Rep. Todd Akin attempts to make the Missouri senate race a lot easier for his opponent Claire McCaskill by letting us know that women don't get pregnant from "legitimate rape".
Roll Call wrote:
Rep. Todd Akin, the Republican nominee for Senate in Missouri, justified his opposition to all abortion, even in instances of rape, by saying that “legitimate rape†rarely leads to pregnancy — comments that have set off a media firestorm in an already contentious race.
In an interview with a St. Louis television station posted today, Akin said that female bodies “[have] ways to try to shut that whole thing down†and that only rapists, and not unborn children, should be punished.
“First of all, from what I understand from doctors, [pregnancy from rape] is really rare,†Akin told KTVI-TV, in an interview first reported nationally by Talking Points Memo. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.â€
Akin (and Paul Ryan) were among those
trying to redefine rape this past last year to only include "forcible rape" where the woman could prove she physically fought the rapist.
Edit: Oops, that was in 2011, not 2012 Edited, Aug 19th 2012 9:38pm by Jophiel