Todd Akin: Just Another ‘Pro-Life’ Republican

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Todd Akin: Just Another ‘Pro-Life’ Republican

August 20th, 2012 11:01 pm Jason Sattler

Appearing Monday on Mike Huckabee’s radio show, Representative Todd Akin (R-KS), the embattled Republican candidate for Senate, expressed regret for his bizarre comments about “legitimate rape” over the weekend. “I’ve really made a couple of serious mistakes here which were just wrong, and I need to apologize for those,” Akin said. “There is no such thing as legitimate rape. It’s an evil act and it’s committed by violent predators. …”

Later on Sean Hannity’s radio show, Akin addressed his assertion that women who are the victims of so-called “legitimate rape” are not likely to get pregnant. He claimed to have read a medical report confirming this notion, but now no longer believes it. He probably read such a claim because it’s common in pro-life circles, along with the canard that abortion causes breast cancer. It’s a central part of the argument many conservatives make when suggesting that abortion should not be legal, even in cases of rape and incest.

In reality, 25,000 rapes a year result in pregnancies, a fact that pro-lifers go to great lengths to dispute. Why? If a woman can only be impregnated when she’s consenting, this justifies completely criminalizing all abortions.

The crusade to ban all abortions includes many if not most elected Republicans. The runner up in this year’s GOP primary Rick Santorum endorses it, along with Rick Perry. Even soon-to-be vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan was anti-abortion rights without exception — until he became Mitt Romney’s running mate. Romney once bragged about having the support of the man who helped Akin come up with his views on “legitimate rape.”

Romney now claims he believes in exceptions for rape and incest — yet when he was pursuing his party’s nomination, he supported the Human Life Amendment, which promotes a ban on all abortions and certain types of birth control.

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Tags: anti-abortion, bryan fischer, legitimate rape, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, rape, Reproductive Rights, sean hannity, todd akin

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_B6RROC4IUESHT322QS5VJVPYRM Lynda

I hate the term ‘pro-life’ as it incorrectly defines folks like this cretin from Kansas. He is not pro-life in the true meaning of the term. He is an abortion zealot. Pro-life should mean caring for the well being of our citizens, raising our children with the opportunity for full and productive lives, health care, good nutrition and a safe environment. Fear of the uterus that Akin and his ilk suffer from is not pro-life by any stretch.

dham69

Hey is pro life, and if you werent so tied up in something that kills the unborn child, then you would understand what he was saying. He didn’t say anything wrong, he just didn’t clearify it correctly. He is talking about the person who would say that they were raped just to have an abortion. Why because of pro choice = pro death of a child, people like you.

mah101

No, he DID say something wrong, demonstrably false, and dangerously misinformed. Three points:

1) Rape is rape. Period.

2) The idea that women can’t get pregnant from “legitimate” rape is mind-blowingly false, and says that if she IS pregnant, it is her fault and she deserves no consideration from anyone. Frightening in its ignorance and implications.

3) At no time did Aikin ever consider the rights of the victim. The woman has no consideration in his view – but that stands to reason since she can’t get pregnant from “legitimate” rape.

There certainly are differences of opinion and conscience when it comes to abortion. That is good, there should be. It is a serious decisions with profound consequences.

But, this is just stupid.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_B6RROC4IUESHT322QS5VJVPYRM Lynda

So you don’t believe in the well being of our citizens, raising our children with opportunity, health care, good nutrition and a safe environment. Good to know. I hope you’ve paid attention and have read the comments of mah101 who has shown you the error of you thinking. BTW, I’m not tied up in something that kills unborn children as you seen to believe. Read my comment again without your fear and distrust clouding your judgement.
http://www.facebook.com/dominick.vila.1 Dominick Vila

If this was an isolated statement, I would accept your explanation, but it is not. Paul Ryan, Todd Akin, Allen West and other Tea Party members of Congress passed legislation last year redifining forcible and statutory rape and they have, consistently, offered opinions or proposed “solutions” designed to undermine women rights.
I only support abortion when the life of the mother is at stake and in cases of rape or incest. I oppose it when it is performed because of social or professional considerations, in part because I believe there are plenty of contraceptives available to prevent getting pregnant, but mostly because even though I am not a religious person I use the Ten Commandments as the moral compass to govern my life. Which means that I do not support the death penalty, I only support war in the case of self defense, and other issues that people inclined to give divine attributes to precepts they purportedly believe in should embrace.
What Akin said was irrational, and I do not believe he misspoke. He said what he believes in.
http://www.facebook.com/dominick.vila.1 Dominick Vila

Some of us understand what he meant what he said, that his record in supporting legislation to undermine women rights is crystal clear, and that while protecting the life of any living form deserves respect that commitment must be extended to the MOTHER as well as the unborn child.

dham69

Doesn’t undermine womans rights, what about the right of the unborn child??? Or is this child just trash. I am PRO-LIFE you are PRO_DEATH OF A CHILD. FACT

http://www.facebook.com/maggie.croft.92 Maggie Croft

dham, he said what he said. I am not for abortion to be used as birth control, but no woman should be forced to bear a rapist’s child. That rapist may have passed on some sociopathical genes.

dham69

I totally agree with the birth control thing, However when it comes to rape, and not something made up just because they want an abortion (look at all the false claims of rape out there, just to find out that it wasnt true). but in case of an actual rape then this HAS TO BE THE WOMANS choice, although the child is innocent, its the mother who has to carry this for 9 months and it will be a reminder for 9 months and longer. So it has to be the mothers choice, a choice of her well being.

english_teacher

You’re right. Someone like Akin and his cohorts are not pro-life by any stretch of the imagination. Calling the people who are against abortion pro-life just reinforces their propaganda by creating the idea that if you’re against the “pro-lifers”, then you’re anti-life. They are anti-choice, bigoted anti-choice zealots.

http://www.facebook.com/dominick.vila.1 Dominick Vila

Pro-life? How can a man that enthusiastically endorses sacrificing our mothers, wives, daughters and sisters if that is what it takes to save a zygote or fetus be labeled pro-life. Are we saying that the life of a woman has no value and that she should happily accept her fate when a OB-GYN tells them that their pregnancy will cost them their lives? Who arbitrated this trade off? Ryan, Akin, West and the rest of the Tea Party crazies that past legislation last year to minimize the importance of forcible or statutory rape? Who gave them the right to judge and sentence women, the anti-Christ?

english_teacher

Actually, that’s exactly what these men are saying, that women are chattel, their life has no value except that given to them by their men. In their minds, women are too ignorant to be able to think for themselves, to know what is best for them, to make decisions for herself. If we want to see the result of that mindset, we need only look at the Taliban in Afghanistan. There’s very little difference between them and the christianist extremists. Just the difference of symbols: cross vs. the crescent moon. They’re brothers beneath the skin.

http://www.facebook.com/dominick.vila.1 Dominick Vila

I agree, although I believe what influences the beliefs and actions of Tea Party religious zealots on the issue of women rights is their conviction that the role o a woman in society is limited to procreation, baking cookies, and participating in social events…until they get old, at which time our naenderthals do a Gingrich or Edwards and replace them with a newer model.
The efforts made by people like Ryan, Akin, West and others when they engaged in the redefinition of what constitutes rape, and wrote and passed legislation to that effect, were not designed to protect the unborn, they are designed to bring women to submission by denying them the rights every citizens should have in a civilized society. Their action also highlight the fact that when they talk about being pro-life they are actually talking about trading the life of a woman for the possibility of saving her unborn child.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_7DKWSXHQIDBW5PUAPZ2HZAYYUY Baron Cormac

Welcome to the wonderful world of right-wing, fundamentalist Christian, Conservative Republicans. These folks work off a very short playlist (except when it comes to getting earmarks for their home districts/states) of less government, lower taxes, laissez-faire policies, but every piece of social legislation that restricts how we live our lives. What is amazing is these folks will propose and pass legislation that takes benefits away from the poor, elderly and less educated and then those same people turn out in droves to support them. Why? Because they are Christians! Which means, by inference, their Democratic opponents are all godless Communists.

WhutHeSaid

Thank you, Todd Akin, for bringing out into the light the current thinking in the Republican Party. You may wish the genie could be put back into the bottle, but it’s too late. The GOP War on Women has become a national discussion just in time for the Republican National Convention.

neece00

Just a small part of the “war on women” which will continue unless it is stopped.

old_blu

@neec00– Exactly, well said, welcome Todd Akin to 1965, jeez, What a jackass *rolls eyes*

BTW, welcome to you newby.

old_blu

I always thought that there were only one kind of rape, I did not know there was one called “legitimate rape”. What are the others, made up? Does a woman have a special trap door that keeps them from getting pregnant?

http://www.facebook.com/maggie.croft.92 Maggie Croft

Aken’s term was legitimate rape, meaning that it is legal. So, that means there is rape that is legit and the other kind. I suppose if the victim ends up dead, it is illigitimate rape.

old_blu

Exactly Maggie, you should read neece00′s coment below, I think you will enjoy it.

http://www.facebook.com/stuart.saunders.184 Stuart Saunders

He won’t admit it but my guess is that he meant to say ‘genuine rape’ i.e. an actual rape, rather than e.g. consensual sex that got found out, so then she called it rape. Yes, it happens.

But he is still an idiot if he thinks the female can self abort because she was raped. Interesting tho, that it would have been god who designed that ability into women, if that was the case, no?

So then, abortion must be ok.

god looking after her sisters.
YepThatTell

I once served on a jury in a rape trial – a man in his fifties raped a very young teenage girl who testified bravely against her rapist. We not only had to deliberate about whether she was raped, but whether it was ‘forcible’ rape. In my mind, if it’s rape, it’s forcible rape. Had she become pregnant by that foul scumbag monster, would there have been some Akin-type judging her, that she must have been ‘willing’ because her body allowed her to become pregnant?

As others have said, being ‘pro-life” has to include we air-breathers – those of us who have been born. I never hear the avowed “pro-lifers”‘ outcry when horrendous cases of child abuse and neglect are reported. They care about fetuses. Once they’re born, those former fetuses are on their own to be demonized and marginalized in society for lack of opportunity, poor education, lack of healthcare, for being poor. Those so-called ‘pro-lifers’ then claim they are devout Christians when they would deny everything to the lowliest and neediest among us. They are the greatest hypocrites of all. And the most dangerous.
howa4x

Does a fertilized egg have to have an IQ test to determine it’s human qualites? The Republicans love the side show to keep peoples minds distraced from the real issues that can affect their lives and especially their childrens lives. Climate change is right now affecting 3/4 of the country with a drought in 26 states and wild fires in 5 more. The east coast has seen violent thunderstorms. In WVA they are blowing off the tops of mountians and soiling all the rivers with runoff. The coal industry is truning a once beautiful landscape rich with bio-diversity, into a Mars look a like. Show me one country where Glaciers are growing.
These are bigger threats to the future generations than abortion. We are creating a wasteland for the future children to play in with foul air and water. Already our stewardship of the enviornment has caused an upward spike in childhood asthma. Is this what we call family values? Posioning our children with pesticides for profit, or loading them up with sugar so their future will be spent in a state of chronic disease. Making them fear going to a late night movie or even a day at school.
Is this why they have to be saved?
The Republicans leave their responsibility of children at the birthing room yet they rail about how precious a life is. If it is so then why cut programs that directly benefit them, like head start, or Pell grants. Why talk about ending health care for them. It seems like the republicans want future children to be serfs to toil at below minimun wage and provide a constant souce of fodder for their future wars to secure the empire of the wealthy.
This is where thinking people have to take the abortion debate. What kind of future do we want for all these saved kids? What kind of world are we leaving them? Will they have enough food and water to live? Are there enoough jobs? What kind of support can we give them? We have to move the Abortion debate to the next level along with the religion one. What is the role of religion in advocating for all the things that have to be in place not only to produce a healthy child, but also what do they need for a healthy childhood?. The republicans won’t be able to answer that.

Landsende

Howa4x,
Well said. The republican and religious zealots don’t care about the women forced to carry a child of rape or incest or the child after its born. If they did they would provide medical and pyschological care for them and make sure the mother has child care so she can work to provide for the child and make sure the rapist is found and prosecuted. Once the child is born they crow about how it is their Christian duty to save an unborn fetus and then wash their hands of them saying it is not their responsibility anymore.

http://www.facebook.com/maggie.croft.92 Maggie Croft

I don’t know about evolution, but Todd Aken sure proves there is devolution. It looks like we evolved to a certain point and are going down the other side. And the devolution rate is accelerated far faster than the evolution rate.

I’ve always thought pro-lifers are hypocrites. Life is not that important to them if it isn’t in the egg form. Young women are far easier to attack than war mongers and murderers.

I also wonder what the functionally illerate rate of Missouri and Minnesota is. Functionally illerate is when you can read and write your name, but can’t understand what you read.
tranz2deep

The bottom line here is that there is a level of dishonesty in politics, a sense that politicians have the right or even the responsibility to lie and misrepresent in order to get elected.

It’s just that many, many republicans are getting called for it right now.
dham69

Your right republicans are pro life and you are pro death, you want to kill an unborn child. You will fight for a condemned person who committed murder against innocent person, but you won’t defend the life of an unborn child. Who is wrong here? I will answer it for you. You are Pro choice = pro death.

YepThatTell

You’re going to think differently when someone with power over YOU makes decisions for YOU based upon seeing things in only stark black and white. Good luck to ya, honey…you’re gonna need it.

(Your comments are basically too stupid to bother debating.)
johninPCFL

And you have elevated the rights of a mass of undifferentiated cells over those of a functioning human being.
bparker661

He meant to use “forcible rape” instead of the inappropriately used term “legitimate rape.” Still forcible rape is a term bounced around anti-abortion circles as a supposed qualifier which differentiates it from statutory rape or “unforced rape” (aka roffy rape). Nonetheless, whether the woman is drugged, drunk, or held at gunpoint, the procreative act is unwanted! Yet, this guy says the woman must suffer the consequences of an act she never initiated.

Rape is Rape! Once again, a bunch of immorally centered individuals are excusing men’s intransigence with a simple “boys will be boys” mentality. Let the woman deal with the outcomes.

We vilify the Muslim religion as being draconian. For example, if a Muslim woman has sex outside of marriage, she is punished by stoning, the man is not punished. The woman suffers even if she is raped.

Not much difference, is there?
grammyjill

Most doctors will not do an abortion after three months. A fetus at three months looks like a polywog, does not yet have a brain or nervous system and can’t as yet hear a heart beat. Get facts before you judge.
http://www.facebook.com/maggie.croft.92 Maggie Croft

dham, all generalties are lies.

ObozoMustGo

All this crap from you leftist freaks about what some knucklehead says in a single sentence. No focus on what a DemoncRAT actually does. Words over actions. You are hypocrites here at this septic tank called “The Memo.”

Since you won’t bring the real news, I will…

Democratic lawmaker called on to resign for having oral sex with boy, 17, in bushes at public rest stop after meeting him on Craigslist

Representative Kerry Gauthier was found engaging in oral sex on July 22
Police investigated whether or not there was wrongdoing in Duluth rest stop encounter with 17-year-old
Charges were dropped, but political pressure for Representative to resign is mounting

Read more: www dot dailymail dot co dot uk/news/article-2191164/Kerry-Gauthier-Democratic-lawmaker-called-resign-having-oral-sex-teen-bushes dot html#ixzz24C8BPijf

Have a nice hypocritical day leftist freaks!

“It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.” – Ronald Reagan

YepThatTell

Wondered when we’d get your drivel, hater.
johninPCFL

“Deficits don’t matter.” – Ronald Reagan

“Eh, eh where’s the VETO stamp? Ah nevermind. I’ll just sign it.” – Ronald Reagan

“I don’t remember giving money to Iran.” – Ronald Reagan

“Mexicans are good people. Give ‘em citizenship.” – Ronald Reagan

“$1200 for a toilet seat seems cheap…” – Ronald Reagan

“Nancy, what’s the astrologer say for today?” – Ronald Reagan

“Haliburton can stop missles in space. Give ‘em a few trillion.” – Ronald Reagan

“B1s are $50B each? Lets order 50 of them.” – Ronald Reagan
grammyjill

So you’re a woman hater too? Thought better of you until now. If you don’t like the memo then go away!
http://www.facebook.com/maggie.croft.92 Maggie Croft

Bozo, we were discussing what Todd Aken said. If you wanted to start a ledger and make it political, you would probably find an even number of creeps from both parties, but we are not talking about keeping score about whether there are more Republican creeps or more Democrat creeps. We are talking about Todd Aken’s remarks. People tend to filter things through their personal biases.

ObozoMustGo

Maggie…. the point is that all of you useful idiots get distracted by a single sentence from some knucklehead who is too dumb to state what he means, yet turn a blind eye when REAL, ACTUAL CORRUPT OR REPREHENSIBLE BEHAVIOR is being engaged in by DemoncRATS. For example……

IN OTHER NEWS…….. corruption and discrimination in the Obozo Regime….
———————————–
Hat tip John Johnson of Newser:
(Newser) – A federal worker who says he lost out on a plum job because he is a man has filed a discrimination lawsuit naming Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano as the sole defendant. What’s more, James T. Hayes also alleges that a high-ranking official in Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office “created a frat house-type atmosphere that is targeted to humiliate and intimidate male employees,” reports the New York Times.

That official, Suzanne Barr, has gone on paid leave as an investigation into the allegations continues, notes Fox News. They came to light after Hayes says he got passed over in favor of a woman who he says wasn’t qualified. He says she got the job because she had a “long-standing relationship” with Napolitano—”and because he was not female,” according to the lawsuit.
———————–
You see, in not so political correct terms, Janet Napolitano is munching carpets with Suzanne Barr and is promoting her instead of others, especially men. And she got caught. There, I said it. If Nappy was a Republican, it would be the main story in the news cylce 24×7 for weeks. But instead, all we hear is….. crickets……. crickets….. crickets……… crickets………

Your silence is SCREAMING hypocrisy. And you know it.

Have a nice day!

“It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.” – Ronald Reagan

dham69

If a woman is raped then it should be up to that woman and family on what to do. I know of some woman who have kept their child, and never regretted. It isn’t the childs fault that they were conceived under such horrific conditions. so again, it is up to the mother to decide what she needs to survive. And as long as she can live with her decisions than I support her 100%. I know from personal experience as well.

YepThatTell

“it is up to the mother to decide what she needs to survive.”
Well…that almost sounds PRO_CHOICE.. Does that make you a murderer…from your earlier comment, I’m afraid you are one, now, because you have dared to support CHOICE. You said it yourself:
“You are Pro choice = pro death”
Don’t you realize how simplistic and stupid it is to says things like that?
We don’t live in a black & white, cut& dried world of absolutes. There are millions of shades of gray. We’re just imperfect humans walking around here on earth and we should try to make this a better world for everyone.
http://www.facebook.com/maggie.croft.92 Maggie Croft

kept their child – plural. What kind of society do you live in where you know women who have kept their children and never regretted it? If you know that many, I suspect you are not telling the truth.

dham69

I live in a society which doesn’t allow the killing of children, you live in a society which allows such crimes to be commited. I was in the military and lived in a few different locations and new allot of woman who went through terrible things. but they couldn’t allow themselves to kill and innocent child.

annienoel

So I guess if you are unconscious that is one of those “rapes.” What the hell is wrong with these people.
On an aside….if 25,000 to 30,000 pregnancies are the result of rape. How many rapes are there per year???
mah101

Rape is rape, and stupid is stupid. Aikin did not use the wrong words to express his point, he is fundamentally and dangerously wrong. Period.
nhpoet

It is clear from the public record that Romney and Ryan have supported banning abortions and approving personhood at conception (and in some cases prior to conception through defunding contraception). Now they would not ban abortions following rape – and they have added the exception of when a woman’s life is threatened. Flip-Flop! Say anything to get elected. Make it up as they go!

For years, the Republican party’s efforts across the nation have been to take control of women’s health care choices – to restrict a woman’s freedom. This is just a 21st century form of fascism, and part of neoconservative policy proposals that would lead the country into a corporate oligarchy.

How could anyone trust them with the White House?
http://profile.yahoo.com/XWNK5E33OIFUMQVAGQQA7GDM2M Bigspender

Another example of a republican that has absolutely no business being in congress. Its guys like this that have led to the dismally low favorability ratings, particularly in the HOUSE. He should give back the salary he’s taken for the past year and apologize for ever pretending to be a congressman.
Landsende

It’s sickening to watch the same teapublicans trying to distance themselves from Akin for saying what they themselves have been saying and have even included in their republican platform with no exclusions for rape or incest. President Obama got it right when he said its time for politicians, most of whom are men, to stay out of legislating women’s health. Its time for the so called Christian conservatives to live their own lives and quit telling others how to live theirs.
http://profile.yahoo.com/XOFWDLCS7AHJJ2QDXPGHJVH6IM Pretty Gypsy

Has anyone of the Democratic persuasion ever heard of “legitimte rape”???? Neither has anyone else. Leave it to a republican, religious nut and someone totally behind the times. Get rid of this yaderhay – we don’t need him anywhere and his views are in the 1940′s or earlier. We NEED modern thinkers and doers. This clown has lost all the female vote and the gays and thank heaven for that.
Guest

He meant to use “forcible rape” instead of the inappropriately used term “legitimate rape.” Still forcible rape is a term bounced around anti-abortion circles as a supposed qualifier which differentiates it from statutory rape or “unforced rape” (aka roffy rape). Nonetheless, whether the woman is drugged, drunk, or held at gunpoint, the procreative act is unwanted! Yet, this guy says the woman must suffer the consequences of an act she never initiated.

Rape is Rape! Once again, a bunch of immorally centered individuals are excusing men’s intransigence with a simple “boys will be boys” mentality. Let the woman deal with the outcomes.

We vilify the Muslim religion as being draconian. For example, if a Muslim woman has sex outside of marriage, she is punished by stoning, the man is not punished. The woman suffers even if she is raped.

Not much difference, is there?
http://profile.yahoo.com/VAY5DM6U5GR7SG2AABJRZMIBTQ Mistress Saharea

Maybe he needs to do some community service, spend time with the womans shelters and rape crisis. lets see his veiw after that.

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