[BITList] Legitimate rape’

[x50type at cox.net]

    the republican’s war on women and effort to return to the 17th century continues................
    we now have ‘legitimate rape’ from this moron –akin.
    but bet you didn’t know the female body has ways to try to shut ‘the whole thing’ down...................
    wonder if chastity belts are in his arsenal of misguided morality?
    ct



      Todd Akin, GOP Senate candidate: ‘Legitimate rape’ rarely causes pregnancy
      Posted by Aaron Blake on August 19, 2012 at 3:28 pm
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      Rep. Todd Akin, the newly-christened GOP Senate nominee in Missouri, said this weekend that “legitimate rape” rarely causes pregnancy.

      Explaining his no-exceptions policy on abortions, Akin was asked why he opposes abortion even when the pregnancy is the result of rape.



      “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.”

      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.”

      Akin’s claim is one that pops up occasionally in social conservative circles. A federal judge nominated by President Bush in the early 2000s had said similar things, as have state lawmakers in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Politicians and activists who espouse this view often suggest that women who haven’t been raped will claim to have been raped in order to obtain an abortion.

      According to a 1996 study, approximately 32,000 pregnancies result from rape annually in the United States, and about 5 percent of rape victims are impregnated.

      Needless to say, this is territory that GOP leaders would rather not have Akin wander into. Getting into the particulars of “legitimate rape” (as opposed to what?) and the female reproductive system has the potential to make this a headache for the GOP and take the focus off of Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and President Obama, who is very unpopular in Missouri.

      Akin is also staking out some of the most socially conservative territory possible on this issue. Missouri is pretty socially conservative, but even many Republicans believe in abortion exceptions for rape and incest. A recent Gallup poll showed just 20 percent of Americans believe in no exceptions for abortion.
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