I say Akin was right; and AIN'T I A WOMAN?**

the conservative circular firing squad | August 22, 2012 | me

[shhrubbery!]

First, I'm a woman. (Seems to be an important qualification if one is to be allowed to have an opinion on "womens' bodies.")

I'm used to being attacked by the harridans of the Left, who claim that if you're a pro-life, then you're NOT A WOMAN.

But I'm not used to hearing conservatives knee-jerk to the idea that something is "idiotic" just because it's politically incorrect ... according to those same rabid harridans of the Left.

I think, like Akin did, that a woman's endocrine system CAN sometimes "shut down" the process of conception, or implantation, as a result of traumatic stress suffered by the woman.

It so happens there are respected physicians who believe this is possible too: Dr. John C. WIlkie, MD, OB/GYN. And there is some research that tends to back this up (see references at bottom of this page.

We may never have a 100% dispositive study that proves that pregnancy as a result of rape is rare. Real numbers are hard to come by. And sadly, any researcher who attempts an objective study is going to be excoriated like Mark Regnerus (who studied homosexual parenting) or Jay Belsky (who studied the effects of putting children in day care).

But many women know, intuitively, that what Akin said is not "imbecilic." Many women have experience with their endocrine systems going awry, due to stress. I myself have carried four pregnancies to term, but lost one, probably due to stress that caused an endocrine malfunction.

** "Ain't I a woman" is a quote from Sojourner Truth, a strong Christian black woman. She wasn't going to stand for her opinion being shut down because she was (a) a woman and (b) voicing ideas that weren't popular in some circles. And neither am I.

[shhrubbery!]

And he did say that in the original interview. People don't speak in short little monotone, factual statements. They engage in discussions and offer rationale for their positions.

Thanks for pointing that out.

The mistakes in verbiage he made were minor and are being blown way out of proportion. We can all agree he phrased things stupidly. But calling for him to drop out of the race because of it and denying him his expected funding is ridiculous.

Well said, totally agree!

[Tennessee Nana]

I am offended that anyone could say that there is such a thing as “legitimate” rape.
__________________________________________

Youre only so called “offended” because Willard said you should be...

He wanted to get rid of a pro-life Conservative opponent in the futrure Senate and so he rilled up the RINOs by including “millions of Americans” in his silly pantomime...

he was no more offended then most other people...

How dare he make it something personal for himself...

Even Gloria Stienum who was rapped got pregnant and had an abortion yesars begore it was legal wasnt as faintingly “offennded” as phony Willard was...

Willard decided he needed a crisis that wouldnt go to waste and so he selfishly created one using raped women...

I am deeply offended by the callous uncaring Willard......

Until I heard that foul mouth piece of vileness demand that i be “offended” i sisnt know I was suppose to be...

His message was “Be offended. “Millions of Americans” are. Youre not “normal” if you dont join them. Oh and by the way becasse “millioms of Americans” are offended I am too so see Im a nice person”

Nasty dunce...

Name one million of those “offended” Americans of yours Wee Willie...

Did you count them all yourself ???

[Swirl]

Why 1st trimester. Do you have some criterion for that other than its conveniently defined? Why not up until they are 2 years old?

[reasonisfaith]

Whenever people say we should believe something because all the right people are telling us to believe it, you can bet it’s probably not true.

[Lorianne]

Pregnancy from rape is rare, but not for the reason Akin gave. It’s rare because rape is relatively rare (thank God), rape at the exact right time of ovulation is even rarer, and even in consensual sex during ovulation it is not a given that fertilization, implantation and pregnancy will occur. All those factors are what makes rape-pregnancy rare.

His statement is factually wrong and the only conclusion one can come to hearing his comments is that he is calling into question the legitimacy of the rape of women whose bodies don’t “shut that down”.

[shhrubbery!]

You can't have it both ways, he basically went out and called women who got pregnant as the result of rape, "whores" or total liars.

No he didn't. "Basically" or otherwise. Stop miscontruing his words. I'm sorry to say this, but your posts on this topic have been very dishonest. But you knew that already.

And with that I'm REALLY bidding adieu for the night.

[icwhatudo]

"There's all sorts of amazing pro-life women that amidst unspeakable tragedy, found the strength to carry on, to value their child's life and this idiot basically spat on them by essentially calling them liars since they "couldn't" have actually gotten pregnant through rape."

Wow. Don't think I've seen a more dishonest post on FR in 14 years. Looking at the posting history (all 2 months of it) there are lots and lots of name calling and "I'm smarter than you". Hopefully he won't be around too much longer.

[soycd]

>There is no exception for rape when it comes to being against abortion.

Sorry but I don’t believe you. That would be the death knell for any party stupid enough to try it. Anyone trying to sell that load of crap is trying to get democrats elected.

I suppose you are going to say no exception to save the mother’s life either?

[Uncle Chip]

And the fact that 32,000 women per year get pregnant as a result of rape.

Those are more than likely mostly statutory rapes self reported by Planned Parenthood.

[JediJones]

He implied that if a woman’s body did not “shut that down” that she wasn’t legitimately raped.

No he didn't. Not in the slightest. You appear to have poor listening skills.

If you read the article he based his opinion on, his argument was directly parallel with it. The author says that if a woman is forcibly raped, as opposed to statutory, that pregnancy is a rare result due to stress and other factors. There is absolutely no attempt to smear anyone in the rare cases where it does happen. Being "rare" isn't a smear or an insult, it's just a statistical reality.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2921696/posts?page=50

[Mr Rogers]

Try convincing a swing voter. You’ve got 15 seconds, and he / she has already heard the media take.

Can’t do it? Then you’ve lost the election.

And if they associate those views with Republicans in general, you’ve screwed a lot of other candidates.

[PhxTM06]

Not really. If you're talking about a woman's menstrual cycle, then absolutely, stress can have a tremendous impact, but we're assuming a woman that is already ovulating, we're also under the assumption obviously that the rapist is fertile enough to have sperm reach the egg in the first place, other than that, you're talking about a system of pipes and tubes, fairly complex but the process is actually pretty simple. Its the same whether its a rape or consensual sex, the man ejaculates, the sperm goes off on its way, if it makes it to the egg, fertilization occurs, in rare cases there could be some reason that proper implantation doesn't occur, but once again, that is in very rare cases.

There certainly is no way for a woman's reproductive system to differentiate between desired and unwanted sperm, its all treated exactly the same, at least in the beginning, long term there's evidence that pre-eclampsia rates rise with exposure to "foreign sperm" that the woman doesn't have a tolerance for, but once again, this is 10% or less of all pregnancies, so still relatively rare.

Statistically we know women have about a 5% chance of ending up pregnant after being raped, not huge odds, but big enough to offer post-coitus contraceptives to rape victims at the hospital.

[Tennessee Nana]

Your hero Akin will make it harder for sidewalk abortion counselors to discuss choosing life with rape victims.

The reality is that a woman who may have chosen life... will instead keep her head down and walk into the abortion mill this weekend, because she doesn’t want to have to defend herself and try to explained she was ‘legitimately raped.’
_______________________________________

Youre creating a problem where there is none

A girl can just walk into a n abortion mill say I want an abortion

Plunk down her blood money

abnd have her baby napalmbed, sucked out cut in pieces a leg here a head there, poisoned, etc

No questions asked...

Planned Parenthood doesnt care if shes under age, raped the victim of incest, married, whatever...

theyre just interested in the bottom line

their business which they built thenselves...

from the bodies that God built...

The lovely Elsie has some colored pics for you to peruse...

[PhxTM06]

Have you ever heard the expression "if you're explaining, you're losing."

Moderates and independents will hear "legitimate rape" and "women's bodies have a way to shut that down", that is going to stick with them.

Okay, now you have 10 seconds to counter that with something that's easily understandable and explains the previous position....GO!

[Melas]

You’re right. Everybody else is wrong. With that I’m done with this thread.

[JediJones]

You mean to say that you found two guys aired on a midnight slot (literally) who are on the wrong side? You’re grasping at straws.

Gallagher's on at 9 AM here. Deace 9 PM. They were both absolutely right on Romney in the primary too. I respect their opinions and instincts FAR more than Coulter's and more than some of these other people. I believe they also both correctly picked Newt in the primary as the best guy to run against Obama. So I've found them both to have the most reliable principles and political sensibilities of most of the conservative talkers out there. Most importantly, they're fighting the causes I care about and aren't trying to tell me "this election is about the economy," which is nothing more than code for "we approve of killing unborn babies and inventing same-sex marriage."

[PhxTM06]

Yes of course, you can’t find a well-reasoned answer to disagree with me, so immediately resort to attempting censorship. How authoritarian of you.

[Uncle Chip]

Those who’ve condemned Akins are a who’s who of conservatism

Ohhh -- yeh sure -- Romney is just the paragon of conservatism, isn't he???

[TigersEye]

Easy question to answer. 1st trimester. Rape or incest. Don’t like it? Tough.

That's still murder. Don't like that? Tough.

[suthener]

She never had a chance. There is no way to logically defend her position. I didn’t get involved because I didn’t want to get into a battle of wits with the unarmed.