Posted on 08/22/2012 3:08:34 PM PDT by JediJones
First, let's define the term "rape." When pro-lifers speak of rape pregnancies, we should commonly use the phrase "forcible rape" or "assault rape," for that specifies what we're talking about. Rape can also be statutory. Depending upon your state law, statutory rape can be consensual, but we're not addressing that here.
Assault rape pregnancies are extremely rare. Most pro-lifers have heard this comment, but too often cannot back it up with facts. A candidate for office in the State of Arkansas made this comment before the last elections. He was roundly criticized and ridiculed by the opposing candidate and the media. Unfortunately, there was no evidence that he offered substantive proof to back up his claim that rape pregnancies were rare.
How many forcible rapes result in a pregnancy? Some feminists have claimed as high as 5 to 10 percent, which is absurd.
Finally, factor in what is certainly one of the most important reasons why a rape victim rarely gets pregnant, and that's physical trauma. Every woman is aware that stress and emotional factors can alter her menstrual cycle. To get and stay pregnant a woman's body must produce a very sophisticated mix of hormones. Hormone production is controlled by a part of the brain that is easily influenced by emotions. There's no greater emotional trauma that can be experienced by a woman than an assault rape. This can radically upset her possibility of ovulation, fertilization, implantation and even nurturing of a pregnancy. So what further percentage reduction in pregnancy will this cause? No one knows, but this factor certainly cuts this last figure by at least 50 percent and probably more. If we use the 50 percent figure, we have a final figure of 225 (or 370) women pregnant each year.
(Excerpt) Read more at christianliferesources.com ...
The title of the thread should be “Rape Pregnancies Are Rare”. Please correct it if you can, mods.
All very nice, doesn’t matter. Akin lost all the “feelings” voters with this statement. He’d have had to parse like a lawyer to not do so.
And you think Romney’s getting the “feelings” voters with gaffes like “I like being able to fire people” and “I’m not concerned about the very poor?”
Just let this go and it will be forgotten in a few days. Most of the dust up seems to come from the Right. If Hannity would shut the hell up about it, it would be a blip. But, no. He’s gotta get ratings and so he repeats himself over and over about this non issue.
This will not affect republicans nationally and I still suspect that come November, Missourians will be far more p.o.’ed by the dismal economy and vote McCaskill out.
32,000 pregnancies as a result of rape per year do not constitute...”rare”.
From 1999. Interesting.
SO.... more people are killed in Detroit in a year, than children born from rape ?
This whole controversy extends from the pretended offense by the MSM and Politicians over the word ‘legitimate’, which implied that women would lie about rape.
This is why the ‘reaction’ from the left. They cannot acknowledge ‘facts’ when it comes to dealing with the lies they are so used to telling.
I’m not dumping on the women. God knows men lie all the time. Men and women lie differently, and about different things. These are facts.
The ‘fertility’ of the female womb is an issue when it comes to unwanted pregnancy. In this case, just like abortion, the woman makes the decision. Her body responds.
Again, these are facts. Medical History. As I say, this is a ‘pretended’ offense, meant to hide the truth, which is that opponents to McCaskill are just pawns being thrown away.
The only MISTAKE Akin made was in assuming that the ‘public’ was intelligent enough to avoid being led around by the nose with such a simple and easily verifiable reference, and something that most women experience intimately.
IT HAS BEEN DEBUNKED. Its conclusions have been proven incorrect, as reported in a host of places; nobody, including its author, defends it as legitimate.
Akin should have been astute enough not to have mentioned this in a public forum knowing that the media would spin his words against him.
The Mrs. and I have been trying to get pregnant for 6 months now, and all I can say is that getting pregnant is hard! There is a very small window of time that an egg can be fertilized and properly settle into the lining of the uterus. Compound that with stress from work and difficulty in the timing of intimacy, and I fear it’ll be impossible.
I’ve had more of an education in the last 6 months on the female reproductive system than I ever had in school.
I don’t know the specifics behind it, but I do understand that the body goes through myriad changes when under stress/duress, and one of them is to increase specific hormones that have been linked to miscarriages.
So while it’s not necessarily true that EVERY rape would go without a fertilized ovum, if enough stress hormones are released to cause a woman’s body chemistry to go out of whack, I don’t see how it’s unfeasible that the egg would either not latch onto to the uterine lining, detach from it, or miscarry after a certain time.
Also, has anyone considered that many rapists are “smart” enough to use condoms? Statutory rape, fine I understand that’s probably some dumb kids who didn’t pay attention in sex ed and didn’t wrap it up, but someone who wants to commit a forcible felony and not be caught, I would think, would be smart enough to carry rubbers. Am I off base in that way of thinking?
True or not; this is one of the dumber things to be talking about before an election. It is a gift wrapped present for Dems to use against an opponent.
It fits and reinforces their whole “war on woman” thingy perfectly.
While Akin's views on rape and pregnancy may come as a surprise to many, it is commonly cited in anti-abortion circles and stems at least partly from the writings of Dr. John Willke, former president of the National Right to Life Committee. He put forth the view in a book originally published in 1985.
Willke this week summarized his views to The New York Times, saying, "This [rape] is a traumatic thing -- she's, shall we say, she's uptight," he said of a woman who is being raped. "She is frightened, tight and so on. And sperm, if deposited in her vagina, are less likely to be able to fertilize. The tubes are spastic."
Willke also contended that pregnancy is unlikely because half of rapists "do not deposit sperm in the vagina," either because (he said) many rapists aren't fertile and many prefer anal intercourse.
In the Democrat's eyes, being pro-life is a "war on women." Which totally ignores how many unborn girls abortion kills. And how girls are far more likely to be killed by abortion in some countries and cultures. So right there is a 2-sentence way to win the "war on women" that spineless, gutless, liberal RINO Republicans like Romney would never do.
Turns out the article’s author is the former head of the National Right to Life Committee and first espoused this opinion in 1985. As I’ve said elsewhere, this article is not an isolated piece. His opinion on rape and pregnancy is all over the web on tons of pro-life sites. Akin was espousing what’s considered common knowledge among pro-life organizations. They may be wrong, I don’t know, but he’s not stupid, or crazy, or anything like that.
Here are some interesting articles on how stress can cause miscarriage if not outright lack of fertility:
Stress 'linked to miscarriages'
Stress triples threat of an early miscarriage
Study: Stress hormones suppress fertility
If anything, Akin is guilty of being misinformed on the facts of stress-related miscarriages/lack of fertilization during the commission of a rape, but there's plenty of science to back up the claim that a woman's body can react to the stress of a rape in a way that she cannot control and that would result in no child being conceived.
Maybe, but every politician makes gaffes. No one says things totally perfectly all of the time. Akin and even all his prominent supporters admit he made a mistake with his phrasing and framing of his response. We just don't think he deserves the political death penalty over it.
No. We're about to "crucify" him because he didn't cite any article and because he is so tin-eared that he didn't realize how insensitive he sounded.
A politician can respectfully promote a no-exception policy for abortion by stressing the child's right to live. Minimizing the risks of pregnancy to the raped woman is just knee-slapping dumb.
We've got enough dumb in D.C..
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