Todd Akin is even battier than I thought

[Minerva]

Alternet recaps some of Todd Akin's more out-there beliefs as unearthed by Slate's Amanda Marcotte:

http://www.alternet.org/more-insanity-t ... y-pregnant

My favourite (and evidently the author's):

3- This is quite the kicker. Abortion facilities, in Akin's mind, perform abortions on women who aren't even pregnant (huh?) and also cheat on their taxes -- both of which, he notes, are part of a "culture of death."

Cheating on your taxes makes you part of The Culture of Death now. :roll:

Edited for clarity.

[ElphabaGalinda]

He IS crazy. Crazier than I thought, and I thought pretty crazy. How does anyone think it's possible to perform abortions on women who aren't pregnant? And apparently abortion and cheating on your taxes are the same thing in Akin's mind...or something.

[jesssnerch]

Step One: Stem cell research

Step Two: ???????

Step Three: Harvest organs from human clones

Step Four: Profit

[doggie]

He IS crazy. Crazier than I thought, and I thought pretty crazy. How does anyone think it's possible to perform abortions on women who aren't pregnant? And apparently abortion and cheating on your taxes are the same thing in Akin's mind...or something.

I think that is the part they do to do tax fraud. ether they do un needed abortions telling the woman she is pregnant when she is not or saying they did when they did not get get money. I think that's what he is talking about but with this squirrel bait who knows?

[ILoveJellybeans]

How do you do an abortion on someone who isnt pregnant, when an abortion makes someone who is pregnant, stop being pregnant.

Unless theyre giving eggs and sperm the rights of humans too, and it counts as an abortion to use contraception, masturbate or have a period.

[Minerva]

How do you do an abortion on someone who isnt pregnant, when an abortion makes someone who is pregnant, stop being pregnant.

Unless theyre giving eggs and sperm the rights of humans too, and it counts as an abortion to use contraception, masturbate or have a period.

He might just mean that they suction people's uteri without extracting anything other than what would have come out during their period. Of course, it's horseshit that clinics do this to patients who think they're pregnant, but the man's delusional. There was a case in Canada, before abortion was legalized or decriminalized (I can't remember which - both happened), when a female cop posed as a woman seeking an abortion in order to entrap a doctor. He reluctantly performed it, after she insisted she was sure she was pregnant despite his doubts. The doctor noticed that the contents of her uterus were much more consistent with regular lining than with pregnancy tissue, but he was able to perform a D&C on her empty uterus.

[SomewhatFundy]

There seems to be this rampant thought among anti-choicers that doctors who perform abortions are like, twirling their mustaches and cackling with every abortion they perform.

It's a medical procedure. I'm sure abortion doctors enjoy performing them about as much as a dentist enjoys doing x-rays of someone's jaw...or as much as a pharmacist enjoys counting pills. They aren't hunting people down in the streets to convince them that they need abortions. "Culture of death"? More like, one more thing they do while on the clock.

[gustava]

He's so beyond loco that I can't even begin to go there.

[doggie]

Rep. Todd Akin's (R-Mo.) Senate campaign confirmed on Wednesday that the candidate stands by a comment he made in 2008 that doctors regularly perform abortions on women "who aren't actually pregnant."

In a statement to BuzzFeed, Akin spokesman Rick Tyler called the congressman's comments "factual" and cited an investigative news article from 1978 as evidence that doctors trick women into thinking they're pregnant in order to collect fees for an abortion.

"There's ample evidence that abortion doctors on any number of occasions have deceived women into thinking that they're pregnant, and then collect money for a procedure that they don't perform," he said. "And I say they don't perform it because obviously the women weren't pregnant."

Tyler said nobody hears about this happening anymore because the problem is no longer talked about. "That's a war on women that never gets reported," he said, adding, "I don't want Todd to be held to some standard because there's no accurate reporting on abortion, because there isn't."

Abby Johnson, a staunch anti-abortion advocate who previously ran a Planned Parenthood clinic in Texas, backed up Tyler's claim in statement provided to BuzzFeed by Akin's campaign. "In support of Congressman Todd Akin, I can attest that when I served as director of Planned Parenthood in Bryan, Texas, we often scared women into getting services they did not need - including abortion - so we could collect the fees," Johnson said. "This included women who were not pregnant and women who were in the process of miscarrying."

Dr. Nancy Stanwood, an obstetrician and board member of Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, said Akin's claims are baseless and offensive to doctors.

"I think this reflects the fact that [Akin] is not an authority on women's reproductive health in the modern era," she told The Huffington Post. "What he's saying is baseless and medically ridiculous."

She added, "This is an old narrative, that physicians who provide abortions are greedy. It doesn't reflect the reality of what I see in my practice. We're thoughtful and passionate, and we've worked really hard to get the medical training we need to take care of patients. That's our motivation, and that's the 21st century narrative that we want people to pay attention to."

"That's just an absolutely ridiculous claim," Michelle Trupiano, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood's Missouri branch, told the Associated Press. It "just goes to show how extreme Todd Akin is, and he's not in touch with what happens in women's lives."

[Minerva]

Rep. Todd Akin's (R-Mo.) Senate campaign confirmed on Wednesday that the candidate stands by a comment he made in 2008 that doctors regularly perform abortions on women "who aren't actually pregnant."

In a statement to BuzzFeed, Akin spokesman Rick Tyler called the congressman's comments "factual" and cited an investigative news article from 1978 as evidence that doctors trick women into thinking they're pregnant in order to collect fees for an abortion.

"There's ample evidence that abortion doctors on any number of occasions have deceived women into thinking that they're pregnant, and then collect money for a procedure that they don't perform," he said. "And I say they don't perform it because obviously the women weren't pregnant."

Tyler said nobody hears about this happening anymore because the problem is no longer talked about. "That's a war on women that never gets reported," he said, adding, "I don't want Todd to be held to some standard because there's no accurate reporting on abortion, because there isn't."

Abby Johnson, a staunch anti-abortion advocate who previously ran a Planned Parenthood clinic in Texas, backed up Tyler's claim in statement provided to BuzzFeed by Akin's campaign. "In support of Congressman Todd Akin, I can attest that when I served as director of Planned Parenthood in Bryan, Texas, we often scared women into getting services they did not need - including abortion - so we could collect the fees," Johnson said. "This included women who were not pregnant and women who were in the process of miscarrying."

Dr. Nancy Stanwood, an obstetrician and board member of Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, said Akin's claims are baseless and offensive to doctors.

"I think this reflects the fact that [Akin] is not an authority on women's reproductive health in the modern era," she told The Huffington Post. "What he's saying is baseless and medically ridiculous."

She added, "This is an old narrative, that physicians who provide abortions are greedy. It doesn't reflect the reality of what I see in my practice. We're thoughtful and passionate, and we've worked really hard to get the medical training we need to take care of patients. That's our motivation, and that's the 21st century narrative that we want people to pay attention to."

"That's just an absolutely ridiculous claim," Michelle Trupiano, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood's Missouri branch, told the Associated Press. It "just goes to show how extreme Todd Akin is, and he's not in touch with what happens in women's lives."

Abby Johnson is what happens when a gullible person with little medical knowledge owns a medical clinic. The fact that she thinks performing D&Cs on people who are miscarrying is sinister and not a common medical practice is evidence of that.

ETA looked her up on Wikipedia. How can you run a clinic for so long and be that medically stupid? She thinks 13 week fetuses can feel pain...

[wtfrenchtoast]

Someone either here or on the FB page said that she wanted to have an abortion just to piss people off, and she's not even pregnant. Well congratulations, now that is apparently possible!