GOP congressman and Senate nominee Todd Akin: Rape is an effective form of birth control
Not a doctor, but plays one on TV.
Our completely incorrect biology lesson today comes not from Chateau Heartiste or The Spearhead or EvoPsychBullshitBeliever997 on Reddit but from an actual elected official with influence in the real world: Republican Congressman Todd Akin of Missouri, currently his party’s nominee for Senate.
In a recent interview with KTVI-TV, the Fox affiliate in St. Louis, he explained that the ladies just don’t get pregnant from rape — well, “legitimate rape” anyway. As he put it:
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 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 on the rapist and not attacking the child.
As The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake notes, this whole “rape as birth control” thing is not actually, you know, true:
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. …
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.
Talking Points Memo notes that this isn’t the first time Akin has suggested that
some types of rape are more worthy of protections than others. As a state legislator, Akin voted in 1991 for an anti-marital-rape law, but only after questioning whether it might be misused “in a real messy divorce as a tool and a legal weapon to beat up on the husband,” according to … the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Akin: making up shit to deny rape victims their rights since 1991!
Currently, Akin has a big lead in the polls over his Democratic rival, sitting Sen. Claire McCaskill.
Here’s the relevant portion of Akin’s interview; you can find the whole thing at the Talking Points Memo link above.
Like this:
Posted on August 19, 2012, in crackpottery, evil women, facepalm, imaginary backwards land, it's science!, misogyny, rape. Bookmark the permalink. 242 Comments.
he didn’t say something that ‘went against the grain’ he said something that was clearly scientifically inaccurate and showed a total lack of compassion for victims of rape. are you really this fucking stupid?
Several reasons based on conversations I have had with the nutters out here:
1. I am not like those “other people” who are just leeches. I have a real need for it.
2. If it is available I will use it but fight to get rid of it despite it meaning that it is not there for me in the future when something like this happens again.
3. I should get to decide where my hard earned money goes not some “bureaucrat” in DC.
4. Government is wasteful-private charities are the best method of helping others.
5. Abortion Abortion Abortion. Have to save the little babies! That we promptly then ignore. Those damn sluts deserve all that they get.
It has been the official party platform for decades dimwit. Not a “lone voice” but a voice echoing the mainstream of the Republican Party.
Noting obvious factual inaccuracies in politicians’ statements: is it actually crucifixion?
Common sense and grade 7 sex ed are misandry!
Anybody who cites “the exception that proves the rule!” has no idea what they’re talking about.
Period.
Exceptions in this sense don’t prove the rule at all.
http://www.snopes.com/language/notthink/exception.asp
Also, what Princessbonbon said. THIS IS THE PARTY LINE. Literally.
Exception my ass.
Yeah… that particular error/typo is a personal pet peeve, because it took me years of training myself to stop doing it.
But bad grammar does not a fallacious argument make.
Absurd premises? Yeah, those do.
Not to spam the thread, but I just got around to the Onion article. I sometimes have trouble with their flavor of satire… but that was pretty much the best thing they’ve ever done, right there.
@howard, thanks, but wrong thread I think
The Onion today is on a roll!
“Republicans Condemn Akin’s Comments As Blemish On Party’s Otherwise Spotless Women’s Rights Record”
http://www.theonion.com/articles/republicans-condemn-akins-comments-as-blemish-on-p,29259/
Sorry, I’m probably spamming this thread but I got to share the newest now. Akin has vowed he will stay in the race, come hell or high water. I really hope this means he’ll keep saying stupid, terrible things so McCaskill can win. He’s also losing a lot of his big money sponsors like Tamko and Karl Rove. Some of the right wingers are still backing him up though. This is what the Jasper County Republican coordinator said
from the front page of today’s Globe
So instead of looking at all of the real medical science that shows that Akin is wrong, he is relying on anti choice propaganda to back him up. Oh and he’s replaced the phrase “legitimate rape” with “forcible rape”.
@ostara: no, I was totally replying to something upthread. I, just, uh, got enthusiastic and didn’t bother quoting it.
Which makes it jumbled and out of place.
(sigh)
I’m gonna go get some more coffee and try this waking up thing again.
Well we all know “forcible rape” is the only rape that counts. /sarcasm
Honestly, part of me wonders if a lot of theses guys say this stupid shit to spare their consciences of having to examine things they or their friends have done that they aren’t proud of. Like that guy friend who’d take the girls who could barely stand from intoxication to his room or the dude who was always just a little too aggressive with the ladies or that one night where, well, she didn’t say no, but she tried to push him away and when he didn’t stop, just stayed still until he was done…
I know, I know, I’m a horrible mean meanie man-hating feminist for daring to imply that rape apologists might be rapists themselves, or know rapists, but I don’t think it’s too far of a stretch to figure that those who most vehemently employ apologist tactics about rape are probably doing so out of some sort of self-interest.
Every time Steeleypoo uses the word “imbroglio”, I always think of.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalie_Imbruglia
@Shade AAAAAAARGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH now it’s in my head.
“NOTHING’S RIGHT I”M TORN!”
(wait i can’t remember if this was the yelling thread…oh well…ear-worms sometimes result in me yelling.)
trying this again, this time in the right thread…
Heidihi – thanks so much!
And, completely OT, but this is a great Onion article – http://www.theonion.com/articles/mars-rover-beginning-to-hate-mars,2072/?ref=auto
Apparently this dude had more to say on the matter. Dude, stop talking. Just go to your mansion and live out the rest of your awful-person life far away from people: http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/08/21/721791/akin-clarifies-legitimate-rape-comments-women-make-false-claims-about-being-raped/?fb_action_ids=10152023138465543&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map={%2210152023138465543%22%3A10152038301090082}&action_type_map={%2210152023138465543%22%3A%22og.recommends%22}&action_ref_map
I made a comment on this before, but it disappeared after I hit post comment. Sorry if this ends up being a double post.
They’re talking about Akin’s comment on the Spearhead now. Even W.F. Price thinks Akin is full of shit, although he also agrees with him that women are likely to falsely claim to be raped in order to get abortions. Price then said that because women are such lying liars, abortion should remain legal. Of course the comments are just as bad.
Oh dear lord, how sad is it that Akin is too extreme for even the Spearhead?
Guys, check out this instructional video that tells you when it’s legitimate rape…in song!
(Stop me if I’m the last person in the world to discover this, but you have to look at her channel; all the songs are hilarious!)
Oh my goodness… Akin wasn’t the worst of the Republican Candidates in Missouri.
Cunt of the day
The mind reels.
Oh my lord! How many dipshits are in the Missouri Republican party anyway? I really do need to escape to Arkansas someday, as long as it’s one of the wet counties.
Quote by W. Kamau Bell:
“Hey, Representative Todd Akin. I have a question for you. If women can’t get pregnant from legitimate rape, then how come there are so many light-skinned black people walking around Alabama?”
Rahu: I don’t think you want to know what he really thinks about that.
This, btw, is a great piece in response to the Rapist Thread on reddit:
How not to be a legitimate rape victim
I want to invoke Cliff’s Question and add that I know dudes who’ve been through some pretty vicious breakups, and who were not accused of rape.
Reinhold Aman is a grade-A asshole whose divorce was so nasty his conduct got him a 27-month sentence*, but as far as I know he was never accused of rape.
*He served a bit under 16 before being released
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/08/27/751971/pennsylvania-gop-senate-candidate-getting-pregnant-from-rape-is-similar-to-having-a-baby-out-of-wedlock/?fb_comment_id=fbc_10151112810757508_23183562_10151113056687508&mobile=nc#fd5c47794777ac
I’d think someone would have brought this up somewhere around here at some point but, well… I wanted to link it anyway.
Distance themselves from Akin by equating rape with having a child out of wedlock. Stay classy, GOP !
I’ve heard that their vice-presidential candidate thinks ‘rape is another form of conception’.
“Hey, Representative Todd Akin. I have a question for you. If women can’t get pregnant from legitimate rape, then how come there are so many light-skinned black people walking around Alabama?”
I was pretty horrified at first, but I got to thinking about it, and I think it’s just ambiguously worded. I don’t know who this Kamau Bell is, but I think it’s legitimate to ask about white men assaulting black women.
The way it’s worded, of course, the first thing one may think of is black men Taking Our Virginal Daughters.
@Falconer: From what I’ve seen of Kamau Bell, I think it’s pretty safe to assume he was talking about the first interpretation.
Yes, when I saw him say this, the understanding I got from it was that he was referring to rapes during slavery.