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Missouri: Todd Akin’s ‘Legitimate Rape’ Comment Ignites Firestorm
Roll Call ^ | 8/19/12 | Meredith Shiner

Posted on 08/19/2012 6:57:25 PM PDT by randita

Rep. Todd Akin, the Republican nominee for Senate in Missouri, justified his opposition to all abortion, even in instances of rape, by saying that “legitimate rape” rarely leads to pregnancy — comments that have set off a media firestorm in an already contentious race.

In an interview with a St. Louis television station posted today, Akin said that female bodies “[have] ways to try to shut that whole thing down” and that only rapists, and not unborn children, should be punished.

“First of all, from what I understand from doctors, [pregnancy from rape] is really rare,” Akin told KTVI-TV, in an interview first reported nationally by Talking Points Memo. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

“Let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work, or something,” Akin continued. “I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child.”

Akin has since issued a statement saying he “misspoke” but did not reverse his position on abortion in the case of rape or incest, nor did he dispute the medical claims he made by citing doctors.

“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,” Akin said in the statement. “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.”

Akin’s opponent, Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, issued a statement calling Akin’s remarks incomprehensible and “offensive.”

“It is beyond comprehension that someone can be so ignorant about the emotional and physical trauma brought on by rape,” McCaskill said. “The ideas that Todd Akin has expressed about the serious crime of rape and the impact on its victims are offensive.”

Earlier this month, McCaskill and her Democratic allies spent more than $1 million in Missouri’s Republican primary, according to the Sunlight Foundation, trying to boost the conservative Akin, largely viewed as the most politically vulnerable candidate in a state primed for a GOP pickup.


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Missouri
KEYWORDS: akin; mo2012
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To: randita; All
He needs to be taking to the woodshed.

STUPID. STUPID. STUPID.

In one fell swoop he's just reelected Claire McCaskill and given new life to the DNC's "war on women" crap.

101 posted on 08/19/2012 10:45:59 PM PDT by newzjunkey (Election night is 78 days away.)
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To: alstewartfan; All
And Planned Parenthood's Infanticide's own Guttmacher Institute says 1/10th of 1% of abortions are attributable to rape or incest reasons.

As Bachmann asked a moderator in the GOP primary debate season, why don't we talk about the other 99.9%?

Akin's roadkill. He should immediately bow out but he's an idiot who thinks a Republican can "misspeak" in today's political climate and survive. If he doesn't go he will damage the national campaign.

102 posted on 08/19/2012 11:02:29 PM PDT by newzjunkey (Election night is 78 days away.)
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To: randita; Clintonfatigued; AuH2ORepublican; fieldmarshaldj; no dems; Kaslin; perfect_rovian_storm; ..

Well isn’t this the perfect pile of bullsunni.

I saw a newslink “GOP Senate candidate blah blah rape blah” and I was thinking to myself “please be the guy from Washington State or something so this doesn’t matter”. But no it has to be Akin and the media just had to decide to make it the world’s # 1 news story. Harry Reid would have to shoot a guy on the street to get this kind of coverage. I guess you were right Clintonfatigued when you called him “second-tier”, he’s a second-tier mind anyway.

There once was a man named Felix Grucci, a freshman Congressman from NY elected in 2000. His first reelection was won, he faced a nobody, some College President jerkoff named Tim Bishop. All Grucci had to do to win was ignore him. Instead he decided to say that Bishop (whose existence before this nobody was aware of) didn’t properly investigate claims of sexual assault on campus or some such, I don’t know the truth but there was no proof so the media decided it was a smear against Bishop. Boom, Bishop narrowly wins, 10 years later and fresh off a stolen 2010 reelection that bastard is STILL there.

Not the exact same thing but close enough. Akin should have been thinking about how he could snag himself one of the better Senate offices and how he should decorate that office. Instead he gives an interview and talks about RAPE and lets the world know that he flunked Pys Ed cause women’s eggs apparently know rapist sperm from boyfriend or husband sperm. I bet those eggs could run NORAD then.

Now I don’t care one whit about what he said (not at all, I don’t give a duck), half of Washington is much stupider than that (I myself once believed that 15th Century Europe really thought the Earth was flat cause that’s what my friggin worthless grade school history book said) but I imagine a lot of women aren’t pleased nor. This plays right into the “ignorant of science” stereotype social conservatives are tagged with by the left and lets Claire play the girl power sisterhood card.

What matters is the seat.

If the deadline for him being able to quit and be replaced is really TUESDAY as freeper Scbison posted then there is no damn time to poll this to see if this faux paux can be overome. Our reactions are irrelevant, the reactions of the ignorant swing voters are what’s important here. Does it turn a layup into a tossup? Or is it even worse? Is he DOA even against the unpopular hag Senatrix? Does the GOP have the stones to DEMAND he quit? (Reid would have his mobster buddies pay a visit) Does he have the sense to listen if they do? There is just a day and half to decide?

Republicans need to learn to handle hostile media questions without shoving their feet so far down their throats that they can still walk. And Akin’s handlers should be ashamed of themselves cause that’s their JOB. He is PAYING them.

I hope this doesn’t work out as badly as it could.


103 posted on 08/19/2012 11:56:32 PM PDT by Impy (Don't call me red.)
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To: Impy
From post above :“First of all, from what I understand from doctors, [pregnancy from rape] is really rare,” Akin told KTVI-TV, in an interview first reported nationally by Talking Points Memo. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.

???? Another Sharon Angle moment???
Is this moron going to lose yet another Senate seat to Dems? this one what should be an easy win.

You know if Romney was to win and can't get things through the Senate without Reid's OK Republicans here thinking Romney is the solution with be in for four very painful years as Romney sucks up to Reid and Ryan works over House Republicans to 'get something done'.

104 posted on 08/20/2012 12:17:33 AM PDT by sickoflibs (Romney is still a liberal. Just watch him. (Obama-ney Care ))
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To: randita; Clintonfatigued; AuH2ORepublican; fieldmarshaldj; no dems; Kaslin; perfect_rovian_storm; ..

It occurs to be instead of that history lesson with Grucci I could have just said MACACA. That was one lousy word, a foreign slang term no less. Akin had blessed us with an entire offending sentence.


105 posted on 08/20/2012 12:20:32 AM PDT by Impy (Don't call me red.)
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To: Impy

You said it best. People who want to “stand by” Akin like the liberals do their officials are DELUSIONAL. The media give liberals a pass. We don’t get that luxury. Even FOX will be forced to run this crud. THE SEAT IS WHAT MATTERS. What’s more, the DNC is jumping all over this and there is no way to combat it. Looking at twitter, it’s also hyping the libtard base (NOT what we need right now). Obangalore was waiting for something like this to occur so he could roll out Sandra Puke again. Akin needs to be replaced quickly, and we need a new distraction to dampen the media reaction. Anything, a prison escape, Lincoln’s ghost, Tamara Holder caught in bed with Bob Beckel. ANYTHING to draw attention away from the turd this man just laid on our senate chances!


106 posted on 08/20/2012 12:51:37 AM PDT by Radiarm
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To: Tzar

i agree with you and have been saying so, mostly alone, on some other threads.

the handwringing by so many freepers is repulsive. they are being pulled around by the nose and seem to love it.

akin, a true conservative, has a bad soundbite and they’re ready to execute him....they’re being whiny teen-age girls over this event.


107 posted on 08/20/2012 1:29:21 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
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To: Radiarm
Tamara Holder caught in bed with Bob Beckel

Thank you for that image!!! ;)

108 posted on 08/20/2012 1:35:11 AM PDT by Impy (Don't call me red.)
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To: House Atreides

well said.


109 posted on 08/20/2012 1:39:31 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
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To: HereInTheHeartland
No; he is an idiot to bring something like this up. It is offensive and ignorant. Guarantee if a family member of his had this happen; he wouldn't have spoken this way.

Au contraire. If a relative of his had been raped, he (and she) would be thankful her body had reacted as the medical research he cited predicted, thereby not having to deal with the human being possibly resulting.

If he is an idiot to have brought this up, then the GOP is an idiot to have social issues in its platform.

110 posted on 08/20/2012 2:06:19 AM PDT by cynwoody
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To: sometime lurker
"Medically it is not correct."

That is not exactly true, the process and biology are quite complicated. So if the female in question did in fact have a loving husband her chances of being impregnated by a rapist are considerable less than a more or less celibate single female. It turns out that not all sperm make a mad swim for the egg, some hang back, block and attack "foreign" sperm. I offer this as just one instance of how complicated the process really is.

111 posted on 08/20/2012 2:19:29 AM PDT by jpsb
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To: randita

um... did this just keep us from possibly getting the senate?


112 posted on 08/20/2012 3:32:44 AM PDT by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama lied .. the economy died.)
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To: Impy
If I was a GOP strategist, I don't know what I'd do here. First, this is beyond a "stupid statement"---this guy really thinks that a raped woman can will a pregnancy away without n abortion. Second, trust me, the explanations will only expose this more. If he had gotten the seat, it would come up and probably be forced to step down.

On the other hand as per Dems, we CANNOT lose this "gimmie". I think I'd probably have this guy step down and bring in the next highest candidate.

113 posted on 08/20/2012 4:29:53 AM PDT by LS ("Castles Made of Sand, Fall in the Sea . . . Eventually (Hendrix))
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To: Impy

The sentence isn’t the real issue. The issue is that he really doesn’t understand human biology on a critically political issue.


114 posted on 08/20/2012 4:33:02 AM PDT by LS ("Castles Made of Sand, Fall in the Sea . . . Eventually (Hendrix))
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To: newzjunkey

On the plus side, the incumbent has not won re-election to this senate seat since 1988. McCaskill has history against her. That may overcome the help that Akins insists on providing her.


115 posted on 08/20/2012 4:34:33 AM PDT by Delhi Rebels (There was a row in Silver Street - the regiments was out.)
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To: Impy; stephenjohnbanker; DoughtyOne; Gilbo_3; NFHale; Pan_Yans Wife
RE :”Not the exact same thing but close enough. Akin should have been thinking about how he could snag himself one of the better Senate offices and how he should decorate that office. Instead he gives an interview and talks about RAPE and lets the world know that he flunked Pys Ed cause women’s eggs apparently know rapist sperm from boyfriend or husband sperm. I bet those eggs could run NORAD then.

It looks like he was trying to make a point that women who use rape as a loophole to get abortions are phonies ( a dangerous thing to say when running for Senator) but in a clever sort of way, trying to be funny like that House Republican who made the ‘aspirin between my legs’ joke.

I guessed Akin missed the part where the other guy was forced to apologize.

He did a great job helping those (Democrats) who want our federal money to pay for abortions.

116 posted on 08/20/2012 5:00:23 AM PDT by sickoflibs (Romney is still a liberal. Just watch him. (Obama-ney Care ))
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To: Impy

Akin may be a perfectly nice guy, but politically, he is light years out of touch with the electorate - especially women. His comments show that he lives in a bubble surrounded only by people who think like him.

It’s probably not fatal to just make the statement that you are against abortion in all circumstances on religious or moral grounds. If you’re Catholic or fundamentalist Christian, you would be true to your faith with this view.

But to support your views by saying that there is some kind of magical physiological change that occurs in a woman’s body when she’s raped that prevents pregnancy is Neanderthal.

You can bet this will be the news headline for the next couple of weeks and every GOP candidate running will be asked if he/she agrees with Akin. What a horrible waste of time in the week leading up to the convention!

This could truly become the Mark Foley moment of this election unless Akin just goes away. Foley even went away but his remaining stench threw the election to the Rats.

I feel very sorry for Akin. MO gave him the opportunity of a lifetime and he blew it.


117 posted on 08/20/2012 5:41:22 AM PDT by randita (Paul Ryan is "Mr. Smith goes to Washington.")
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To: TexasFreeper2009
um... did this just keep us from possibly getting the senate?

It may be even worse than that. Two words: Mark Foley

118 posted on 08/20/2012 5:43:01 AM PDT by randita (Paul Ryan is "Mr. Smith goes to Washington.")
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To: Impy; randita; Clintonfatigued; fieldmarshaldj; no dems; Kaslin; perfect_rovian_storm

You don’t need to bring up Grucci or even Allen’s Macaca; in 2002, Tim Hutchinson lost his U.S. Senate seat to Democrat Mark Pryor in not insignificant part due to Hutchison’s assertion that women rarely get pregnant when they get raped due to stress or something (pretty much what Akin said).

I am a 100% pro-lifer, and I can explain my position in a way that a child could understand, without having to resort to quasi-scientific theories of the likelihood of conception during a rape:

An unborn child is an innocent human being, and has the same right to life of any innocent human being, irrespective of how he was conceived. I support the death penalty for rapists (and hope that SCOTUS overrules its ahistorical jurisprudence limiting the use of capital punishment to murder), but I do not support the death penalty for the innocent child.

Our Constitution sets limits on the use of “Corruption of Blood,” since the Framers found it illegitimate to punish a child for the sins of his father. When the state permits the child who is a product of rape to be killed, the state is permitting the child to be killed as punishment for his father’s crime. An unborn child is no less human just because his father was a rapist.


119 posted on 08/20/2012 6:57:18 AM PDT by AuH2ORepublican (If a politician won't protect innocent babies, what makes you think that he'll protect your rights?)
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To: jpsb
That is not exactly true, the process and biology are quite complicated. So if the female in question did in fact have a loving husband her chances of being impregnated by a rapist are considerable less than a more or less celibate single female.

As a doctor, I can assure you that there is no magic protection in a woman's body to decide that some sperm are from a rapist and barred from the egg, while others are from a loving husband and have access. Akin's statement about this was just medically wrong. Check the CDC page, and the studies cited there.

120 posted on 08/20/2012 7:33:53 AM PDT by sometime lurker
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