Unless you have been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard about Todd Akin’s comments and the firestorm ignited by them. As this blog is the place where I toss my toxins, I felt like I should weigh in. I have good friends who are rape survivors and this could be triggering so please click on the cut if you want to read what I have to say. Oh yeah, comments are closed because this is not up for debate. Those who want to talk with me civilly know how to get in touch with me.<\/p>\n
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Here are his original remarks as reported by the Washington Post<\/a>:<\/p>\n Rep. Todd Akin, the newly-christened GOP Senate nominee in Missouri, said in an interview airing Sunday that ??legitimate rape?? rarely causes pregnancy.<\/p>\n Explaining his no-exceptions policy on abortions, Akin was asked why he opposes abortion even when the pregnancy is the result of rape.<\/p>\n ??First of all, from what I understand from doctors, (pregnancy from rape) is really rare,?? Akin told KTVI-TV in a clip posted to YouTube by the Democratic super PAC American Bridge. ??If it??s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.??<\/p>\n Akin added: ??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.??<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 32,000 pregnancies resulted from rape last year and those were the rapes that were reported — many rapes aren’t reported to the authorities. RAINN<\/a> reports that around 5% of rapes result in pregnancy. Exactly how is that rare? And if a woman can shut itself down, why is there even a debate about contraception? I mean, if my body was really capable of that, I wouldn’t need the Pill if I wanted to avoid pregnancy.<\/p>\n Akin backpedaled later saying this (again, from the Washington Post<\/a>):<\/p>\n ??In reviewing my off-the-cuff remarks, it??s clear that I misspoke in this interview and it does not reflect the deep empathy I hold for the thousands of women who are raped and abused every year,?? he said. ??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.??<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Uh yeah. Did I mention that he has a daughter? How is his daughter going to feel after seeing this?<\/p>\n Romney and Ryan distanced themselves from him, saying that:<\/p>\n “[they] disagree with Mr. Akin??s statement, and a Romney-Ryan administration would not oppose abortion in instances of rape.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n President Obama’s reaction was simple: “Rape is rape.”<\/p>\n The reason his words are causing such a firestorm is that it’s the latest in what has been a trend of Republican lawmakers saying and doing things that make it difficult for women to bring their rapists to justice. Some other examples include an Idaho lawmaker claiming that women use rape as an excuse to get abortions, Akin himself claiming that women will cite rape as a strategy in divorce hearings, and states requiring women to undergo transvaginal ultrasounds in order to obtain an abortion if raped. That last one is probably the most heinous in my opinion. A women has just been violated — why is it acceptable to violate her again with an ultrasound wand in the name of medicine?<\/p>\n The event that has precipitated me getting on my high horse is seeing someone in a Facebook group claim that Akin’s words were misconstrued. Somehow, I don’t believe for a bit that his words were misconstrued. I believe that he might have misspoke but his mistake was a slip up that revealed ultimately how he feels about the issue. He isn’t my Congressman nor is he running for Senate in my state but I think that his words should give his constituents pause in considering whether or not to vote for him. Do the women in Missouri really want someone representing them who doesn’t believe that rape is rape, regardless of the circumstances?<\/p>\n I’m aware that all politicians misspeak from time to time but he should know, being in the public light, that words are his currency, and they carry a power that exceeds anything he can imagine. As a public figure, you cannot “un-say” something and in the case of Todd Akin, he said something that was based on faulty science and something that was frankly inexcusable. He could bring up the abortion issue and not bring up rape — he was the one who chose to bring it up. As such, he needs to face the consequences.<\/p>\n I’ve received petitions to tell Todd Akin to drop out of the race, for my current Congresscritter to censure him, and I believe that this needs to be his decision, just as it is the decision of Missouri residents as to whether or not he should represent his state in the US Senate. All I’m saying is that if he was running to be my state’s senator, I would be loathe to vote for someone to represent my needs who doesn’t believe that a violation of my body is an actual violation of it, or who wants to put limits on my ability to seek justice for it.<\/p>\n And for the record, I would speak out just as sharply if it had been a Democrat who slipped up in the verbal department.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Unless you have been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard about Todd Akin’s comments and the firestorm ignited by them. As this blog is the place where I toss my toxins, I felt like I should weigh in. I … Continue reading