Republican Congressman and GOP Senate nominee in Missouri, Todd Akin, said this weekend that so-called “legitimate rape” rarely causes pregnancy.
Rep. Akin's remarks
Source: youtube.com
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 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.
Rep. Akin, currently the Republican nominee for Senate in Missouri, is a longstanding, outspoken opponent of abortion. He has, in the past, suggested banning the morning after pill in all cases. “As far as I’m concerned, the morning-after pill is a form of abortion, and I think we just shouldn’t have abortion in this country."
But even within the context of a pro-life argument, these recent remarks are hard to understand -- starting with the idea that one can categorize rapes as either legitimate or non-legitimate, and even more muddled by the concept that women can psychologically control whether or not they become pregnant after they are raped. One might be able to draw the conclusion from his comments that he believes that women who do become pregnant after they are raped didn't try hard enough to keep themselves from bearing the child of their rapist.
If you would like to see the comments in context, watch a longer cut of the interview here.
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