I don’t know what “statistics” bear out Akin’s statement.
But I do know that the reaction against him was immediate,
and total, from the current Republican “establishment” whose overwhelming concern now is to win the upcoming election.
Akin is a fundamentalist on this issue, regardless of how well he can pass himself off as someone who “misspoke”, but the fact remains, that he played right into the Republican “war against women” the Dems are currently promoting, and is doing nothing to explain how he’s not guilty of that. Akin is like Rick Santorum, and I thought the process got rid of Rick Santorum, there being some good and obvious reasons he didn’t win the R nomination. Akin, like Santorum, is one of those people who in effect would choose to FORCE victims of rape and incest to keep and bear an unwanted child, a child who was the result of NO choice of her part, and that is just plain BIG GOVERNMENT WRONG. Slice it and dice it any way you want, these Fundamentalists are the idiot enforcers of the WRONG side of the Pro-Life argument. And I say that as someone who is ardently pro-Life. We should pick our battles , and be able to recognize that when someone as much of a liability as Akin comes along, and provides the Left with so much red meat at so crucial a time, he should GO, and we should explain just WHY he must GO. This is not a matter of sticking with someone who is “principled”, it’s a matter of rejecting someone who is too stupid and heedless not to know
the nuances of this whole pro life argument and issue, and not to recognize how we should pick our battles.
I would venture to say that what Akin meant with the qualifying "legitimate" term was violent or assault rape. "Date rape" and statutory rapes are all lumped in with the general statistics. Refined down to real, violent, non consensual rape and he's right...