“It seems to me, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare,” Mr. Akin said of pregnancies from rape. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something: I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist, and not attacking the child.”
These are the words of Tea Party Congressman Todd Akin (R-MO), who is running against Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill for the Missouri Senate seat. He’s speaking here about the instance of pregnancy as a result of rape. Read these words carefully. Yes, I am speaking to American women. Of course, a large portion of the GOP is busy running for cover, distancing themselves from Rep. Akin’s comments. Some are even calling for him to abandon his Senate quest. This makes me laugh. It also pisses me off because, frankly, I think they doth protest too much. Rep. Akin is not a GOP anomaly. If you think that, you are only fooling yourselves.
I’m not saying that everyone in the GOP is this stupid. Congressman Akin is particularly stupid. I don’t know what doctors he is talking to, but I think they might have been the ones who got their degrees online from some fly-by-night illegitimate (pardon the pun) university. Either that or they are involved in some kind of bogus research funded by the Koch Brothers. The fact is that 32,000 women become pregnant from rape each year. Yeah, that would be “legitimate” rape because, frankly, rape is rape. I think at this stage of the election game it’s important to point out that the GOP is a party steeped in misogyny, ignorance, and a twisted Tea Party mentality. Here’s the first fact you need to be aware of: The GOP platform is going to include verbiage that bans abortion across the board, even when a pregnancy is the result of rape or incest or when the life of the mother is in danger. Think about that, ladies. Think long and hard. This will be in the party’s platform, which is its guiding mantra. When you vote GOP, you are validating the platform. Forget this crazy notion that you are voting the person, not the party. If the candidates running did not buy into the platform, you can bet your life that they wouldn’t be running. When all you women go to the polls, you need to vote as if your lives and rights depended upon it. Because they do.
I’m going out on a limb here. If indeed pregnancy from rape is really rare, then there should be no issue should the women who do become pregnant choose to have an abortion. Really. To force a woman to bear the child of her rapist, or to bear a child that is the result of incest is just plain cruel. To decide that a woman’s life is worthless and force her to have a child when her life is in danger shows how little the GOP thinks of women beyond childbirth. It should raise a red flag for every single American woman of voting age: The GOP has absolutely no respect for the women of this country. In fact, I dare say that they have a loathing for women. Why else would this absurd position be taken?
In the case of Rep. Akin, he is absolutely against abortion. In fact, he authored legislation that bans abortion even in the instance of rape and incest. I know there are some women in the state of Missouri. It’s not an all-male state. So, how this clown is still leading in the polls is beyond me. I understand that some women in Missouri have never been the victims of rape and incest. I get it. So, hell, why would you care? Think about it. What if you were. Let’s factor in that some women are beyond their biological stage of being able to get pregnant. Think about the women who are still able to get pregnant. Just plain THINK.
Now, let’s talk a bit about the Romney-Ryan ticket. Mitt Romney is calling for Akin to drop out of the Senate race. This is all about politics, ladies. Mitt Romney doesn’t give a shit about you. If he did, he wouldn’t sign on to the platform. He’d stand up and say it is WRONG to include an across-the-board ban on abortion in his party’s platform. He’s doing no such thing. In fact, Mitt Romney is in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade, so you can be sure any Supreme Court appointments that may come his way would be to judicial candidates who favor the overturn of this decision. Mitt Romney also supported the Blunt-Rubio Amendment which would have allowed any employer to deny women contraceptives under their insurance coverage based on “moral objections.” Really? Give me a break. If you think for a minute that Mitt Romney is pro-women, I want some of what you’re smoking because it is truly mind altering. The fact is that electing Mitt Romney puts women’s rights in real danger.
As for Paul Ryan, he may be distancing himself from Akin, but he’s no friend of American women. Ryan also supports the party’s platform that abortion should be outlawed even in the instance of rape and incest. Let’s go one step further here. He would outlaw several forms of birth control. He sponsored a bill that would give fetuses full personhood rights from the moment of conception, and he voted to defund federal family planning programs. For his anti-choice efforts, Mr. Ryan has earned a perfect score from the National Right to Life Committee. So please, the next time someone tells you that clowns like Todd Akin are funny, don’t laugh. He isn’t funny. And don’t believe for a minute that the rest of the GOP is against what Akin stands for. The information is out there. Look for it. The GOP is about as anti-woman as you can get.
Frankly, no self-respecting American woman would even consider voting Romney-Ryan. Only women with a great deal of self-loathing would do so. And if you’re voting GOP because your husbands or significant others are, think about this: What do THEY have to lose. Voting is an individual effort. That’s why they put you behind a curtain so that you can exercise your Democratic right privately. It’s time for women to think for themselves and act accordingly.
Categories: 2012, Abortion, Contraception, Elections, GOP, Reproductive Rights, War on Women, Women's Rights
Revolutionary Radar 
He may be an anathema but he is not an anomoly. To wit, he is just this month’s tip of the iceberg of right-wing ignorance that pervades so much of public thought…if you can call that thinking. He is in the Paul Ryan-Sarah Palin-Joe the Plumber flavor of the month, and the most public voice this week in the war on women, gender equality and honest citizenship. He is ill-informed, uninformed and unabashed in his willingness to expose himself.
But he is only one part of a larger and more dangerous whole. Everyone should look at Maureen Dowd’s editorial opinion in todays NYT for a great explanation and storm warning.
Being phonly, disingenuous and loud-mouthed is the right’s MO and the movement is insidious and flagrant in its’ defiance of logic, ehtics and humanity.
Robery Reich puts Ryan through the meat grinder nicely this week, explaining his duplicity and hypocricy.
The right has completely confused religiousity and civil demeanor, and muddied the waters of discussion by twisting selfish morality around the neck of civil ethics like a rope until it is gasping for air.
I imagine Todd Akin got his sex education from someone called “Doc” in the back room of a pool hall up there in St. Louis where he’s from. “Doc” probably told him women don’t get pregnant if they’re on top, also.
“Doc” showed him how to sell stolen wrist watches, too and this probably was what got him interested in Republican politics!
Akin is only a symptom. The cause national mental entropy. There is nothing funny about either. Sorry, memphis
Akin is not the problem. The mindset and the media is. I see no humor in the depth of the mental maladies. Sorry
Re: “The GOP platform is going to include verbiage that bans abortion across the board, even when a pregnancy is the result of rape or incest or WHEN THE LIFE OF THE MOTHER IS IN DANGER (emphasis mine).”
The Father of Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther, thought the same women who die in childbirth: [“Whether or not they grow weak and then die during childbirth, that does no harm, let them go ahead and die while giving birth, that’s what they’re here for.”
[„Ob sie sich aber auch müde und zuletzt tot tragen, das schadet nicht, laß nur tot tragen, sie sind darum da.“] Misogyny, regarding and treating women as walking, talking sperm receptacles, has been a Christian tradition for CENTURIES! The sentiment is still there, in this supposedly “enlightened” day and age.
Oops! “…thought the same ABOUT women…”
Christopher Hitchens, in his book, “God is Not Great”, reminded us that “religion spoils everything”. And all prominent religious thought has begun with the notion of male dominance. Christian, Islam and Jewish thought all regard womenas second class (or worse) beings. And when you allow religiion to muck up civil affairs and the essential necessaryt ethics of the human community, you get Akin and the right-wingers. They are all allowing religion to prevent them from having any clarity of thought.What a great excuse for never having to examine your own existence. They all live that “unexamined life” which is “not worth living”. Yuck.
My theory to explain Todd Akin’s behavior: http://meaningofstrife.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/yin-yang-war-and-peace/
You should get out of your realm of theorteical/ hypothetical speculation (where you admit you are not expert)and take a good hard look at the realities of human behavior and existence. Your energies would be much better spent there. This is not helpful.