Posted on 08/23/2012 7:57:40 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Todd Akin would do his party and his country a service by stepping aside. The rest of the campaign will be dominated by this side issue, possibly denying Republicans a key Senate seat. To use the words “legitimate” and “rape” in the same phrase betrays a serious lack of judgment. Only about 1 percent of women undergoing abortions report that they were raped, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute. One percent is not zero.
That much having been said, I must offer a mild dissent to the widespread view expressed by both Republicans and Democrats that what Akin said was outrageously “stupid.” The “legitimate rape” wording was atrocious, agreed. But much of the commentary has focused on Akin’s mistaken belief that women’s bodies have the capacity to “shut down” the reproductive process in cases of rape. (Akin has since acknowledged that he was wrong.) Interviewing Akin on Good Morning America, George Stephanopoulos spoke for many when he said, “A lot of people are wondering how an idea like that can even get in your head.”
Really? Is it such an outlandish idea? I looked it up, and it appears that there is no evidence that pregnancies are less likely in cases of rape, but it didn’t seem out of the realm of possibility to me. Many things about the human body are peculiar and amazing. And frankly, more people than are today admitting it must believe that a woman’s mental state has something to do with her capacity to conceive. Consider that every woman (including me) who has ever experienced infertility is told, even by some doctors, that she should try to “relax.”
Though dismissed as a myth for some time, the role of stress in infertility is being reconsidered now by specialists. Dr. Margareta D. Pisarska, co-director of the Center for Fertility and Reproductive Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, told WebMD that “it’s becoming more and more important, in terms of what studies we do, to focus our efforts on the physiological effects of stress and how they may play a role in conception.”
The body is capable of impressive feats. The breast milk of mothers who give birth to preemies is chemically different from the milk produced for full-term infants. It has a higher concentration of fat, protein, iron, chloride, and sodium — which is believed to aid the development of premature infants.
Kevin Williamson notes in the current National Review that high-status men have more male children than ordinary men. Is it “stupid” to believe that this phenomenon is real?
Testosterone levels vary widely among men and are known to change in response to events. The liberal blogger Andrew Sullivan wrote an absorbing piece more than a decade ago about the role of testosterone. It seems that when tennis players’ testosterone levels were monitored before and after a match, researchers found that “the winner of any single game sees his T production rise; the loser sees it fall. The ultimate winner experiences a postgame testosterone surge, while the loser sees a collapse. This is true even for people watching sports matches. A 1998 study found that fans backing the winning side in a college basketball game and a World Cup soccer match saw their testosterone levels rise; fans rooting for the losing teams in both games saw their own T levels fall.”
Akin’s mistaken belief in the unlikelihood of rape-induced pregnancy is now being lassoed into service against other Republicans. Virginia Republican Senate candidate George Allen, who denounced Akin, is nonetheless being flayed by the Washington Post for having once voted to confirm a judge who had once, long before, expressed views similar to Akin’s.
So Akin’s views are scandalous and can be used to discredit (however implausibly) other Republicans. But the views of the leaders of the Democratic party — favoring abortion for any (including sex selection) or no reason throughout the nine months of pregnancy — is not controversial. The Democratic party’s support for partial-birth abortion is not worthy of skepticism. The views of the president of the United States — opposing a law providing that a baby accidentally born alive after a botched abortion be protected from the abortionist’s knife — is not shocking. No Democrat has ever, so far as I know, been challenged by a member of the mainstream press to distance himself from the president’s extreme abortion position.
Akin is guilty of having his facts wrong. Many of his critics are guilty of worse.
— Mona Charen is a nationally syndicated columnist.
Years ago in Army medic training, this is exactly what we were taught by physicians, that the odds of a pregnancy starting in such a trauma were much less than consensual sex.
For the past few weeks, I have felt that only Akins and I were aware of this.
Of course, the term “legitimate” rape means back-seat car intercourse, but the word “legitimate” has given the libtards something to hang their hats on.
So, “legitimate” rape is a lot less traumatic than “forcible” rape, such as Bill Clinton forced on Juanita Broaddrick IS traumatic.
And yet this sexual pig is feted by the perverted Democrats as a hero worth $500,000 per speech, totally ignoring his rape charge and openly sexual aggression on Paula Jones and innumerable women in his disgusting career.
How anyone can cling for any reason to the “D”emocrat party is beyond me.
TURN THE TABLES on the Pro-Aborts!
The “Rape & Incest exception” argument has been a Fraud and a Red Herring for over 40 years.
DO NOT answer that question!
Instead, say:
“This argument has been a Fraud and a Red Herring for over 40 years!”
“Bring me the legislation containing this exception, and THEN we can begin to talk.”
“NOBODY, has EVER brought forth legislation with this language, yet it is used to beat up Pro-Lifers at every turn!”
“ Would YOU support such restrictions on abortion?”
You can go on to say, you would sign such legislation, because it is a starting point that would save over 1 Million lives a year.
I just want to know where the GOP stands.
Are they pro life or pro “choice”.
What is depressing is that millions of Americans would read what Akin said, and because of that vote for Claire McCaskill instead of an otherwise very conservative voting Akin. Or, because of what Akin said, decide to vote for Barack Obama instead of Mitt Romney for President. I know the American voter is butt stupid on the average, (look what we have for a President) but this is depressing.
The GOP needs a Joe Biden too.
I had a similar recollection, except that it came from a PBS (I think) special from around 1980 where they showed internal videos taken from inside a woman during intercourse. They postulated on the program that there were physiological responses that occurred during the consentual event (specifically climax) that increased the likelihood of fertilization. This implies, therefore, that rape would be less likely to result in pregnancy. I've been living with this concept, true or false, for over 30 years as a result of that program.
Regardless of whether there was a grain of truth in what Akin said or not, he needs to go. It was beyond stupid for him to even bother going there.
Akin is down 10 points vs. mcCackle.
Good job, Todd.
Keep digging Mona keep digging. If you are a Pro-Life purist just come out and say Yes unborn children conceived by rape are just as deserving to live as other unborn children. Obviously, many Pro-Life advocates are very uncomfortable with this position or know how unpopular it is so they attempt to deny this is even an issue with this women who are raped don’t conceive argument.
I too am sick and tired of that issue being used by the liberal press as a trap to take out our candidates. "Gotcha" questions wouldn't be so effective in taking out our candidates if voters weren't too dumb to see through what is actually going on here. And then we bitch because the Democrats and the press pick our candidates for us. We are letting them do it again. It works very well for them. One by one they took out our Presidential candidates, with our help, until they got the one they wanted.
STUPID IS SPREADING.
Pro death for rapists.
Ok Mona, New law should be, if a woman get pregnant after rape , release the culprit because pregnancy is a proof that she enjoyed intercourse.
Rape victims get to make their own decisions.
Off topic but I’ve seen the thermal imagery video where they had twins on the moms body. One twin was colder than the other and the mothers body adjusted her temperature to warm the colder infant up faster.
RE: Rape victims get to make their own decisions.
Including killing the baby?
The author has partially bought into the left’s tactic. The actual basis for Akin’s belief is not a link between stress and non-conception, but between stress and spontaneous miscarriage. By interpreting his ham-handed and scientifically wobbly remarks as meaning that he believed fertilization was less likely in cases of forcible rape, the left has deliberately painted Akin as maximally stupid.
Goggling the three words “sponantaneous miscarriage stress” (without the quotes) turns up two peer-reviewed studies finding statistically significant correlations between maternal stress and spontaneous miscarriage — in particular a 2006 study done by the University of Pennsylvania Medical School found that elevated cortisol levels (look at the third hit on the Google search for details) had spontaneous miscarriages of 90% of conceptions, compared with spontaneous miscarriages of 33% of conceptions among women with normal cortisol levels. Elevated cortisol is at least a marker for, if not a cause of PTSD, with which most victims of forcible rape, not surprisingly, are afflicted.
That said, Akin should have done the statesman-like thing, and dropped out of the race. In doing so, he could have issued a statement pointing to the scientific literature I cited, decrying the Dworkinite expansion of the word “rape” and the media for playing up bogus rape accusations like Tawana Brawley’s and Crystal Magnum’s as both doing a disservice to women in general and rape victims in particular, and sneering at the left for giving Whoopi Goldberg’s “rape rape” a pass while donning hob-nailed boots to jump all over his “legitimate rape” as a way of trying to get back to the original meaning of the word, and pointing to the issues that the country should be focused on — the economy, the Federal deficit and unfunded liabilities, energy policy, and the need for direction in foreign policy — from which he, the hypothetical statesman-like Akin, does not want to be a distraction.
That much having been said, I must offer a mild dissent to the widespread view expressed by both Republicans and Democrats that what Akin said was outrageously “stupid.”
Akin is Stupid: Democrats ... Republicans ............................. Conservatives: Republicrats are stupid
Hey!, did everyone know that Joe Biden, in 2008 said “Barak Obama has no better friend in Missouri than Clarie McCaskill”? Did you also know that Claire McCaskill has proven Joe Biden correct by voting with the President’s wishes about 98% of the time. She was a deciding vote on ObamaCare, as well as selling our children’s future down the river with the various bail outs and such.
She’s been on the side of the Senate that has refused to do its Constitutional duty by not passing a budget, or even attempting to.She also, has proven that she doesn’t care about the Constitution, by allowing obama to run rough shod over it, like a Banana Republic dictator.
She thinks Missourians are dumb, and that she can slide through this election with lies, innuendos and mud slinging.
Signed,
A Missouri Patriot
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.