Yeah, I bet you didn't expect a post title like that out of ole Sassy Cat, did you?
Missouri Congressman Todd Akin is a Republican candidate for the US Senate, running against incumbent Democrat Senator Claire McCaskill. Akin has been a member of the US House since 2000.
During a St. Louis television interview, Akin was asked if he would support abortions for women who had become pregnant as a result of rape.
Akin's answer:
"It seems to me first of all, from what I understand from doctors, that's really rare. If it is a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."
Now he is trying to backpedal, saying he misspoke. That was a pretty darn big "misspoke".
What do you think?
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Comments: 68
Am I understanding this right? The guy says a woman can prevent a rape......And wtf? And how is that suppose to happen...cause I must of slept through that class.
I don't even know what he was trying to get across in his statement. It didn't even make sense.....and, he didn't answer the question.
Talk about not living in the 21st century!?
Have you never been to, or known anyone well that had to go to a fertility doctor to conceive?
Stress, is certainly an incredible barrier to conception - is there anything more stressful than being raped?
If someone in the other party had said it, you would all be nodding and saying "yeah - thats right thats right - oh yea!"
Seems some folks love to hate so much, they wouldnt agree on the color of shite!
I suppose you don't know anyone who has ever been raped and gotten pregnant because of it?
No, I would not. And I don't know of anyone commenting on this post who would either.
That more describes the people who hang on the political posts, of which almost none of the people on this comment thread do.
And that is one of the most ignorant statements I have ever received on one of my posts.
The problem is you are keying in on a redundant phrase, and making an issue of it!
Based on the logic here, the term "consensual sex" is just as stupid, in that ANY 'sex" must be consensual, or it is rape, not 'sex'.
I ask againm do you not know anyone that had probelms conceiving, and were repeatedly told, to calm down, relax, the stress was the problem?
Thayt finally adopted, and then became pregnant?
How can you deny the messgae of what was said????????????
Yes, it was a dumb way to state it.
Ever hear "hot sun" - is there a cold sun?
You only hate it, because he is a republican.
yes - so very open minded of you - so up-to-date on fertility issues,
If it were not about the plitics, why did you write the article to begin with, and be SO critical?
unbelieveable - I wash my hands - sorry I saw ti scroll by, and was horrified at the biased speech, fully devoid of the topic it was written about.
Good Day
I have also had fertility issues, and been told I needed to de-stress my life, but it was a way of regulating my hormones and therefore, ovulation. I feel quite certain that if a woman who is ovulating is raped, she is just as likely as any other ovulating woman to conceive as a result.
You are so wrong on that. I am not one of those people who throw stones because someone is Republican or Democrat or Jewish or Hispanic or they don't like to eat beets or they watch Glee or anything else.
Because it was one of the stupidest statements I've heard in years. I would have done this post if it was spoken by an Olympic athlete or a movie star or anyone else, including one of my neighbors.
Thank you for stopping by and sharing your opinion! I find it unbelievable that anyone would defend that statement.
You do know that the Romney/Ryan camp disagree with Akin's statement? Their spokeswoman, Amanda Henneberg, said a Romney-Ryan administration would not oppose abortion in instances of rape.
Thank you for your comment! You bring truth, first-hand knowledge to this conversation, and make reasonable sense.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8765248
The article does say that pregnancy resulting from rape is a significant number.
The actual statistics it references, shows that it is certaily not common.
"The national rape-related pregnancy rate is 5.0% per rape among victims of reproductive age (aged 12 to 45); among adult women an estimated 32,101 pregnancies result from rape each year. Among 34 cases of rape-related pregnancy, the majority occurred among adolescents and resulted from assault by a known, often related perpetrator. Only 11.7% of these victims received immediate medical attention after the assault, and 47.1% received no medical attention related to the rape. A total 32.4% of these victims did not discover they were pregnant until they had already entered the second trimester; 32.2% opted to keep the infant whereas 50% underwent abortion and 5.9% placed the infant for adoption; an additional 11.8% had spontaneous abortion.
So in 95% of rapes, there was no pregnancy.
Aside from that, the purpose of this article was to ridicule the chosen words of "legitimate rape", which is no more silly than "consensual sex".
Both are redundant.
CONCLUSION: Rape-related pregnancy occurs with significant frequency. It is a cause of many unwanted pregnancies and is closely linked with family and domestic violence. As we address the epidemic of unintended pregnancies in the United States, greater attention and effort should be aimed at preventing and identifying unwanted pregnancies that result from sexual victimization.
PMID: 8765248 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Also, the abstract is from 1996. I wonder what the current statistics are? Statistically speaking, that's an average of 640.02 babies per each state in the U.S. per year. That sounds like a significant number to me.
Have we not heard the news stories about men who kept their daughter locked in the basement for two decades and fathered numerous children with them? Are we to believe that those daughters were not under duress during those decades?
Ask Jaycee Dugard whether she was under duress when her daughters were conceived. Snatched from the street in front of her home at 11, imprisoned in someone's overgrown back yard and living in a tent - and yet she was able to conceive... I don't know. Doesn't seem like all that much "fun" to me and I seriously doubt it could be defined as consensual under any stretch of the imagination. Yet Akin's words imply that she was not raped. Or perhaps it simply wasn't "legitimate" rape.
Akin said pregnancy from rape is "really rare". How could anyone consider 5% rare? One out of every 20 women raped getting pregnant is rare?
If one out of every 20 soldiers serving in the Middle East were killed or crippled ... would you consider that rare?
It is absurd for anyone to refer to 5% as "really rare".
Both are redundant.
Definition of redundant: Able to be omitted without loss of meaning or function.
So you think you can take away "consensual" from sex? That there is no difference between consensual sex and forced sex (as in rape)?
You are so clueless that it is not even funny.
The idea that some people think 5% is not significant, that it is rare, just appalls me.
Thank you for your input. I appreciate it.
Yes, not only was Akin's statement shocking in the "legitimate rape" and 5% being "really rare" aspects, the very most disturbing thing to me was the idea that a woman's body can ... apparently all of a sudden or even over a stretch of years ... protect itself from becoming pregnant. I just cannot believe some people honestly think that way these days. It is thoughts that belong in the dark ages. ugh!
Thank you for coming back and commenting.
Miss-Spoke is just the Beginning of His Problems.
Obviously he is misogynist and considers rape something not needed to be addressed and abortion in his eyes, illegal. I wonder what he would have said if the question didn't mention rape and abortion in the same sentence.
I have a feeling this was the beginning some real trouble for Akin. Some in his own party want him to pull out of the senate race. He had until 5:00 today (11 weeks before election) to be able to do that without a court order or something like that. I have not heard yet what he decided.
I loved that quote when I found it and post it and tweet it often. I am a woman, old enough I will never have to worry about pregnancy who believes in having a choice.
Long ago, when Clinton was running for president, I saw a sign in the back of a Catholic church urging people to vote for the Republican (I cannot remember who it was) based solely on the fact that the Republican was opposed to abortion. I was appalled ... and I'm Catholic. ;o)
I agree. The most shocking thing is that this came out of the mouth of someone who has been voted into US reps for 12 years, and is now looking for a senate seat. Akin is someone who makes our laws. And he thinks like that??
I agree with you Sassy.
That is a case of telling people what they want to hear and hiding what might cause them problems getting reelected. I think some of these politicians are very good at that. That could very well be their main goal ... the $$ and power of remaining in office, do and say whatever it takes. Now some want to kick Akin under the sofa. ha!
Thank you for commenting!
However, I would have NEVER had an abortion. Just my own choice.
And some of the things the Replications say the past several years just make me want to barf!