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A Democratic official says Sandra Fluke will try to solidify President Barack Obama's support among women during a speech next month at the Democratic National Convention.

They phoned. They wrote. They rebuked him publicly from coast to coast. They cut off funding and support. Yet Republican U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin didn’t cave. He refused to withdraw by the initial 5 p.m. Tuesday deadline, sticking with his November race against Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill. His choice means women’s health and abortion remain top issues, causing a debate the GOP had hoped to avoid. Akin, who says he misspoke when he said “legitimate rape” victims can prevent pregnancy, has a long voting record against abortion in any circumstance. Akin also is in line with U.S. Rep. Paul...

The deadline for Representative Todd Akin (R-MO) to withdraw from the Missouri Senate has passed. This has led to much wailing and gnashing of teeth amongst conservatives, myself included. Despite seemingly every prominent Republican and conservative in the country condemning his comments on rape or calling for him to exit the race, he ultimately refused. Could he still do so? Yes, through petitioning a Missouri court in what appears to be a fairly simple process. Some have suggested that the left would try to impede this process, but I'm not sure how they could. If that's the case, will he...

A physician and former president of the National Right to Life Committee, Willke was an “important surrogate” for Romney’s 2008 presidential bid. Willke is the oft-cited source of the theory that rape-related pregnancies are “rare.” The theory is sometimes used by antiabortion advocates to argue that abortion laws should not contain exceptions for pregnancies that result from rape or incest. Willke believes that trauma caused by violent rape causes a woman’s reproductive system to shut down. He presents this belief as fact in educational materials, including a book about abortion and a website called abortionfacts.com. Willke’s views – and his...

Rep. Todd Akin's controversial comments about rape and abortion aren't just for Missourians to mull in their Senate race -- they're typical of a mindset that pervades and perverts the entire GOP, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer said Tuesday. "It's deeper than one Republican congressman -- it goes all the way to the top of the Republican ticket," she said. "The truth is there's a war against women, and it's not going to end until we all say at the polls, 'That's not the country we want.'" Boxer, D-Calif., used her previously scheduled speech to Planned Parenthood Advocates Mar Monte at...

August 21, 2012 Akin Blames “Lib Media” For Trying to Make Him Drop Out …(Is Mitt Romney Lib Media?) Jim Hoft Oh dear. This is seriously crazy. Todd Akin blamed the liberal media tonight for trying to make him drop out of the race.Are Mitt Romney, John Ashcroft, Sean Hannity and Mark Levin the liberal media?

At the top of Monday's NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams proclaimed: "Firestorm. A Congressman's words about rape rocket across the country...women's issues are front and center again." Introducing the lead story moments later, Williams announced how "suddenly" Republican Todd Akin's comments "exploded well beyond the borders of Missouri." Correspondent Andrea Mitchell began her report by nationalizing the gaffe made by Akin during a local news interview: "Republicans fear their hopes for the White House and control of the Senate could turn on what happened at a St. Louis TV station..." Mitchell later touted: "In a race where the President...

Republican Representative Todd Akin resisted pressure to quit the U.S. Senate race in Missouri on Tuesday, releasing a new ad apologizing for his inflammatory remarks about rape that have reinserted controversial abortion politics into the U.S. presidential campaign.In an ad released online, Mr. Akin again apologized for his comments Sunday, when he claimed in a television interview that women could not get pregnant from “legitimate rape,” even as senior Republicans condemned his remarks and called for him to step aside in the race. “Rape is an evil act. I used the wrong words in the wrong way, and for that...

@nbcnightlynews : MT @chucktodd: Romney now officially calls on Akin to exit the race. He had been implying that, but hadn't directly said it. Now, he has

Click on LISTEN LIVE to hear Sean interview Todd Akin

Aug 21, 2012 3:34pm Obama Campaign Will Blast Email from Sandra Fluke About Akin Comments and Republican Presidential Platform Jake Tapper The Obama campaign will later today send out a mass e-mail to supporters from abortion rights activist Sandra Fluke criticizing the comments of embattled Missouri Senate candidate Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., and trying to tie them to the GOP presidential platform, ABC News has learned. The email will be just the latest attempt by the Obama campaign to link the presumptive Republican presidential ticket to Akin, whose widely condemned (and scientifically false) remarks about rape have been disputed by...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A spokesman for Senate Republicans' campaign arm says Rep. Todd Akin is putting issues he cares about at risk by staying in the Missouri Senate race and says Akin's "misguided" campaign will get no support from the group. Akin has come under intense pressure to exit the race after saying women could prevent pregnancy in cases of "legitimate rape." But he reiterated plans Tuesday to continue his bid.

Rep. Todd Akin, facing calls to step aside from his bid to challenge Sen. Claire McCaskill, once called for his party's state house leader to resign his leadership post following a drunk driving incident, according to local news reports. Akin, who used the term "legitimate rape" to argue the false claim that women who are raped don't get pregnant, called on then Missouri House GOP leader, Mark Richardson, to quit his post in 1997. From the Columbia Tribune: Republican lawmakers interviewed yesterday said they were expecting Richardson to step aside. ``That is the logical thing, just in terms of keeping...

Rep. Todd Akin, the embattled Senate candidate who used the phrase “legitimate rape” in talking about abortion and pregnancy, said Tuesday afternoon that he would stick to his decision to remain in the race.

Via the Examiner, a golden moment from “Morning Joe” in which McCaskill walks the vanishingly fine line between being deeply offended at the thought of Akin representing Missouri and yet not so deeply offended that she’d want to see him disqualify himself immediately. If you’re depressed by all the Akin coverage today, let this thought comfort you: The Democrats worked very hard, and spent a lot of money, to make sure he was her opponent in November. They banked on him screwing up spectacularly, and now he has — so spectacularly and so soon, in fact, that this might blow...

Pressure mounted on Rep.Todd Akin to quit his Missouri Senate race today despite his repeated refusals to step down over his incendiary comments about rape. Earlier in the day, moderate Republicans campaigning in bitterly contested battle ground states called on Akin to exit the race. By late in the afternoon, conservative elements of the party, including an influential super PAC and the Tea Party Express called on him to terminate his race for the good of the party. Tea Party Express Chairman Amy Kremer said Akin's remarks that women rarely became pregnant from "legitimate rape" were "unfortunate and inappropriate" and...

DNC already on it. "The Republican Party—led by Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan—is dangerously wrong for women" ..."now Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri claims there's a biological defense against pregnancy from "legitimate rape."....

Akin said he has no plans to withdraw.“I don’t know that I’m the only person in public office who’s suffered from foot-in-mouth disease here, and this was a very, very serious error. On the other hand, there are so many good people in Missouri who nominated me, and they understood my heart,” Akin said.... Akin said no Republicans have called him and asked him to withdraw from the race.“No one has called me and said, ‘Todd, I think you should drop out,’” Akin said. “No one has said that. But I gather people are saying that in the media, but they didn’t specifically call...

An NRSC source just confirmed to me what various outlets have been reporting: if Todd Akin remains the senate candidate, NRSC will invest no financial resources into the Missouri senate race. Previously, NRSC had planned to spend $5 million. And Crossroads has already taken some TV ads off the air, reports Politico. If Akin does remain in the race, he’s going to be relying, it appears, virtually exclusively on whatever his campaign raises, without any financial help from outside groups.

As a husband and father of two young women, I found Todd Akin’s comments about women and rape outrageous, inappropriate and wrong. There is no place in our public discourse for this type of offensive thinking. Not only should he apologize, but I believe Rep. Akin’s statement was so far out of bounds that he should resign the nomination for US Senate in Missouri.