Legitimate rape? No problem.

[Copernicus]

I can just picture all these old men sitting around a table and seriously explaining to each other how rape and pregnancies work. Is it any wonder that Republican-dominated legislatures around the country have been taking up the hard work of regulating female reproductive behavior? :sarcastic

 

[Alceste]

I wonder where Akin got this idea?

Here is a reprint of a 1999 article from Christian Life Resources, written by a Dr John C Willke, former president of the National Right to Life Committee.
Christian Life Resources

In 1995, Republican North Carolina State Rep. Henry Aldridge told the N.C. House Appropriations Committee, "The facts show that people who are raped -- who are truly raped -- the juices don't flow, the body functions don't work and they don't get pregnant. Medical authorities agree that this is a rarity, if ever."

In 1988, Pennsylvania Republican State Representative Stephen Freind claimed that women rarely get pregnant from rape, because violent attacks cause temporary infertility.

The odds that a woman who is raped will get pregnant are "one in millions and millions and millions," said state Rep. Stephen Freind, R-Delaware County, the Legislature's leading abortion foe.
The reason, Freind said, is that the traumatic experience of rape causes a woman to "secrete a certain secretion" that tends to kill sperm.

(SOURCE)
​

​

In 1980, former attorney James Leon Holmes wrote in a letter proposing a constitutional ban on abortion, "Concern for rape victims is a red herring because conceptions from rape occur with approximately the same frequency as snowfall in Miami."
He is now a GW Bush appointed Federal Judge



FTR, according to a 1996 article in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, "among adult women an estimated 32,101 pregnancies result from rape each year."

Wow. Is there no limit to the subjects where republicans are willing to completely fabricate their own totally unsubstantiated set of "facts"?

 

[beenie]

Wow. Is there no limit to the subjects where republicans are willing to completely fabricate their own totally unsubstantiated set of "facts"?

Apparently not.

 

[Revoltingest]

Wow. Is there no limit to the subjects where republicans are willing to completely fabricate their own totally unsubstantiated set of "facts"?

And the Dems are better? Each side has its area of creative factifying.
But yes, there are no limits. Anything which can be said, will be said.

We should have some sympathy for those who start with the premise that religious dogma is the basis for all knowledge,
including science. One may construct elaborate arguments from such premises, & reach "true" conclusions which unfortunately
fly in the face of unexpected & stubborn reality. Then these poor souls must have their absurdities rubbed publicly in their faces.
Life is hard for them, so we should spare them the embarrassment of serving in elected office. Help the poor man step down.

 

[Alceste]

And the Dems are better? Each side has its area of creative factifying.
But yes, there are no limits. Anything which can be said, will be said.

We should have some sympathy for those who start with the premise that religious dogma is the basis for all knowledge,
including science. One may construct elaborate arguments from such premises, & reach "true" conclusions which unfortunately
fly in the face of unexpected & stubborn reality. Then these poor souls must have their absurdities rubbed publicly in their faces.
Life is hard for them, so we should spare them the embarrassment of serving in elected office. Help the poor man step down.

Sadly, I think people usually just vote for the home team. Unless he's from a swing state, I can't imagine any amount of incompetence will cost him his job.

 

[Reverend Rick]

I'm speechless.

 

[tumbleweed41]

U.S. House Representative Steve King (R)

In an interview this week with KMEG,

REPORTER: You support the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act that would provide federal funding for abortions to a person that has been forcefully raped. But what if someone isn’t forcibly raped and for example, a 12-year-old who gets pregnant? Should she have to bring this baby to term?
KING: Well I just haven’t heard of that being a circumstance that’s been brought to me in any personal way and I’d be open to hearing discussion about that subject matter. Generally speaking it’s this: that there millions of abortions in this country every year. Millions of them are paid for at least in part by taxpayers. I think it’s immoral for us to compel conscientious objecting taxpayers to fund abortion through the federal government, or any other government for that matter. So that’s my stand. And if there are exceptions there, then bring me those exceptions let’s talk about it. In the meantime it’s wrong for us to compel pro-life people to pay taxes to fund abortion.


This was brought up during a discussion of HR. 3, a bill co-sponsored by King, Akin and Paul Ryan. The bill called for exemptions in the ban on federal funds for abortion only in the case of "forcible rape". That language was removed after Democrats and women's advocates objected.

 

[Alceste]

U.S. House Representative Steve King (R)

In an interview this week with KMEG,

REPORTER: You support the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act that would provide federal funding for abortions to a person that has been forcefully raped. But what if someone isn’t forcibly raped and for example, a 12-year-old who gets pregnant? Should she have to bring this baby to term?
KING: Well I just haven’t heard of that being a circumstance that’s been brought to me in any personal way and I’d be open to hearing discussion about that subject matter. Generally speaking it’s this: that there millions of abortions in this country every year. Millions of them are paid for at least in part by taxpayers. I think it’s immoral for us to compel conscientious objecting taxpayers to fund abortion through the federal government, or any other government for that matter. So that’s my stand. And if there are exceptions there, then bring me those exceptions let’s talk about it. In the meantime it’s wrong for us to compel pro-life people to pay taxes to fund abortion.


This was brought up during a discussion of HR. 3, a bill co-sponsored by King, Akin and Paul Ryan. The bill called for exemptions in the ban on federal funds for abortion only in the case of "forcible rape". That language was removed after Democrats and women's advocates objected.

By that logic, there should be no federal funding for wars either.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Gutless little twerp!

 

[Alceste]

Gutless little twerp!

Ah, so Missouri is a swing state after all. I guess he's toast.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I'm willing to accept that "legitimate rape" was mispoken, but his claim that a woman's body somehow has some magical defensive mechanism against pregnancy from rape is absurd, as is his claiming that pregnancy rarely happens from rape.

 

[beenie]

I'm willing to accept that "legitimate rape" was mispoken, but his claim that a woman's body somehow has some magical defensive mechanism against pregnancy from rape is absurd, as is his claiming that pregnancy rarely happens from rape.

I'd love for him to tell a woman who was impregnated through rape that her body's "magical mechanism" failed, and that pregnancy from rape is rare. For the woman who conceives after a rape, it's 100%.

What a moronic thing to say.

 

[Gjallarhorn]

Rape Results In More Pregnancies Than Consensual Sex, Not Fewer | Popular Science

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

From CNN:

Republican Rep. Todd Akin allowed a state deadline to pass Tuesday, defiantly staying in the race to unseat Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill despite mounting calls for him to withdraw over incendiary remarks on rape and pregnancy.

Under Missouri law, Akin would now need to get a court order to pull out of the race as he waited beyond the 5 p.m. deadline. He would also be required to pay for any necessary reprinting of ballots.

But Akin said he has no plans to drop out. He cited what he called a grassroots conservative movement in the country that needs a voice in government for his decision to reject increasing pressure from his own Republican Party, congressional colleagues and others to step aside.
"I'm in this race for the long haul and we're going to win it," Akin told conservative radio host Dana Loesch.

He spoke minutes after five past and present Republican senators from Missouri, including highly regarded figures John Danforth and Christopher "Kit" Bond, added their voices to widespread calls for Akin to end his campaign.

 

[Father Heathen]

From CNN:

​

I hope Missouri doesn't embarrass itself by actually electing this guy.