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You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Women's Rights / The War On Women / Rep. Todd Akin (R – Assholeville) Makes Up a Definition of ‘Legitimate Rape’: He’s Not an Extremist in the GOP

Rep. Todd Akin (R – Assholeville) Makes Up a Definition of ‘Legitimate Rape’: He’s Not an Extremist in the GOP

by Imani Gandy (ABL)|  August 20, 20122:37 am| 41 Comments

This post is in: The War On Women, Vagina Outrage, Women's Rights Are Human Rights

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asiangrrlMN gives Todd Akin the treatment he deserves over at my joint:

I’m so mad I could stab someone with my rusty pitchfork™

And by someone, I mean Rep. Todd Akin (R – Complete Jackholetown). By now, it’s all over the Twitter Machine what this asshole has said about ‘legitimate rape’ and pregnancy. Here is the quote:

It seems to me, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare [pregnancy from rape]. If it’s a legitimate rape, uh, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something. You know, I think that there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child.

First of all, Imma need the names of those doctors Akin mentioned because otherwise, this falls into the category of pulling bullshit out of one’s ass – which is exactly what he’s done. Or, he’s reading too much of this and/or this. The first link is for a website of purported pro-forced-birther physicians, so it’s conceivable that they are the doctors Akin so cavalierly dropped into the interview. If you don’t want to dip yourself in the filth, the link basically throws out a bunch of stats and crams them into a preconceived notion. In other words, utter bullshit. A 1996 study has shown that 5% of rapes result in pregnancy. Here’s a link to the abstract of the study. Please note, roughly 32,000 pregnancies from rape a year occur, according to the study.. Contrary to Akin’s bullshit, that is not ‘really rare’, and I doubt the numbers have substantially changed since then. Understandably, it’s not easy to determine exactly how many pregnancies are a result of rape, but I will take the numbers from the study over the bullshit fantasy numbers from Physicians for Life any day.

Secondly, the female body does not have magical ju-ju that can turn off the baby-making process at will. Just fucking stop it with that made-up bullshit. That wouldn’t even pass Biology 101, jackass. It’s a fucking disgrace that a standing member of the House Committee Science, Space, and Technology can say something like this on television and not be immediately shunned from society. The fact that he said this without any apparent remorse is damning and disgraceful to us as a society. The political climate has become such that this is not even that outre for the Republicans, and they get no push-back from the traditional media. Fortunately, we have social media to do what traditional media won’t, and I’ll get to that in a minute. Right, now, I’m demolishing Akin’s incredibly idiotic quote which, though short, is the stupidest thing I’ve heard in at least a week*.

Thirdly, forcing a woman to carry her rapist’s baby to term is punishing the woman, not the fetus or the rapist. For many women**, being raped is the worst thing that can happen to them. Being raped strips away your security, shatters your world, and indelibly changes you; it can take a lifetime to grapple with the ramifications. Now, add to that becoming pregnant by your rapist. The aforementioned study cited that 50% of the pregnancies by rape ended in abortion. That means that there are women who choose to have their babies in this situation – and that is their right. That is their, dare I say it, choice. But, imagine if a woman had been raped and abortion were against the law so she were forced to carry her rapist’s fetus to term, whether she wanted to or not. Remember, she just underwent something no person should ever have to experience and is dealing with an ongoing nightmare. Many rape victims already feel as if their lives mean little after they’ve been raped – this kind of law is the perfect way to reinforce that idea by reminding her every day of the rape in a very tangible way, by insisting she’s nothing more than a brood mare, by decreeing that the potential life inside of her trumps her own very real life and sense of well-being/worth.

What Akin proposes is simply cruel to victims of rape. He’s gotten major flak for it on Twitter – so much so, he’s issued a follow-up statement. I refuse to call it an apology because it’s nothing of the sort. He’s not sorry for what he said – only sorry that he’s getting so much heat for having said it. He claimed he misspoke, reiterated his main talking point that abortion is of the debbil even though rape is really really bad, and trashed Democrats in three short paragraphs. Here’s an excerpt of what he said:

….Those who perpetrate these crimes [of rape and abuse] 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.

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…

Akin cannot state the first sentence and then believe the bolded (by me) sentence to be equally true because they are contradictory in nature. If Akin truly believed that rape victims should have the justice they deserved, that would include the fucking right to do with their bodies as they choose – especially right after they had that choice taken away from them so violently by their rapists.

The post goes on to further decimate Akin, Romney, Ryan, and the GOP. It’s a glorious rant. You should read it.

[read full post at ABLC]

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Reader Interactions

41Comments

  1. 1.

    CW in LA

    August 20, 2012 at 2:49 am

    Hey, it’s okay: The Gekko/Galt campaign issued a statement saying they don’t agree with him.

  2. 2.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    August 20, 2012 at 2:50 am

    I can’t think of anything to say about this, other than BARF at that guy.

  3. 3.

    Yutsano

    August 20, 2012 at 2:52 am

    That’s my wifey getting her full rage on. I’m so damn proud of that woman.

  4. 4.

    bago

    August 20, 2012 at 2:53 am

    Someone should go “Bill O’Reilly Producer” on him to continue to generate news cycles. A cell phone video of a person at a town hall asking “should rapists should pay child support?” would be a media magnet.

  5. 5.

    MikeJ

    August 20, 2012 at 3:00 am

    @bago: Child support? Deuteronomy 22 says he owes her dad 50 shekels and then he has to marry her.

  6. 6.

    Pavonis

    August 20, 2012 at 3:04 am

    It’s times like these when I think that male politicians should just abstain from making decisions on matters affecting only women. Leave it up to the experts, i.e., those who have to live with the consequence of the law to decide.

  7. 7.

    pseudonymous in nc

    August 20, 2012 at 3:11 am

    I’m going to step back from this specific case of utter ignorance.

    I’d like to see a genuine Conservapedia, that’s to say, a compendium of empirically false and crazy things that lots of wingnuts believe to be true. There’s clearly a long history of the “if you get pregnant, it wasn’t rape” quackery; 17 years ago, the quack explanation was “the juices don’t flow”. This stuff is not invented by dim troglodytes in their spare time: there are mechanisms to propagate and preserve it among true believers, and the quackery evolves over time, but it only emerges rarely in public discourse.

  8. 8.

    dance around in your bones

    August 20, 2012 at 3:18 am

    Jeebus, I wish this guy could get raped and then get pregnant.

    I bet, like so many conservos he’d change his tune if it happened to him.

    Empathy, motherfucker, how does it work?

  9. 9.

    Geoduck

    August 20, 2012 at 3:18 am

    We may have, amazingly, found a point where the GOP refuses to march over the rightward cliff en mass; even over on Free Republic, the general tone is not one of support or justification, but “how could this idiot be this impossibly stupid!?” It’ll be interesting, a train-wreck kind of way, to see what tack Limbaugh et al take.

  10. 10.

    Brachiator

    August 20, 2012 at 3:21 am

    I got no words for this. I am too goddam angry.

  11. 11.

    TheMightyTrowel

    August 20, 2012 at 3:24 am

    @dance around in your bones: He’d change the rules so that when people named Todd Akin and directly related to him got raped and pregnant they could get an abortion. Empathy is not something most adults can learn – they either got those muscles young or didn’t get them (cf. Cheney’s support for gay marriage due to lesbian daughter who wanted to gay marry her partner did not extend to actual better protection for gay people not his daughter/in her immediate circumstances or other people oppressed by the legal frameworks of their nations)

  12. 12.

    dance around in your bones

    August 20, 2012 at 3:37 am

    @TheMightyTrowel: Sadly, I know you are correct. Truly, what most conservatives seem to lack is the ability walk a mile in another person’s moccasins.

    Kind of a prerequisite for being a human bean ;)

    Seriously, if guys could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament (thanks, Florynce Kennedy).

  13. 13.

    xian

    August 20, 2012 at 3:42 am

    @Geoduck: yes but they only think he’s stupid because he admitted what they all believe.

  14. 14.

    David Koch

    August 20, 2012 at 3:47 am

    @MikeJ:

    Deuteronomy 22 says he owes her dad 50 shekels and then he has to marry her.

    there you have it, it is written.

  15. 15.

    piratedan

    August 20, 2012 at 3:54 am

    Charles over at LGF is all over this as well, due to his favorite person Dana Loesch over at CNN is so busy defending Akin in the twitterverse.

    Media Matters link with details:

    http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/08/19/cnns-dana-loesch-excuses-gop-rep-akins-legitima/189439

  16. 16.

    kay

    August 20, 2012 at 6:33 am

    I personally think they’re trying to make a legal distinction between statutory rape and when an adult female is raped and abortion.

    I don’t think he misspoke and I don’t think Ryan disagrees with him.

    I think they’re trying to exclude minors from exceptions where abortions would be permitted.

    That’s what Ron Paul is up to with that “forcible” rape distinction.

    It is absolutely amazing how complicated and layered anti-abortion terms and speech and language are. They literally speak a different language. We were all so shocked when they re-wrote the rape definition in one of the tens of abortion bills that came out of the House. When they were caught they hastily pulled the language, but there is a reason this keeps happening.

    Anti-abortion people are refusing to admit that they DO make these distinctions, and they are refusing to admit WHY they make these distinctions. That “movement” is completely based on dishonesty and trickery. You really have to wonder: if their cause is so just and righteous, why all the lying and dissembling?

  17. 17.

    kay

    August 20, 2012 at 6:51 am

    I also love how I have been reading these love letters written about Paul Ryan since 2009 by political media and they are just now getting around to mentioning that he is FRINGE on women’s issues.

    Half the population, women, and Ryan’s wacko far Right religious views on women are an afterthought that is covered mostly on blogs.

    The deficit is far, far more important to political media than basic norms and rights for half the population. Imagine if Obama had chosen a VP who had such fringe views ANYTHING. It would be front page news.

    But it’s about women so it doesn’t matter.

  18. 18.

    Suffern ACE

    August 20, 2012 at 7:19 am

    @kay: Well if they came right out and said “we want to police miscarriages to see what you did wrong.” they might lose support. One of tge implications of the mystery secretions (you’d think medicine would have provided a specific name for them by now) is that the pregnancy would be evidence in favor of the defendent in a rape case. People I guess get pregnant when they want to or turn the juices on when they need to.

  19. 19.

    Douglas

    August 20, 2012 at 7:22 am

    @kay:
    You give them far too much credit… this isn’t about minors, it’s just another version of that “she was asking for it” bullshit.

  20. 20.

    Southern Beale

    August 20, 2012 at 7:25 am

    I wrote about this over at my place, too. I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised to learn that Rep. Todd Akin is on the House Committee on SCIENCE, Space & Technology.

    This is what passes for “science” at the Republican Party, people. They’re a party of ignorance, plain and simple. Tweet it, Facebook it, put it on a fucking bumper sticker because it’s the truth. Republicans are the Party of IGNORANCE. If you want to be ignorant, vote Republican.

  21. 21.

    Kay

    August 20, 2012 at 7:36 am

    @Suffern ACE:

    I wish they’d take up Roe, and the whole line of Roe privacy cases. Let’s put contraception back on the table, because without Roe there’s no reason the lunatics can’t outlaw contraception. When this whole thing started, they were arresting people for distributing contraceptives, and they’ll do it again. I think liberals should bring the legal challenge. Call their bluff. Dump it in Justice Roberts’ lap, and give sanctimonious Kennedy a chance to OPINE.

    I’m tired of the threats and dishonesty. They’re chipping away at it year by year anyway, and in the interim we have to listen to idiots like this. Just bring it already. They’ve been threatening women with it for 30 years. Let’s see if they have the political spine to follow through. I think they don’t. I think they use it to fundraise and keep women on shaky ground and deliver these endless, politically-motivated lectures to promote their careers.

    I’m tired of playing defense. Let THEM defend for a while. Liberals should bring the case. I’d love to see this deeply dishonest “movement” dissolve into sheer panic at the thought of losing their moral trump card.

  22. 22.

    Donut

    August 20, 2012 at 7:58 am

    @kay:

    But, but, but, Joe Biden flipped a metaphor used by Ryan, and there were some BLACK people in the audience! Same thing! Both sides do it!

  23. 23.

    jim filyaw

    August 20, 2012 at 8:42 am

    the r & r boys are running from akin like he’s got the plague, but i wish someone would do a poll to see how akin’s thoughts play in the “real” g.o.p. i’m bettin’ even money that a majority (perhaps well over) would agree with him.

  24. 24.

    debbie

    August 20, 2012 at 8:50 am

    Considering that some PA state rep also brought this up recently, I’m beginning to think that this is some sort of talking point that some group somewhere thought would be a good issue. ALEC might be a stretch, but I wouldn’t bet against some sort of Michelle Bachmann-backed effort.

    Also interesting that this comes up after Boehner’s order to lay off the social issues until after the election.

  25. 25.

    WereBear

    August 20, 2012 at 8:57 am

    @debbie: They won’t be ignored anymore! (Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction.)

    They have been steeped in the Tea Party water for so long the brown stains look like Victory!

  26. 26.

    quannlace

    August 20, 2012 at 9:07 am

    So Romney/Ryan came out against this today. S’cuze me, but wasn’t Ryan one of the sponsors of a national Person-hood law that would outlaw abortion in ANY circumstance.
    I’d like somebody to ask him that at his ‘Town Hall’ meeting today in NH. I put Town Hall in quotes cause I want to know exactly how they’re going to fill that hall. Invitee’s and vetted republicans only?

  27. 27.

    quannlace

    August 20, 2012 at 9:22 am

    Oh, and Iove the usual weasely ‘I misspoke.’ How do you misspeak for an entire paragraph?

  28. 28.

    Paul in KY

    August 20, 2012 at 9:33 am

    @kay: Same as GWB & tax cuts. Basically they will tell any lie as a justification for their worldview, which is no abortions, period.

    Then they’ll say the ends justify the means (unironically).

  29. 29.

    Soonergrunt

    August 20, 2012 at 9:50 am

    @Geoduck: The freepers are not mad at him for saying something so devoid of empathy. They’re mad at him for saying something so devoid of empathy in front of outsiders.
    They believe this shit. They’re mad at him for giving the rest of us a peek behind the curtain.

  30. 30.

    dance around in your bones

    August 20, 2012 at 9:54 am

    @quannlace:

    “I misspoke” is just weasel-speak for “I said something I am being criticized for! Backsies!”

    “Plus, you never heard it, now.”

  31. 31.

    EL

    August 20, 2012 at 11:20 am

    Aside from the study cited by CDC, there’s all those women from war zones who got pregnant – guess their rape wasn’t “legitimate” either? In Rwanda, it’s estimated 2000 to 5000 children were born as a result of rapes during the genocide.

  32. 32.

    EL

    August 20, 2012 at 11:22 am

    @debbie: “I’m beginning to think that this is some sort of talking point that some group somewhere thought would be a good issue. ”

    This is a delusion of some among the forced birth community. If it’s a “real” rape, the women doesn’t get pregnant. Therefore, we don’t have to talk about abortions for rape victims!

  33. 33.

    Quaker in a Basement

    August 20, 2012 at 11:42 am

    Keep your eyes on the pea under the shell, folks.

    It’s not that Akin has any particular animosity toward rape victims. He’s just trying to pretend like they don’t really exist.

    Why? Because he and his fellow travelers want to make abortion illegal for all women, no exceptions. He fears that any available exception will be exploited by immoral secularist floozies as a way to thwart his theocratic ambitions.

    If we let Akin, et al, set the battle line at the rape exception, we’re giving up lots of ground.

  34. 34.

    D. Mason

    August 20, 2012 at 12:00 pm

    Even if what he said were true it were incredibly rare. Even if the female body did have some instinctual function to lower fertility when in distress what difference would that make regarding the law? I don’t see any link between the rarity of a need and it’s legality when it does occur. Obviously his statement has plenty of other holes too, but this one jumped out at me first.

  35. 35.

    Paul in KY

    August 20, 2012 at 12:27 pm

    @EL: Whole lot of slavic looking Germans born in early 1946.

  36. 36.

    EL

    August 20, 2012 at 1:40 pm

    @Paul in KY: Yup. Surprising how that magical anti-rapist sperm shield fails in war zones.

  37. 37.

    karen marie

    August 20, 2012 at 1:53 pm

    @Geoduck: I am not getting out of the boat into those waters but I can’t imagine they think Akin stupid because of what he clearly believes but because he said it out loud.

  38. 38.

    karen marie

    August 20, 2012 at 1:58 pm

    @Douglas: Minors are merely collateral damage.

  39. 39.

    Quaker in a Basement

    August 20, 2012 at 2:19 pm

    @Paul in KY: And German-looking Slavs just a few years prior to that.

    Coincidence or miracle?

  40. 40.

    Ruckus

    August 20, 2012 at 3:16 pm

    @Soonergrunt:
    Are you saying that conservatives are a cult?

    I’m OK with that, they sure act like one.

    BTW it is a cult of assholes. Complete, total, slimy, selfish, stupid, reckless, fucking assholes.

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  1. [link] Akin’s “legitimate rape” comment is smarter than it seems « slendermeans says:
    August 20, 2012 at 9:00 am

    […] Rep. Todd Akin (R – Assholeville) Makes Up a Definition of ‘Legitimate Rape’: He&#… (balloon-juice.com) […]

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