Todd Akin's 'legitimate rape' and the Romney-Ryan war on women - VIDEO
Posted on Monday, August 20, 2012 at 10:05 AM
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| Republican's war on women |
Akin agrees with Paul Ryan that abortion should be illegal in all cases, even when a woman is raped and becomes pregnant.
Women who have been "legitimately raped", said Akin, have mysterious ways of shutting down the process whereby they conceive.
"First of all, from what I understand from doctors (pregnancy from rape) is really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down," he said.
Call it voodoo, or call it female intuition, but a women knows when a baby should not be born and she refuses to allow herself to become pregnant, he inferred.
Akin is challenging Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill, who I hope will shortly teach him a thing or two about reproductive biology and political campaigning.
Akin, by the way, sits on the House science committee, which explains why creationism and global-warming-denying are still such signature issues for the GOP.
It should be remembered that Akin and Ryan were the original co-sponsors of the extremist bill H.R. 3 'No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act' which included language which changed the definition of 'rape' to 'forcible rape' until public outcry forced them to change it back.
Like Akin, Ryan is not only anti-choice, he has been against abortion in all cases. Mitt Romney has said he would get rid of Planned Parenthood. So the war on women is back in the headlines and it's about time.
Akin himself has no question about what should happen if a women becomes pregnant through rape or incest and he said so: 'I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child.'
There you go ladies. If these are sentiments you can support then team Romney/Ryan are your men.
51 comments
BrianO | Aug 21, 2012, 11:05 PM EDT
The abortionist have the legality to perform their procedures, they are very robotic in the snuffing out of life, there are always scenarios that justify outcomes. I believe it is not as simple as anyone makes it out to be. The women who have a conscience and abort deal with emotions that rarely are discussed. In the end I wish the unborn the chance to be born. I do not think this will be accomplished by changing law but by changing attitudes toward the importance of life.
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BrianO | Aug 21, 2012, 10:58 PM EDT
eiriamach, I can easily relate to your story. It is much like my own. I was born and raised on a small farm in the west of Ireland - in the middle of seven sisters - and two older brothers. In between there were miscarriages and a still-born that almost took my mother's life. My mother worked in the fields with all of us and I learned about equality at an early age. My sisters' sweat smelled the same as mine and they worked just as hard - and I took my turn doing housework. We were mostly born in January and February - as we were conceived in the spring when my father would return from England for a few weeks to do what one local reporter wrote "... to fertilize their lands and their women." It was a hard, unforgiving life and my mother would tell me many years later how she dreaded the return of the man she truly loved for it would mean another baby. As children our greatest terror was that she would die and leave us alone in the world. Death was not uncommon around us, child-bearing women with large families, broken in health and in spirit just gave up. I often saw the despair in my mother's face and it haunted me. When I see the GOP and the church I was born into moralize about abortion and contraception I am enraged.
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BrianO | Aug 21, 2012, 07:08 PM EDT
SingleDonald, "...using force is the only realistic definition of rape." Come now, surely you can do better than that. Say you meet a woman in a bar and use a so-called date rape drug to render her unconscious or semi-conscious and therefore helpless. You haul her off to some apartment where you and perhaps some of your buddies all have a go on her. No force is used for no force is necessary. What would you call that? Was she having a great time but just didn't know it? The rest of your post suggests that you are better than this. I would suggest the following definition for the rape of a female: Carnal knowledge of a female by use of force or threat of force or against her will, consent or knowledge. This too needs work but it is better than defining it as limited to force only
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seanomelb | Aug 21, 2012, 06:38 PM EDT
Briano your take on womens rights is rooted in the 19th.century. Most republican women use contraceptives and some have abortions. Let's quit the hypocrisy and the holier than though attitude from the hypocritical GOP.
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EphraimKibbey | Aug 21, 2012, 04:31 PM EDT
I just saw that the evangelical right has given its blessing to Akin via Pat Robertson. They feel that he will do well in Missouri. The only good to come from this incident is the revelation of the true GOP agenda as demonstrated by so many here who actually defend Akin's and Ryan's ignorant beliefs.
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peterson | Aug 21, 2012, 03:28 PM EDT
The GOP has condemned Aiken for his stupidity. Planned Parenthood has also done stupid things such as offering sex education to pre-teen children and condoms as well.
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SingleDonald | Aug 21, 2012, 10:39 AM EDT
eiriamach,
I repeat, rape in never "legitimate", but using force is the only realistic definition of rape. To review your data, I never approved of, nor have I ever given a woman a "date rape" drug, or plied her with alcohol, to achieve intimacy with her. In fact, I feel it is best to drink soda on the first date. When in a bar, I don't believe I have ever bought a girl more than 2 drinks, usually beers. What disturbs me is the feminist culture which castigates all men for having heterosexual desires for women. Women DO look at men, but they seldom leer. With a little effort, we can look tactfully at women; I know I do! Be assured, I deplore those guys on college campuses, who take advantage of their girl class/schoolmates. I feel the "frathouse mentality" is not only offensive to women, but shows what jerks those men can become! A MUTUAL RESPECT between the sexes, is what we all should try to achieve. Finally, I must praise you for your sensible criticism, as I was prepared to defend myself against much worse!
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eiriamach | Aug 21, 2012, 10:27 AM EDT
Well said, yourself, TomS, and thanks for the kind words. One of my grandmothers died as a result of a late pregnancy, her sixth. The child survived, to live out a besotted life as an alcoholic, after her elder sisters sacrificed their own freedom to raise and educate the younger ones and care for their incapacitated father. In any family tree, going back just two or more generations, people can find deaths of mothers that coincided with births of their children, or deaths of women during complicated pregnancies. Just examine the death certificates. They obeyed the law and the Church, and many young children lost their mothers. How quickly we forget how dangerous those times were. I cannot understand how any woman or any man who cares about women can vote to return to the lunacy in the "personhood" bill sponsored by Ryan and Aikin.
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hollabackgurl | Aug 21, 2012, 10:21 AM EDT
Why are the GOP freaking out over Todd Aiken when Paul Ryan supports exactly the same policies?
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hollabackgurl | Aug 21, 2012, 09:48 AM EDT
eiriamach, my compliments. As always, you are the voice of reason, knowledge, intelligence and compassion. Brava! We live in very dangerous times. American women especially live in very dangerous times. I cannot imagine anything more detrimental to the lives and livlihood of women in the U.S. if there is a Republican sweep of White House and Congress in November. It is not too much an exaggeration to say that we will have a religious theocracy running the country. Checks and balance, our vaunted genious for compromise all gone. And for the country at large, a Darwinian nightmare, survival of the fittest, increasing wealth for the few, increasing poverty for the many.
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rpbrown | Aug 21, 2012, 03:26 AM EDT
It's interesting to me how much people in America will get upset over an abortion of a fetus (it's not an unborn fetus; there's no such thing as a born fetus) and then they sanction war and the death penalty. It seems to me if you're going to hold the commandment "thou shalt not kill", well, thou shalt not kill!! Ah but it's more convenient to and fun to have a double standard towards women and their sexuality and pretend abortion is some horrible crime. Get a grip. It isn't. It's not a human and it's safe to say if the woman comes to make this hard decision it's probably a good thing that child isn't in this world. And Lord knows there is enough of us here. There's no problem. Millions of us are going to die soon enough due to overcrowding. And to those schmucks, I couldn't give a crap if I was aborted as a baby. I guess I would have just remained in the bliss of God instead of coming onto this planet and listening to righteous morons like you. Leave women alone. If you're not a woman with a baby in your stomach, shut the f•ck up and mind your business.
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eiriamach | Aug 21, 2012, 12:30 AM EDT
BrianO, check the statistics since 1973 and earlier. Women do die without legal abortion. Roe vs Wade reduced both maternal mortality rates and infant mortality rates dramatically, and they have been falling steadily ever since the Supreme Court restored the privacy of abortion decisions. If Roe vs Wade is reversed by constitutional amendment or eroded by state laws, those mortality rates will rise again, no doubt about it. The 'war on women' is correctly named; the anti-abortion extremists are using lethal weapons.
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eiriamach | Aug 21, 2012, 12:11 AM EDT
SingleDonald, your remark that "Using physical force is the only 'legitimate', meaning realistic definition of rape" is as idiotic, dangerous, and offensive as Aiken's. Apparently you've never heard of date rape drugs or alcohol or incestuous rape of a child who does not know what's happening in time to resist. According to well documented data collected by "Crisis Connection" online, 43% of college men admit using coercive behavior to have sex, including ignoring a woman’s protest, using physical aggression, and forcing intercourse; 15% acknowledged they had committed acquaintance rape; 11% acknowledged using physical restraint to force a woman to have sex. College rape victims receive external physical injuries in over 47% of all rapes. And 60% of male college students 'indicated some likelihood of raping or using force in certain circumstances.' One in twelve college-age men admit having fulfilled the prevailing definition of rape or attempted rape, yet virtually none of these men identify themselves as rapists." Forty percent of men believe it is acceptable to force sex on women who drink on dates. "Every 21 hours there is another rape on an American college campus, and 90% of all campus rapes occur under the influence of alcohol." "Forcible" or not, rape is never "legitimate," and SingleDonald's position reminds me of the atavistic claim that unless a woman fought so hard that she's dead, murdered by her rapist, she wasn't really raped!
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hollabackgurl | Aug 21, 2012, 12:02 AM EDT
You've just confirmed that in your opinion a raped women ought to be forced to carry any resultant pregnancy to term. That's because for today's GOP religious theology surpasses reason. Republicans don't have political convictions now, they have articles of faith.
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