Politics

Congressman Akin say he misspoke on “legitimate rape” comment

Congressman Todd Akin of Missouri is seeking to win the Missouri U.S. Senate seat in the election this fall. To do that, he will have to beat incumbent Claire McCaskill. When the issue of whether or not abortion should be legal when a pregnancy is a result of rape was raised in an interview on Sunday, many thought Akin’s answer was insensitive to the issue.

He said that pregnancy as a result of rape is “really rare,” explaining, “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. … But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something. You know I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child.”

Senator McCaskill condemned Akin’s statement which seemingly classified some rape as “legitimate”, saying, “The ideas that Todd Akin has expressed about the serious crime of rape and the impact on its victims are offensive.”  She using this to garner support for her campaign, and even has a fundraising webpage set up to “beat Todd Akin and his anti-women policies.” President Obama condemned Akin’s statement, “[t]he idea that we should be parsing, qualifying, slicing what types of rape we’re talking about doesn’t make sense to the American people.”

But it’s not only his opponent that has expressed views condemning the statement.  Fox News reported that Presidential candidate Romney stated that Akin’s comment was “insulting, inexcusable, and, frankly, wrong.” Fox News also reported that if Akin remains in the race, the $5 million he was expecting from the GOP will not be made available to him.

Later on Sunday, Akin released a statement clarifying his views on the seriousness of rape:

As a member of Congress, I believe that working to protect the most vulnerable in our society is one of my most important responsibilities, and that includes protecting both the unborn and victims of sexual assault.  In reviewing my off-the-cuff remarks, it’s clear that I misspoke in this interview and it does not reflect the deep empathy I hold for the thousands of women who are raped and abused every year.  Those who perpetrate these crimes are the lowest of the low in our society and their victims will have no stronger advocate in the Senate to help ensure they have the justice they deserve.

He also however, is not backing down on his stand to protect the unborn, realizing that it may cost him some votes:

I recognize that abortion, and particularly in the case of rape, is a very emotionally charged issue.  But I believe deeply in the protection of all life and I do not believe that harming another innocent victim is the right course of action. I also recognize that there are those who, like my opponent, support abortion and I understand I may not have their support in this election.

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  • http://twitter.com/Astraspider Astraspider

    The idea that abortion should be banned, even in cases of rape, is a pro forma pro-life position. Strip out Mr. Akin’s odd biology lesson, and you’re left with what is basically pro-life orthodoxy. So it’s a mystery why Republicans everywhere (even some ardent pro-lifers, like Mr. Akin’s old legislative partner, Paul Ryan) would be turning on him so ferociously. Maybe it’s because he’s advocated for policy positions that are best left voiced in “quiet rooms”, lest the moderates in this country get a whiff of the extremism has taken over the GOP.

  • http://twitter.com/Astraspider Astraspider

    So the GOP just finalized it’s platform in advance of the Tampa convention. To no one’s surprise, it calls for the outlawing of abortion in all cases, including rape.

    So, Mr. Akin seems to be very in tune with the Republican zeitgeist, circa 2012. Can someone explain why Mr. Akin is being so vociferously ex-communicated?

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  • Laker

    Use of the term “legitimate rape” does not pre suppose the opposite, “illegitimate rape”. We have all heard of vengeful women crying rape , falsely. “How many rape pregnancies are there? The answer is that, according to statistical reporting, there are no more than one or two pregnancies resultant from every 1,000 forcible rapes.
    But, does it make sense? Let’s look, using the figure of 200,000 rapes each year.
    Of the 200,000 women who were forcibly raped, one-third were either too old or too young to get pregnant. That leaves 133,000 at risk for pregnancy.A woman is capable of being fertilized only 3 days (perhaps 5) out of a 30-day month. Multiply our figure of 133,000 by three tenths. Three days out of 30 is one out of ten, divide 133 by ten and we have 13,300 women remaining. If we use five days out of 30 it is one out of six. Divide one hundred and thirty three thousand by six and we have 22,166 remaining.One-fourth of all women in the United States of childbearing age have been sterilized, so the remaining three-fourths come out to 10,000 (or 15,000).Only half of assailants penetrate her body and/or deposit sperm in her vagina,1 so let’s cut the remaining figures in half. This gives us numbers of 5,000 (or 7,500).Fifteen percent of men are sterile, that drops that figure to 4,250 (or 6,375).Fifteen percent of non-surgically sterilized women are naturally sterile. That reduces the number to 3,600 (or 5,400).Another fifteen percent are on the pill and/or already pregnant. That reduces the number to 3,070 (or 4,600).Now factor in the fact that it takes 5-10 months for the average couple to achieve a pregnancy. Use the smaller figure of 5 months to be conservative and divide the avove figures by 5. The number drops to 600 (or 920).In an average population, the miscarriage rate is about 15 percent. In this case we have incredible emotional trauma. Her body is upset. Even if she conceives, the miscarriage rate will be higher than in a more normal pregnancy. If 20 percent of raped women miscarry, the figure drops to 450 (or 740).
    Finally, factor in what is certainly one of the most important reasons why a rape victim rarely gets pregnant, and that’s physical trauma. Every woman is aware that stress and emotional factors can alter her menstrual cycle. To get and stay pregnant a woman’s body must produce a very sophisticated mix of hormones. Hormone production is controlled by a part of the brain that is easily influenced by emotions. There’s no greater emotional trauma that can be experienced by a woman than an assault rape. This can radically upset her possibility of ovulation, fertilization, implantation and even nurturing of a pregnancy. So what further percentage reduction in pregnancy will this cause? No one knows, but this factor certainly cuts this last figure by at least 50 percent and probably more. If we use the 50 percent figure, we have a final figure of 225 (or 370) women pregnant each year. These numbers closely match the 200 that have been documented in clinical studies.
    So assault rape pregnancy is extremely rare. If we use the figure of 200, it is 4 per state per year. Even if we use a figure of 500, we’re talking about only ten per state, per year. In the United States in one year, there are more than 6 million pregnancies. Roughly 3 million eventuate in live birth, 1.5 million are aborted and 500,000 miscarry. And so while each assault rape pregnancy is a tragedy for the mother (not for the baby, though), we can with confidence say that such pregnancies amount to a minuscule fraction of the total annual pregnancies in the United States. Further, less than half of assault rape pregnancies are aborted, even though that course of action tends to be vigorously pushed by those around the woman. 2,3″ http://www.christianliferesources.com/article/rape-pregnancies-are-rare-461

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