Sunday, August 19th — Misouri Representative Todd Akin (R) uttered the following statement about rape and abortion while on the Jaco Report:
“From what I understand from doctors, [pregnancy as a result of rape is] 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 of the rapist, and not attacking the child.”
To delve into analysis immediately, one can easily identify two crucial errors Akin made in his assertion. First, with the phrase “legitimate rape,” he suggested that there are varying degrees of validity of rape–that somehow, not all rape is forced upon a woman against her will. This contradicts our very definition of rape. President Obama’s response was, “The views expressed [by Akin] were offensive. Rape is rape and the idea that we should be parsing and qualifying and slicing what types of rape we are talking about doesn’t make sense to the American people and certainly doesn’t make sense to me.”
Second, Akin makes a medical claim which he himself is uncertain of, and, one would hope, any educated even moderately self-aware citizen of this country would know is entirely false. The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists released a statement on rape and pregnancy in response to Akin’s interview saying, “A woman who is raped has no control over ovulation, fertilization, or implantation of a fertilized egg (i.e. pregnancy). To suggest otherwise contradicts basic biological truths.”
Akin immediately began to feel backlash from outraged citizens (Check out Eve Ensler’s letter to Akin). Akin (he is currently running for the position of senator in Missouri) issued an apology later on Sunday, saying, “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. Those who perpetrate these crimes are the lowest of the low in our society and their victims will have no stronger advocate in the Senate to help ensure they have the justice they deserve.”
Despite the urgings of fellow republicans and even presidential candidate Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan, Akin refuses to pull out of the senatorial race.
How on-the-pulse is Akin with other Republicans on the topic of abortion? Has it really come to this, pro-life statements with false medical backing, in order to get everyone on the bandwagon against abortion even in the cases of rape and incest? As it turns out, Akin is not the first pro-life republican to insist on the existence of a so-called pregnancy preventing mechanism within women which activates during rape. Rachel Maddow gives examples of similar statements made over the past thirty years by pro-life republicans in a segment titled “Anti-Abortion Extremists Mainstreamed to GOP Leadership”. For example, in 1988, representative Stephen Freind (R) of Delaware county said that with rape, the odds of a woman becoming pregnant are “one in millions and millions and millions,” because “rape, obviously, is a traumatic experience. When that traumatic experience is undergone, a woman secretes a certain secretion, which has a tendency to kill sperm”
Further, what can we expect from our Republican presidential candidate and his recently announced running mate’s stance on abortion? Romney claims to support abortion only in the cases of rape or incest while Ryan opposes all forms of abortion, with the possible exception in the case of the mother’s life being endangered by the pregnancy. Ryan and Akin co-sponsored the Sanctity of Human Life Act which would give an embryo “personhood” and, therefore, the right to be protected by the United States Government. (The document uses language such as “forcible rape”, not disimilar to Akin’s use of “legitimate rape”) Will we see the argument of pro-choice versus pro-life mount center stage as a result of Akin’s comments as the GOP convention approaches? How will the Obama campaign react to that? More to come.
Hi Becky-This is a really great article. I like that you showed medical opinions of what Akin said. I wonder how what Akin said, and the overarching offensiveness at the hand of the GOP in general, affects Hewitt students, as young women who will soon be exposed, if they are not already, to the harshness of reality in terms of conservative’s views of women? Great article!
This article clearly covers Akin’s controversial words and really does show that the limits to which people are willing to go in order to convey an idea and persuade an audience of it are ostensibly very far. Well covered and nicely written! The title is especially intriguing.