[Gil]

The medical profession completely agrees. Well, they did up till the late 18th century or so, but who's counting right? Misinformation, slut-shaming and a lack of biological understanding all rolled into one. Frightening to hear that this man sits in the US Senate!:?

Not sitting, just a candidate.

[FlorenceHamilton]

The sacriest thing about the comments is that he said that the rapist should be punished as opposed to the resluting fetus. Nowhere, NOWHERE in the equation is the pregnant from rape woman.

I am getting off the planet at this stop as well.

[samurai_sarah]

Not sitting, just a candidate.

Phew. There's some hope still. Right then, I'll stay on this planet for now...

[samithemage]

WTF is "legitimate rape." Crazy shit like this makes me wish I still lived on the Missouri side of the state line. I would love to vote against this psychopath! However, I must content myself with voting against all of the crazy Kansas politicians, which gives me plenty of crazies to vote against, though sadly most of them will end up winning. All I can really say is go Claire McCaskill.

[chaotic life]

I had a smackdown with someone on my grandmother's FB page last week over this very claim. Stupid grandmother posted the "12 week fetus" picture that's circulating with caims it's a REAL fetus on FB...except it's a clay model that the artist admits is not medically accurate and sells for $25/each for pro-life purposes.

Gran, darling commented that the real choice a woman makes is whether to have sex in the first place and thus she shouldn't be permitted to make any other choices afterward.

Um....bitch has two granddaughters and a granddaughter in law who were all raped. She also has FOUR great-grandchidren that were confirmed products of rape and placed for adoption. She of all people darn well knows better than to post that slut-shaming crap.

So, some random friend of hers pulled out the lovely pro-life article that continues to curciulate which 1. claims that most rape is NOT really rape and 2. if it were REALLY rape, then you actually wouldn't get pregnant. Thus it's really a bunch of women claiming rape after they get pregnant for sympathy over having had slut sex and not wanting to own up to the consequences.

OR.....how about it's RAPE, far more rape victims get pregnant than the pro-life movement is STILL ready to admit AND unless you have to live through the nightmare of facing an unwanted pregnancy, howza bout you NOT stand in the shoes of women who actually HAVE stood there.

I don't believe the statistics the pro-life movement claims for preganncies after rape for a minute. I know FAR too many women who got pregnant from rapes. Most of them won't even talk about it until they find out you have btdt and are SAFE to talk to. In fact, I would say that probably 1/3 of the rape victims I have known got pregnant though I only know sex who didn't choose abortion.

That's okay. This is what political movements and politicians seem totally incapabe of understanding. To the rape victim, it's not a statistic. It's having to know whether you can survive one more assualt and violation of your body and whether you WANT to face that (or sadly are so far entrenched into the pro-life movement that you aren't actually given the choice to do otherwise sadly)..

[Witsec5]

Yes. I just saw this article. Thanks for posting it. His statement--the body has ways of shutting this thing down--is so stupid it burns. I can't imagine how he got elected in the first place.

[Kira]

Phew. There's some hope still. Right then, I'll stay on this planet for now...

Akin sits in the Mo. House of Representatives. He is running for Senate. In 2011 he co-sponsored a bill to redefine rape: http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/01 ... e-abortion

[Gil]

Phew. There's some hope still. Right then, I'll stay on this planet for now...

Just kidding, it's a reelection campaign. Let the horror recommence.

[galaxygirl]

What in the actual fuck is a legitimate rape?

[Beammeup]

He issued a response saying oops, blame the dems. WHAT A DICK! http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/e ... i-misspoke

[samurai_sarah]

Akin sits in the Mo. House of Representatives. He is running for Senate. In 2011 he co-sponsored a bill to redefine rape: http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/01 ... e-abortion

Thanks for the link. I want to abandon the planet after all. :cry:

[emmiedahl]

What in the actual fuck is a legitimate rape?

I was seriously about to ask this.

What about that pregnant ten-year-old we were talking about last week?

Doesn't it take a while for the egg to make it into the fallopian tubes and so on? So you actually would ovulate a day or so before conceiving? The science behind this is... not science at all. Just another way of making women afraid to report their rapes.

[pomology]

What in the actual fuck is a legitimate rape?

Yeah... That's what I want to know. I was under the impression that rape is sex that happens without one of the partner's consent. So, legitimate rape is when that happens and illegitimate rape is...not a thing.

[mirele]

Yeah... That's what I want to know. I was under the impression that rape is sex that happens without one of the partner's consent. So, legitimate rape is when that happens and illegitimate rape is...not a thing.

So I guess anal rape and forcible oral sex are not rape?

NB. In the law in many states, rape was recodified to various form of "sexual assault." Because some lawmakers recognized that not just forcible, non-consenting penis in vagina sex was rape.

[gardenvarietycitizen]

This is of course why so many court cases try to dredge up any "compromising" history of the victim to show that she "really wanted it" and so therefore wasn't really fighting and so it wasn't really rape. Nothing new there.

We already have the "if you don't physically fight back to the point of injury it wasn't really rape" (so yeah, "allowing" rape hoping it means you keep your life at least is "not really resisting" now) and "if you knew the guy and perhaps ever dated him in the past it wasn't really rape" and endless variations on that theme.

What shocks me about this is we can add another, "if you get pregnant as a result that proves you weren't really resisting and so it wasn't really rape" - there are no words for the level of disgust I have.

[Peas n carrots]

Methinks this guy would love to decriminalize rape. I feel that someways Rome is a few years away from burning down. This is what the end of an empire feels like.

[pomology]

So I guess anal rape and forcible oral sex are not rape?

NB. In the law in many states, rape was recodified to various form of "sexual assault." Because some lawmakers recognized that not just forcible, non-consenting penis in vagina sex was rape.

Is that a response to me? If so, I'm confused.