“Legitimate Rape” Rarely Causes Pregnancy? Sorry… What??
- By Simple Politiks
- 19 August, 2012
- 36 Comments
“First of all, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare,” Akin said of rape-induced pregnancy in an interview with KTVI. A clip of the interview was posted online by the liberal super PAC American Bridge.
“If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,” Akin continued. He did not provide an explanation for what constituted “legitimate rape.” - CNN Report
Oh man, am I excited to see the Daily Show/Colbert Report tomorrow night!
While the Congressman was technically right about the rarity of impregnation after rape, his implication was misleading and insensitive. Pregnancies that occur due to rape are not halted in any significant way by biological defenses in the female body… In fact there are tens of thousands of resulted pregnancies because of this atrocious crime.
Statistics on pregnancies that result from rape are difficult to produce, since rape is a crime that often goes unreported. The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, along with Planned Parenthood, each estimate that 5% of rapes lead to pregnancy. A 1996 study from the Medical University of South Carolina found the same percentage, adding that 32,101 pregnancies occurred annually from rape.
Furthermore, why does the rarity of the issue have any sway in this debate? Especially when we’re talking about rape victims? Your justification for controversial action should not be: “Well, it only affects a very small minority of the population.” Instead, you should stop dodging the question and give a firm answer with rationale justification. Otherwise you are just using extremely faulty logic which shouldn’t be taken seriously. I may feel similarly about life and abortion, but the Congressman should not have said that. And what do you know? It turns out he didn’t mean it after all:
“In reviewing my off-the-cuff remarks, it’s clear that I misspoke in this interview and it does not reflect the deep empathy I hold for the thousands of women who are raped and abused every year. Those who perpetrate these crimes are the lowest of the low in our society and their victims will have no stronger advocate in the Senate to help ensure they have the justice they deserve.”
Try to stick with the facts next time, Congressman.
Copyright © 2013
Thanks!
Anytime!
Wait a minute. I don’t know who said what or which side of the infant murder issue you are on, but you are listening to Colbert for your information? Really? Please, please, understand that you are watching a comedy act of self-indulgence, and self-promotion. Profit. Not that there is anything wrong with profit, but you should know what it is all about. These guys have gotten to the point where they take themselves seriously. Don’t fall for that crap.
Haha of course I’m not. I was just implying that Colbert and Jon Stewart are going to take off on this Senator’s statement. It’s just asking to be turned into a comedic bit.
As I’ve already stated in my post about abortion and the death penalty (one which you just commented on, thank you for that!), I don’t think life should be destroyed in this circumstance. But just because I hold the same stance as the Senator here, that does not mean he is free from my ridicule. His response was misleading and insensitive. He shouldn’t resort to such claims again.
I really wonder how some of these candidates get nominated.
Haha, sometimes it’s a mystery. I’m not a fan of the way he articulated this issue, but it gets much worse. He’s against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. That’s just plain ridiculous.
Wow, I have to be honest, I haven’t read much up on the guy, so I’m just making general assumptions to what his views are. But after learning that, it makes me sad that he gets nominated for a National Election and will probably win (based on polls) while having such an extreme stance. You honestly think the country is over with having such guys in office and states such as Missouri are over the Civil War.
Up until today I knew nothing about him. Now I know those two positions and his Tea Party affiliation. Seems too extreme for government, which is the last thing we need right now =\ (who knows, maybe he’s got some really good policies too… That’s a possibility, I haven’t researched him enough). We’re already polarized enough and two extremely polarized groups don’t get anything done. They just try to sabotage each other while they inevitably destroy any hope of progress from the inside. Once the economy turns around then I have a feeling we’ll begin to see the more extreme groups recede. It’s just a matter of when…
ridiculous? that would depend why? Are those laws Constitutional? regardless of agreeing with the intent or sentiment a law must be pursuant to the enumerated powers in The Constitution to be a valid law. Still think it is ridiculous?
A good question. How are they unconstitutional?
Great post. Keep shining a spotlight in inanity.
In criminal psychology there is a way of making a psychopath tell the truth: you overload him/her with questions and external sensory data and eventually the subconscious will take over most functions to compensate to the overload of processing in the conscious mind. Cops love that technique, because it makes confessions easy. I wouldn’t be surprise if that was his actual view point on that matter. I haven’t heard legitimate rape in awhile now. Having studied sex crimes and hearing a representative of the people say that makes one wonder if we are going back in time or if they want their own version of a shaira law. Forget muslim infiltration, the christian version has landed already and is well stablished… they just don’t want competition with other believes. But that’s just my opinion.
What a total fool that guy is. Seriously.
I really appreciate your ‘hold ‘em accountable’ approach. I think the press needs more of that. It is my perception that people are swayed much too easily by simply believing the things they read. I think it’s good to give them some things to chew on if they use news media to make decisions.
Outside of his constituents, why should anybody care what this guy thinks. He is one outlier not a representative of all Republican thinking.
For the sole reason that people should not accept misleading information. If this Senatorial candidate is condemned nationwide then others like him (there are plenty) will be more hesitant to spew more misleading information. Nobody has to care, but everybody should recognize that his statement was incorrect.
Criticism towards this candidate should not be viewed as an attack on Republicans. Unfortunately, more often than not, our politically divisive culture will do just that.
I can’t seem to find the lke button but I like this post…very nteresting
I am afraid for this country when things like this happen. I believe that some issues should be left to the people. Too many candidates focus on the social issues rather than things such as jobs, the economy, etc. It may just be me, but I’d rather we have a better economy rather than tell our neighbors what they can and can’t do in regards to controversial issues. Anyway, I cannot wait to see what Colbert/Jon Stewart so with this as well. Especially Colbert.
its a classic example of republicans finding some facts (often from questionable sources) and establishing incoherent links between them. Its childish and it is dangerous.
Heh. My girlfriend mentioned this to me the other day; I could hardly believe the story. What a positively bizarre thing to say. I particularly like the point you made about the irrelevance of the “small minority of the population” argument. There does seem to be a tendency to shift the focus off the actual issue, I’ve found. The back-peddling he did in that last statement was almost painful to read, though.
I have to say, he screw up, but instead of seeing both parties banding together to say “we agree that he is an idiot”, all I see is people divided. That massive division doesn’t even allow for the people in the middle to show what they think. As a moderate I’d probably be killed in U.S. politics, because all I see are polarized sides fighting for power wihtout care for the people below and in the middle. His view is disturbing and instead of placing people’s views and necessities first all I see are grow up children trying to impose their ideologies in an arbitrary way. I thought U.S. was a democracy for the people by the people. I miss the day that lobby didn’t had that much power in any place of the planet. But that’s just me.
What a strange thing to say! I mean, what does it matter (legally) if victims get pregnant or not – they’re still victims.
What a strange thing.
As a fan of the proper use of grammar, I understood from the beginning what Todd Akin was trying to say, although as everyone has pointed out, his choice of words was poor. The use of the word “legitimate” in this case could have easily been swapped with the word “actual” or “true” followed by the word “rape”. He was implying that in his understanding of the mis-use of statistics by doctors who apparently misled him, if a woman is truly raped, (he thinks) her biological processes would prohibit pregnancy. This implies that if a woman is impregnated and claims it was the result of rape, that she is possibly making a false claim of rape in the first place…
I do not agree with that opinion, but, if 5% of known rape cases result in pregnancy while a much higher percent of “legitimate” love-making result in pregnancy, then an argument can be made for his case. I do not know what the percentage is for each case… It seems case studies are not readily available, and I have scoured the web looking.
My own personal research says that in much less percentage of love-making sessions were my wife and I able to conceive… I’d be willing to say for us, it was far closer to 1% of the times (or less) that we made love resulted in pregnancy… In fact, I’d venture to say FAR LESS than 1%, considering in 6 years of actively trying to build a family we conceived only 2 children. So my own study (only me and my wife as subjects) would tend to disprove the studies referred to by Akin’s doctor references…
Either way, my point is, he correctly used grammar and word usage, although it was unfortunate in the way it was received and misunderstood. Disagree if you want, as I don’t really care other than my interest in correcting stupidity on both sides… The article by Simple Politiks is a good one. I just find the understanding level of people who use this language everyday to be far lacking.
I completely agree with you about his usage of “legitimate rape”. I think he was fumbling in his mind to find the right word and it just came out that way. Whether doctors misled him or he came up with the next part on his own (the part about a woman’s biological defenses), I’m not sure. Regardless, if he’s going to talk about it so much as a social conservative, then he has to know the facts. Just how it works. If it was truly accidental then I don’t think this should be a huge deal. Certainly not make or break for the campaign. But there’s no way to know for sure… And the damage is done =\
Again, I agree with your observation about poor wording. The “legitimate rape” term was most likely a mistake.
As for the actual statistics with pregnancies, I’m not sure. I wouldn’t know from personal experience because I’m only 19. However, I can say that a sample size of 1 is very unreliable. 5% could be a little high, though. It wouldn’t surprise me.
Thanks for commenting!
Hey Akin, tell that to Aileen Wuornos, the woman executed in Florida in 2002 for the killing of several men. She had been repeatedly raped and eventually impregnated by her grandfather’s friend when she was only 14. I highly doubt that didn’t constitute “legitimate rape,” especially when taken in light of conditions in her early homelife. She placed the child up for adoption. Turned into a horrible travesty that aided in deeply disturbing this woman (in conjunction with other forms of severe abuse she experienced), culminating in her winding up on a path to nowhere and insanity. Very tragic story really.
Our politicians need humility. They need to remember they have constituents as well. We can never forget, however, that these people come from us. It’s imperative to look at ourselves when making accusations. Having said that, this dope is dipshed. That’s what you get for trying to make your words and “beliefs” do too much. Just stand on your principles. SP is right, the rarity of this has nothing to do with anything. The female body shuts it down? What kind of weird and sick confidence leads you to say something like that? I think a moment of pause for the women who have had that happen, regardless of their number, would have called for some respect. Instead we get stupid words. Does he know how many words there are in the world? One day politicians will learn how ineffective and flaccid their words are. Dip your hands in this or that government program to make these or those voters happy for a few years. Find some principles and provide a foundation for your voters. View them as the people of the United States of America, instead of a means to your next set of forced respect and open legs. People like this need an office to be respected. You dope.
Until we learn to find our own morality, we’ll never find better in office.
Akin made a terrible blunder and could cost the GOP the chance to gain a majority in the Senate. I’m so sick of Harry Reid using his position as majority leader to serve as Obama’s unquestioning lapdog in the Senate. ObamaCare deserves to be repealed but with Akin’s idiocy, we may not get that chance at all.
First time to visit but let me just say that you have a great blog here. Regards.
Thank you very much, that means a lot!
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What an absolute dickhead this guy is!
The people of his constituency need to re-evaluate their choices and vote accordingly next opportunity
this is thorny for the elephants given their platform plank which states they wasn’t to eliminate abortion constitutionally.
Thanks for coming by my place and liking my piece on Akin
Those republicans are keeping some really interesting secrets from us. Also, THAT WHOLE THING? Did he forget how it’s called?
Just know that Akin isn’t representative of all Republicans. Many believe abortion is okay after conceiving from a rape and the others that oppose it aren’t like Akin. There are some, but not the majority of them.
Maybe that doctor was a PhD from a minor college….or they were both drunk at the time (that happens with people from both parties)
Inexcusable comment.
Men (on both sides) really need to shut up about this issue – they can’t possible understand – so just shut up. Better to be thought a fool than to open mouth and remove all doubt.
And you are right with your comment to Narita.
If you’re referring to rape then I agree with you. It’s impossible to understand that fear or devastating experience.
If you’re referring to abortion then I’ll have to disagree with you. It would be nice if it was that simple, but the debate encompasses a few things that extend beyond a woman’s own body.
Thanks for the contribution! And I’m glad you agree with my previous comment!