Todd Akin Fallout: Rape, Abortion, and the Dark History of Qualifying Violence Against Women

[maddezmom]

It’s Code Red as Republicans try to distance themselves from Representative Todd Akin’s recent startlingly inaccurate biology lesson. Claiming that victims of what he called “legitimate” rape could somehow “shut down” the process of conception, Akin, who sits on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, has since tried to dismiss his remarks as boorish, one-off musings. (He meant to say “forcible rape,” not “legitimate rape.”) Obama issued an unequivocal statement that “Rape is rape.” Meanwhile, a Romney-Paul spokeswoman quickly clarified that their administration would permit abortions in cases of rape.

But the story doesn’t end with a bizarre, unscientific comment about how reproduction works. This embarrassing episode is only the latest in a long string of Republican rape canards that present a binary view of female sexuality where some women are deemed worthy of legislative sympathy while others are not.

The ignorance is reaching a new crescendo but it goes back decades. We heard from periodontist-turned-lawmaker Henry Aldridge that women who are “truly raped” can’t become pregnant because the “juices don’t flow.” Others, including a Federal judge, have called pregnancy from rape as likely as “snow in Miami” and “one in millions in millions,” while some have embraced specious claims about the effect of emotional trauma on conception from “assaultive rape” (so called), and other science-bending notions. Former state representative Stephen Freind once opined that raped women “secrete a certain secretion” to prevent conception. (If such a thing existed, surely the pharmaceutical industry would like to hear about it.)

More recently, vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan drew fire for language in the co-sponsored No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act that initially distinguished between “forcible rape,” and statutory rape of minors or non-violent rapes that could affect mentally impaired, retarded or drugged women.



Read more: http://ideas.time.com/2012/08/21/todd-akin-fallout-rape-abortion-and-the-dark-history-of-qualifying-violence-against-women/#ixzz24CIPunUl

[summerschild]

1. Maddow covered it well last night.

She gave some history about "God's little shield" and the real GOP platform they'd really rather not talk about right now.
Kind of like their tax plans and killing Medicare. Akin's remarks were just offensive enough to make the general public aware. It's vital that people understand it's not just that he's a nut. THEY'RE ALL NUTS.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#48732520

Another Maddow blockbuster, in my opinion.

[Blue_Tires]

2. kick

it's the anti-science, the proud, willful, completely unapologetic ignorance that shocks me the most (along with the brain dead voters who enable these assclowns)

[RC]

3. It seems to me that Todd Akin's "legitimate rape" is being made to be the equivalent "Real Rape"

As opposed to consensual rape, maybe?
Could it be, that Todd was actually referencing "Justifiable Rape"? You know, as being legitimate, and therefore OK?

Who really knows what thoughts goes through that obviously damaged brain of his.
And what is really dangerous about all this, are the people that agree with and support him still. I saw an news interview with two collage age Republican women and they were defending Todd Akin! The disconnect was unbelievable.

While we would be better served by breaking out the long knives, pitch forks and fire brands for a late night party, there are still women supporting Todd Akin? The mind reels.