This is Akin’s quote: “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down”
Let's look at the whole response to the question rather than just your snippet, shall we.
Charles Jaco:
Okay, so if an abortion can be considered in the case of, say, tubal pregnancy or something like that, what about in the case of rape? Should it be legal or not?
Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.):
Well, you know, uh, people always want to try to make that as one of those things, ‘Well, how do you – how do you slice this particularly tough sort of ethical question.’
It seems to me, first of all, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.
He is talking about a physiological response or reaction of which a woman has no control. Your body automatically responds in many ways to many things.
That this buffoon basically saying a womans body knows its been raped and can prevent itself from becoming pregnant.
Well, I'm not a woman, but I'm pretty sure both her mind and her body know she's been raped.
So you refute studies such as this?
Raised Cortisol Predicts Spontaneous Abortion
High urinary levels of the stress hormone cortisol are a marker for early pregnancy loss, US researchers have found.
Do you have to tell your lungs to breath? Do you have to tell your heart to beat? Do you have to tell your liver to filter? Do you have to tell your glands to pump adrenalin or cortisol into your blood stream?
Suggested reading...fight or flight cortisol
Your argument is specious and the rest of your reply isn't even worthy of response.
The problem isn’t in comprehension, the problem lies in the inability to extrapolate.
Philman, you keep digging even bigger logical holes.
No one suggested a woman doesn’t know she’s been raped, so not sure what you want to prove with that.
The supposition that Akin put forward is that because the woman knows she’s being raped she is less likely to conceive, and that’s NONSENSE.
The studies you and thos like you continue to site do NOT prove the logical points you are trying to make, and that’s the fundamental problem.
Cortisol in the urinary tract can indicate early pregnancy loss, the supposition however that STRESS in and of itself prevents pregnancy or causes spontaneous abortion in and of itself is NONSENSE.
Cortisol levels SHOOT UP DURING PREGNANCY this is NORMAL, some women produce more than others, it is not simply a reaction to EXTERNAL stress. What this study implies is women whos levels shoot up higher seem to have a higher rate of miscarriage.. However it doesn’t prove external STRESS ends pregnancy, not even close. You are drawing conclusions that are not in the study or remotely implied by it.
Since Cortisol rise is NORMAL during all pregancies, and Miscarriage is incredibly common in early stages of pregnancy, the raised level can be nothing more than the bodies reacting to a natural deformity, or other problem with the pregnancy itself.
Your supposition that EXTERNAL factors such as stress in the womans life, are the cause of these higher levels and thuse the higher results, in a study involving 22 pregnancies, none of which I can tell suggested Rape, or even included the medical histories such as women suffering from PCOS, or other syndromes that are known to raise miscarriage risk.
Let alone other syndromes that affect cortisol production.
Again this study concludes “early pregnancy may sensitive to maternal stress during the placentation period” and suggests futher study should be done, but it doesn’t conclude anything about the nature of that stress OR even that its conclusive, only that more studies should be done, and since this study was published 6 years ago, I assume either other studies were not done, are currently underway or failed to replicate the results of this minor study of 22 women.
You really need to stop creating conclusions that are not there. Women’s bodies undergo stress during all pregnancies and Cortisol rises in all of them, Hell exercising raises your cotisol levels! Are you going to imply women are having miscarriages because they are going to the gym frequently? Implying from that that parental stress of rape will cause fewer pregnancies that willing sex is a conclusion not backed by ANY study or science.
You and others trying their darnedest to defend Akin’s incredibly ignorant statement continue to just follow his same path. What he claimed is NOT backed up by any science or study, and its woefully ignorant for him to have said it and even more so for those trying to create pretzel logic arguments trying to defend it.