Posted on 08/19/2012 8:01:18 PM PDT by Arthurio
No wonder Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill wanted to run against Rep. Todd Akin, even investing in his GOP primary victory two weeks ago by spending $2 million on ads that described him as “too conservative.’’ Missouri Republicans saw that as a plus, just as she’d hoped. But after his Sunday comment that “legitimate rape” rarely leads to pregnancy, even some in the GOP are calling for him to step aside.
The Republican lawmaker was trying to explain why he opposes abortion in cases of rape, but instead marched straight into the tar pits, where he will hopefully serve as a warning to future candidates that the reproductive info gleaned at summer camp may not hold up that well in TV interviews half a century hence.
Rape as a result of sex by force “is really rare,” Akin told KTVI-TV. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
You defenders are insane. Missouri is not Texas or Wyoming. He has NO chance now.
His position is completely logical, moral, and ethical. That is precisely why he will be vilified for stating it.
Bingo. If people only think that this guy’s comments will apply to Missouri, they’re absolutely ignorant. You will soon see your local GOP candidates around the country being asked about this in a patronizing way.
“Now, you don’t really believe that women’s body’s “simply shut down and prevent pregnancy while being raped” do you?
Normally its an idiotic question and deserves to be responded to with a roll of the eyes but thanks to this moron, it has now become a 2012 campaign issue, another distraction moving away from the economy.
I’m not a big fan of Palin myself, but she had this guy’s number all the way, so did McCaskill when she went and funded ads supporting his candidacy.
I think sometimes people get too invested in a candidate and need to step back and look at what other people are seeing, this guy screwed the pooch and created an issue that the left wing media will be more than happy to carry along to attack all other Republicans with.
Aiken was speaking for Hundreds of Millions of Pro Life Americans who understand that a pregnancy resulting from rape leads to a human life, not unlike you, me or our children’s lives.
Anyone who believes that a baby should be killed simply because he was conceived in rape is a person who Advocates the Murder of Children.
““If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”
Logical? Give me a break. His comment fails logically, scientifically and politically. This guy hit the magic tri-fecta. Just as the focus was staying with the economy and Medicare, issues that the GOP was winning with Ryan bringing new energy and support...........this guy throws a wrench into the works with his idiocy.
You read like an idiot liberal. Her name is Sarah.
She's great on capitalism, energy independence, reducing taxes, rolling back regulations, health care, same-sex marriage, defense, abortion and a host of other issues.
What a stupid comment.
There’s only about a dozen other ways he could have stated that without sounding like a blathering idiot.
“Um, uh, if a woman’s being raped, the body will shut it down and uh.”
He could have said “the rapist deserves to be punished but the baby doesn’t.....” and left it at that. His pseudo-science just created a huge advantage and attack point for McCaskill and Democrats in races all around the country.
I still don’t understand why the Republican voters of Missouri would vote for a guy in Akin that even the weak McCaskill was rooting for to win....that should have told them something and given them pause!.
Bruner was the Establishment choice so that was a “eh” choice
So that left Steelman, who is solid for the most part and who happen to be get the endorsement of Palin, after today, it looks like Sarah made a wise decision
He is indeed correct. Forcible Rape does not produce many pregnacies. He said “legitimate” but clearly meant “forcible” which is indeed different than date rape where some gal gets drunk and her date takes advantage of her. He was clearly defending his stance on abortion. I don’t know what you guys are going crazy about. This is exactly the pavlov dog reaction where conservatives jump out to eviscerate a very obvious mistatement by one of our own simply because the left are screaming. Grow a spine folks. Akin may decide to drop out but this is no less recoverable than any Democrat stupidity most of which they actually believe. No one in their right mind should believe Todd Akin thinks rape is trival and those upset about his choice of words should be even more upset at the left which has worked very hard to turn unborn children into blobs of cells in the hope of making abortion more acceptable.
Outside of intitial post treatment to try to prevent possible pregnacy in the case of rape I find the idea that abortion is beneficial to the psyche of the woman beyond that questionable. There have been studies that show the emotional state of the women during inner course do affect fertility. There is one study that suggests that claims rape somehow produces more pregnacies but it really doesn’t make sense. Women only ovulate at certain times and in a very narrow window. Do rapists some how have a heightened ovulation sense? Again we don’t know. That said I would hope you folks would do more than just jump the gun on this stuff. Aiken isn’t our enemy. He did step into a trap. Let’s not cut off his leg yet and fall over ourselves rushing to trash him. All you are doing is affirming the false narrative.
Also the actually numbers on pregnacies resulting from rape is very small. All we have are estimates based on very limited samples and those estimates from left wing orgs always attempt to inflate the numbers whereas we could expect a deflation from conservatives. That is the problem with science and politics collide.
Here is one article that attempts to arrive at an estimate. I believe it is a very low estimate.
http://www.christianliferesources.com/article/rape-pregnancies-are-rare-461
Here’s a source that would suggest a greater number.
http://www.rapetraumaservices.org/rape-sexual-assault.html
There are a lot of variables but from the numbers I’ve been playing around with the numbers of pregnancies resulting from rape in the US could be as high as 50,000 a year or as little 1,000. The problem is the variables. The high number factors in unreported rapes assuming only 16% are reported which sounds like a low number to me. This is also trying to take into account the fertility age band. This doesn’t try to estimate how many women are using birth control at the time of rape etc.
I did some some additional checking and the Guttmacher Institute in 2004 reported that 1.5% of women aborting their babies said it was due to rape and incest. If this is true then the number could be 12,500 out of 825,000. I doubt that the Guttmacher institute under reported and believe this number is closer to the truth.
If someone else has better numbers have at it.
So why muck up the message by putting two opposite words together to give the JonStewart media opportunity to make him sound like a brute? I have NEVER considered 'rape' to be legitimate. Oh, I am in Missouri and I will still vote for him, but just .amn.... I do not want to have to spend any time attempting to explain what 'legitimate rape' really means.
This is as bad as 'rich' Romney claiming BainCapital made its money just like Obama made money saving the auto industry....
Go back through the thread and read the language used by those defending him. It's a convoluted combination of medical jargon and legalese. His explanation can't be easily walked back.
I remember the Trent Lott, Strom Thurmond imbroglio. Technically, Lott said nothing wrong. It didn't matter. The conversation was changed to the Republican Party was lamenting the end of slavery...and no amount of Lott's pandering and groveling could unring the bell. Plus, He had a habit of shooting his mouth off.
Cut the losses quickly and move on.
Yup. This isn’t a gaffe where he said some truth in a political incorrect manner. What he said was not only offensive, it was laughably wrong. That’s not something that can be walked back with an artfully written press release. Nor can he apologize in any believable manner since he really believed what he said.
This jerk needs to be gone tomorrow morning...early.
>> He said “legitimate” but clearly meant “forcible”
There’s rape, statutory rape, and lying about being raped.
In a sign of JUST HOW SERIOUS THIS IS....the Akin website is now down due to traffic.
I am sorry, but a gaffe of this magnitude shows we have a real moron on our hands, and people like this DO NOT LEARN FROM THEIR MISTAKES.
He will repeat gaffes in the future, possibly EVEN WORSE.
Contact Akin and the Missouri GOP on Facebook. They can pressure him to quit:
http://www.facebook.com/supportakin
http://www.facebook.com/missourigop
Call MISSOURI GOP: 573-636-3146
Call Akin campaign: 636-207-7986
PERHAPS THE BEST NUMBER....THE WORK NUMBER OF THE ACTUAL STATE CHAIRMAN David Cole.....THIS MAY BE MOST EFFECTIVE: (417) 847-2734
Akin will still win this race and the only people that are really upset are Pro Abortion women and they were not going to vote for Akin anyway.
Expect him to produce a few medical doctors that will support Akin’s findings that the female reproductive system shuts down during what the body determines is a legitimate rape.
This whole thing will blow over by Tuesday and Akin will win by a large margin.
Why not John Brunner??? Are you still working for the Steelman campaign??? The campaign is over. She lost. Get over it.
He didn’t say that rape doesn’t produce “few pregnancies”, he went out with his idiot mumbo-jumbo claiming that the woman’s body has some sort of magic process to shutdown pregnancy from happening.
How he got into that whole conversation is beyond me. He could have simply reiterated his support for life and left it at that, but he went into the same sort of sandtrap that Republicans voluntarily wander into and ended up with his foot in his mouth.
He’s not the first to make statements along the lines of “well, women don’t get aroused/don’t get lubricated/don’t get excited so they can’t be pregnant while being raped.”
It’s a loser issue every single time and these people need to stop shooting themselves in the foot like they’re being paid good money for it. Regardless of what his actual intent or meaning was, his words will be everywhere, and if you’re someone who was sitting on the fence, the coming media demonization could be enough to push people towards the Democrat, in this case McCaskill.
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