Some conservative pros already calling for Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) to withdraw as the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate over his “legitimate rape” comments.
Senate nominee and Rep. Todd Akin has now issued a statement in response to his “legitimate rape” conception remarks. He says he misspoke and how much he empathizes with the victims of rape.
But as you can see he doesn’t actually address the center of the controversy — his claim that if women are really raped (“legitimate rape”) they have biological defenses that prevent conception.
From a messaging perspective, his staff clearly wants to blow past the whole with a generic statement of good faith. (Because really, what’s he (or they) going to say? ‘I believe this completely crazy theory that women’s bodies reject sperm from men they don’t consent to sex with but now that everyone’s freaking out I realize it must not be true’?) He doesn’t disavow the original statement at all. Which leaves the obvious question unaddressed: does Akin really believe that women have an innate defense against pregnancy if they don’t consent to intercourse?
By now you’ve probably heard that in an interview released today, Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri, the Republican nominee for Senate, said that women’s bodies had an innate but unspecified mechanism that prevented pregnancy in cases of “legitimate rape.” Presumably, everyone reading this knows that as important as consent is, it is not a prerequisite for conception. Read More
Rep. Todd Akin is not a doctor. His own congressional bio says he worked as an engineer and a steel plant manager before running for office.
But he’s heard from doctors that rape victims’ bodies spring into action to prevent a resulting pregnancy. Why Akin needs to assert junk science is unclear, since he doesn’t believe women who do get pregnant as a result of rape should be allowed to seek an abortion, either.
I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves here, but I’m going to go on the record that a Posse Comitatus presence among the refineries and petrochemical plants along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans would be a bad thing.
TPM Reader JB says Paul Ryan has a point about the auto plant closures in Wisconsin:
I grew up in Kenosha, WI, and while I think Ryan’s remarks are hypocritical in light of his more recent remarks on the bailouts and on the stimulus, I think his criticism of the Obama administration with respect to the GM and Chrysler plants is fair.