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GOP congressman and Senate nominee Todd Akin: Rape is an effective form of birth control

Not a doctor, but plays one on TV.

Our completely incorrect biology lesson today comes not from Chateau Heartiste or The Spearhead or EvoPsychBullshitBeliever997 on Reddit but from an actual elected official with influence in the real world:  Republican Congressman Todd Akin of Missouri, currently his party’s nominee for Senate.

In a recent interview with KTVI-TV, the Fox affiliate in St. Louis, he explained that the ladies just don’t get pregnant from rape — well, “legitimate rape” anyway. As he put it:

From what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, 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. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child.

As The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake notes, this whole “rape as birth control” thing is not actually, you know, true:

Akin’s claim is one that pops up occasionally in social conservative circles. A federal judge nominated by President Bush in the early 2000s had said similar things, as have state lawmakers in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. …

According to a 1996 study, approximately 32,000 pregnancies result from rape annually in the United States, and about 5 percent of rape victims are impregnated.

Talking Points Memo notes that this isn’t the first time Akin has suggested that

some types of rape are more worthy of protections than others. As a state legislator, Akin voted in 1991 for an anti-marital-rape law, but only after questioning whether it might be misused “in a real messy divorce as a tool and a legal weapon to beat up on the husband,” according to … the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Akin: making up shit to deny rape victims their rights since 1991!

Currently, Akin has a big lead in the polls over his Democratic rival, sitting Sen. Claire McCaskill.

Here’s the relevant portion of Akin’s interview; you can find the whole thing at the Talking Points Memo link above.

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heidihi
heidihi
12 years ago

@Shade AAAAAAARGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH now it’s in my head. 😀

“NOTHING’S RIGHT I”M TORN!”

(wait i can’t remember if this was the yelling thread…oh well…ear-worms sometimes result in me yelling.)

Rahu
Rahu
12 years ago

trying this again, this time in the right thread…

Heidihi – thanks so much!

And, completely OT, but this is a great Onion article – http://www.theonion.com/articles/mars-rover-beginning-to-hate-mars,2072/?ref=auto

Vitamin D
Vitamin D
12 years ago

Apparently this dude had more to say on the matter. Dude, stop talking. Just go to your mansion and live out the rest of your awful-person life far away from people: http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/08/21/721791/akin-clarifies-legitimate-rape-comments-women-make-false-claims-about-being-raped/?fb_action_ids=10152023138465543&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map={%2210152023138465543%22%3A10152038301090082}&action_type_map={%2210152023138465543%22%3A%22og.recommends%22}&action_ref_map

thebionicmommy
thebionicmommy
12 years ago

I made a comment on this before, but it disappeared after I hit post comment. Sorry if this ends up being a double post.

They’re talking about Akin’s comment on the Spearhead now. Even W.F. Price thinks Akin is full of shit, although he also agrees with him that women are likely to falsely claim to be raped in order to get abortions. Price then said that because women are such lying liars, abortion should remain legal. Of course the comments are just as bad.

Oh dear lord, how sad is it that Akin is too extreme for even the Spearhead?

katz
12 years ago

Guys, check out this instructional video that tells you when it’s legitimate rape…in song!

(Stop me if I’m the last person in the world to discover this, but you have to look at her channel; all the songs are hilarious!)

pecunium
pecunium
12 years ago

Oh my goodness… Akin wasn’t the worst of the Republican Candidates in Missouri.

Cunt of the day

The mind reels.

thebionicmommy
thebionicmommy
12 years ago

Oh my lord! How many dipshits are in the Missouri Republican party anyway? I really do need to escape to Arkansas someday, as long as it’s one of the wet counties.

Rahu
Rahu
12 years ago

Quote by W. Kamau Bell:

“Hey, Representative Todd Akin. I have a question for you. If women can’t get pregnant from legitimate rape, then how come there are so many light-skinned black people walking around Alabama?”

pecunium
pecunium
12 years ago

Rahu: I don’t think you want to know what he really thinks about that.

pecunium
pecunium
12 years ago

This, btw, is a great piece in response to the Rapist Thread on reddit:

How not to be a legitimate rape victim

Hershele Ostropoler
12 years ago

I want to invoke Cliff’s Question and add that I know dudes who’ve been through some pretty vicious breakups, and who were not accused of rape.

Hershele Ostropoler
12 years ago

Reinhold Aman is a grade-A asshole whose divorce was so nasty his conduct got him a 27-month sentence*, but as far as I know he was never accused of rape.

*He served a bit under 16 before being released

Catfish
Catfish
12 years ago

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/08/27/751971/pennsylvania-gop-senate-candidate-getting-pregnant-from-rape-is-similar-to-having-a-baby-out-of-wedlock/?fb_comment_id=fbc_10151112810757508_23183562_10151113056687508&mobile=nc#fd5c47794777ac

I’d think someone would have brought this up somewhere around here at some point but, well… I wanted to link it anyway.
Distance themselves from Akin by equating rape with having a child out of wedlock. Stay classy, GOP !

Creative Writing Student

I’ve heard that their vice-presidential candidate thinks ‘rape is another form of conception’.

Falconer
12 years ago

“Hey, Representative Todd Akin. I have a question for you. If women can’t get pregnant from legitimate rape, then how come there are so many light-skinned black people walking around Alabama?”

Rahu: I don’t think you want to know what he really thinks about that.

I was pretty horrified at first, but I got to thinking about it, and I think it’s just ambiguously worded. I don’t know who this Kamau Bell is, but I think it’s legitimate to ask about white men assaulting black women.

The way it’s worded, of course, the first thing one may think of is black men Taking Our Virginal Daughters.

Gametime
12 years ago

@Falconer: From what I’ve seen of Kamau Bell, I think it’s pretty safe to assume he was talking about the first interpretation.

Rahu
Rahu
12 years ago

Yes, when I saw him say this, the understanding I got from it was that he was referring to rapes during slavery.

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