GOP: Female body has natural defense against pregnancy in case of legitimate rape

I personally know several pro-choice Republicans that are appalled by the enormous influence of the Tea Party and Fundamentalist minorities within the GOP. If this somehow made it on to the national party platform, or if someone higher up the food chain said it, then that would be another kettle of fish, and the thread title on target. Having said that, yeah, this guy is crazy.

 

On issues such as this why is it Republicans 90% of the time?

 

The Romney ticket has responded to Akin's statement.

http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/...-legitimate-rape-rarely-causes-pregnancy?lite

[rquoter]Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's campaign issued a statement disagreeing with Akin.

"Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan disagree with Mr. Akin’s statement, and a Romney-Ryan administration would not oppose abortion in instances of rape," said Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul.[/rquoter]

 

I am just going to point out that in the case of the Dominican teen that the mother's illness also led to the death of the fetus. There should be no moral quandry in cases like this since the mother's death is also the fetus' death. With timely treatment the pregnancy might end but without the treatment the women's life ends also. It sounds like the Dominican doctors were well aware of that but hesitated because of Dominican Anti-Abortion law.

 

Excluding federal funding for such abortions is a far cry from making such abortions illegal.

 

Let's also not forget that the Romney/Ryan budget would most likely eliminate or severely hamstring many government adoption agencies, deny the rights of qualified gay couples to adopt, remove tax breaks for having/adopting children, and eliminate many social services that make caring for an unplanned child possible. So not only would they push for an abortion ban, but they would also take away almost every avenue for an unwanted child to develop into a productive citizen.

Allowing an abortion only in the case of incest, rape or to save the life of the mother is also an incredibly asinine position to take; were such restrictive measures adopted it would place the entire burden of proof on the woman seeking the procedure.

Would you require the woman to formally press charges in order to qualify for a rape exception? What if it was date rape, which is incredibly difficult to prosecute and prove, yet is extremely common?

While I certainly think that the Representative's position is abhorrent, it is far more honest than every other "anti-abortion" politician; I simply don't see a way to call for an abortion ban with exceptions. I can certainly rationalize a ban on late-term abortions once the fetus is viable, but I still can't see how people rationalize being in support of rape and incest exceptions if life is sacrosanct.

 

It is a concession some people make to the pro-choice crowd, because there is a lot of outcry from that crowd when the concession is not made. It isn't so much that they support such exceptions, as they are willing to concede that ground to address the larger issue. I don't personally support such an exception. It isn't the kid's fault his father was a rapist after all.

 

Both Akin and Ryan believe that no abortions should be legal.

#wirehangers

 

I got two words for ya buddy boy.

"Misson Accomplished"

 

I notice how the would be Senator said "legitimate rape" because you know how dishonest those women are.

 

Terrible just terrible.

I especially like how he says: Legitimate raped. Meaning that the ones that did get pregnant weren't really raped.

 

GOP: Swims Naked in Ancient Holy Sea

 

Link

:grin:

 

Well his "legit raped" argument doesn't mean some women lie about rape, it means that in certain states what qualifies as "rape" can actually be consensual sex.

I've never heard this argument before. I've read some articles that say this has been around the pro-life camp argument forever. Fascinating that I've never heard it. I wonder how many people demonizing him in this thread and calling him ignorant actually know whether what he said was true or took the time to research it.

If rape causes pregnancy in 5% of cases, that is a significant percentage reduction from the usual pregnancy rate from intercourse, so there may be some scientific truth to the argument?

That said, 5% is still a large number. It's hard to know really what the number of rapes that qualify for this per year are because of the under reporting of rape due to our crappy system, shame, etc. In 2007 there were approx 97,000 women raped "forcibly" (qualifies for what Mr. Akin is referring to) so you are talking about close to 5,000 pregnancies if the 5% rule holds true.

Seems like an awful of lot of pregnant women to just dismiss as a non-factor when considering what should and should not be legal. Mr. Akin, like so many of our politicians, is unqualified to vote on this issue because he has either willfully ignored facts or has lazily avoided researching the issue further. People who want to die on the hill of abortion rights should know the facts for and against their arguments.

 

I want to add that I've been reading a lot about this topic this morning and there seem to be a lot of bogus stories popping up now.

One blog I just read said that there are over 30,000 pregnancies a year due to rape. This cannot be an accurate number. According to the FBI, in 2009 there were around 90,000 forcible rapes in the US. Are we to believe that 1 out of every 3 rape victims gets pregnant? That's impossible and that stat has to be bogus.

 

Sidenote but what's a "forcible rape?"

Isn't all rape forced?

 

Statutory rape is often consensual sex.