GOP Rep. Todd Akin: 'Legitimately Raped' Women Don't Get Pregant — Page 3

I've read other polls that say Akin actually got a bump among male voters.
Mike Huckabee took to the radio yesterday to defend Akin and remind us all that pregnancy from rape is really a gift from god.
He said "I used to work for James Robison back in the 1970s, he leads a large Christian organization. He, himself, was the result of a forcible rape. And so I know it happens, and yet even from those horrible, horrible tragedies of rape, which are inexcusable and indefensible, life has come and sometimes, you know, those people are able to do extraordinary things.”
I still don't get why the GOP wants him to resign since he's pretty much just towing the party line.
Horrible rapes created some extraordinary people.

"I think what he was talking about is all those ladies who pretend they were raped to get their free guberment abortions at Planned Parenthood."

I thought he might have meant that as well, Erik (not that that was much of an excuse for his idiocy). But yesterday he made clear that what he meant was "forcible rape." So he wasn't talking about fabricated rape he was only talking about "forcible" rapes - that is not statutory, e.g. not rapes where the victim can not consent because of youth or disability.

This clarification makes his statement 1) if possible, even more reprehensible than it might have originally appeared, as he has clearly implied that statutory rapes are a non-legitimate non-violation of a victim who, for instance, might be mentally disabled, or, say, 12 years old (good thing he wasn't on the Sandusky jury!), and 2) a stronger catalyst for a discussion of his and Ryan's efforts - they were cosponsors of the abominable legislation - to deny abortion rights to victims of statutory rape.

He is clearly stupid whereas Ryan is not. But they stand for the same tyranny.

Updated On: 8/21/12 at 12:53 PM

Double post.

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Updated On: 8/21/12 at 01:05 PM

This "forcible rape" crap is ridiculous. How any woman could vote for someone that uses the language of "forcible rape" is beyond me.

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Kirk to the rescue!

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If Akin were raped by a big scary dude, I wonder how he would feel if we determined it wasn't a legitimate rape because men can't get pregnant.

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Akin's position is in line with the GOP platform adopted for this election in Tampa.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/21/todd-akin-gop-platform-rape_n_1818532.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

Romney went on record right after Akin's comments defending abortion in cases of rape. RNC chairman Reince Priebus also said Akin's views didn't reflect the party's and that he should step down. Seems like this party needs to figure out what's going on...

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"This "forcible rape" crap is ridiculous. How any woman could vote for someone that uses the language of "forcible rape" is beyond me."

As a point of information, and not in any, way, shape or form an apology for the Republican majority platform - Akin's, Ryan's or the one about to be advanced at the Convention (which is to make "ALL" abortions unlawful) "forcible rape" is not the invention of the Republican agenda. It has long been a legal definition. And it serves a valid purpose and one safeguarding the rights of victims.

It differentiates rapes that are the result of physical force/compulsion from "statutory rapes," rapes which, by virtue of their not being the result of physical compulsion, would be consensual but for the victim's inability to consent under the law by virtue of her or his youth or disability. The importance of the distinction is not to "legitimize" and by implication "delegitimize" certain kinds of rapes. Nor is it to assert that one kind of rape is as a general proposition more egregious than the other. The point is that in order to convict a person of rape the trier of fact must find - as is the case with any other criminal charge - that certain elements of fact have been proven. Those elements of fact are different depending on whether the theory of culpability is force/compulsion or instead is that the complainant was unable to consent by virtue of her or his legal status. For instance in the Sandusky case, as I understand it, one out of countless sexual crimes was founded on force/forcible compulsion while the others were not so predicated but instead relied only on the inability of the victims to consent (in the legal sense of the word, not in the usual sense of the word) by virtue of their youth.

The operative point therefore is not that there is no such thing as a "forcible" versus a "non-forcible" rape. There in fact is such a distinction. It is a jurisprudential fact and has nothing to do - generally - with party politics.

The point is that all rapes - forcible and statutory - are "legitimate" violations of the victim. And the greater point is that all female rape victims should have access to abortion. As indeed - an equally important issue that is being sidestepped because of the more particularized idiocy exposed in the last couple of days - should be the case for all women.

Updated On: 8/21/12 at 02:32 PM

So he went from "not all rape is rape" to "women are liars". Excellent sideways move.

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But how does this new rape-lying angle circle back to the magical contraceptive secretions he brought up in the first place?

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WHY WOULD ANY WOMAN VOTE FOR A REPUBLICAN, I ASK?????

that's easy: organized religion.

Very funny song
Legitimate Rape