You can't get pregnant from "legitimate rape" -- oh, okay. Thanks Akin!

[Seanr]

Oh god the Facebook comments on Akin's election site

Someone should totally rape Tina Struzik

[Stumblingdrunk]

No one should really be too surprised about this by now though
http://www.buzzfeed.com/annanorth/th...id-about-pregn

1. Weather analogies

Federal Judge James Leon Holmes, a Bush appointee, said in an article published circa 1997: “Concern for rape victims is a red herring because conceptions from rape occur with approximately the same frequency as snowfall in Miami.”

2. "Hormonal response"

From the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, 2006, via Democratic Underground:

"I think that life begins when the chromosomes of the sperm and egg line up," said Dr. Richard Dobbins, who works in the emergency department at Hardin Memorial Hospital in Kenton.

Dobbins also questioned the need for emergency contraception in rape cases, saying that most women either are not fertile during assault or do not become pregnant because the trauma prompts a hormonal response that prevents ovulation.

"So if they do get pregnant, they wanted it, is that it?" a reproductive-rights advocate in the audience asked.

3. Juices

In 1995, Republican Rep. Henry Aldridge told the 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.

4. Secretions

From the Philadelphia Inquirer, 1988:

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.

Two Philadelphia doctors specializing in human reproduction characterized Freind's contention as scientifically baseless.

5. Sex ed

From a thread on Democratic Underground, regarding the claim that rape can't cause pregnancy:

In my Catholic HS all the girls got that question wrong on the test

Because we were taught that piece of biological wishful thinking. We all knew better than to believe that only invited sperm can fertilize an ovum.

My guess is that the people who made up that bit of tripe have some amount of compassion but are so virulently anti-choice that they rationalize away having to make an exception for women pregnant by a violent and hateful act. If it can't make you pregnant, we don't have to worry about you aborting for that reason.

But how in the hell is an ovum going to repel invading sperm and not invited sperm? How can the ovum tell?

I can only hope that schools are not continuing to teach this erroneous information.

6. Rumors (and the truth)

From Planned Parenthood's Pregnancy Q&A:

I heard that a woman can't get pregnant from being raped. Is that true?

No, it is not true. Women can and do get pregnant from rape. In fact, more than five percent of all rapes result in pregnancy. That is one reason why Planned Parenthood is fighting so hard to make it mandatory for emergency rooms across the country to offer emergency contraception to women who have been raped.

Emergency contraception can reduce the risk of pregnancy by 75 to 89 percent. More than 22,000 unwanted pregnancies a year could be prevented if all U.S. women who were raped were provided with emergency contraception.

"secrete a certain secretion" was my personal favorite.

[Byrthnoth]

Conservative Opinion 1: Contraception is bad in general because it makes women act like whores.

Conservative Opinion 2: Women can naturally choose when they want to get pregnant.

I don't get it. I guess they're pro choice?

[Jer]

I heard about this when it happened, but just saw something about it that made me lol. On CNN's webpage, one of the links talking about Akin's reactions is 'Akin: Remark was ill conceived'. Considering the original comment he made, I couldn't stop laughing. I am a bad person.

[Sera]

3. Juices

In 1995, Republican Rep. Henry Aldridge told the 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.

4. Secretions

From the Philadelphia Inquirer, 1988:

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.

the fact that people who believe this shit can actually breathe without being reminded is... stunning

[Apelila]

I can't decide what meme face to use for this:

Top: But he was just exercising his freedom of speech!
Bottom: What's that? You aren't haven't a Todd Akin appreciation day?

But when I do, I'm gonna troll the fuck out of some women on facebook that wouldn't shut up about how I needed to shut up about chickfila when I said only one thing.

[Correction]

A new development!

As a politician, I often find myself in situations where, unfortunately, I express a certain thought or idea poorly, or find my words taken out of context. Indeed, that is what happened this weekend. Upon reviewing the impromptu remarks I made Sunday afternoon, I can now see that I used the wrong words in the wrong way. I would now like to set the record straight with the American people and clear up some confusion about what it was I intended to convey.

You see, what I said was, “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” But what I meant to say was, “I am a worthless, moronic sack of shit and an utterly irredeemable human being who needs to shut up and go away forever.”

It is clear to me now that I did not choose my words with care and did not get across the point I was trying to convey. In hindsight, I guess instead of using the words “legitimate rape,” I should have used the words “I am an unforgivable, unrepentant, and unconscionable subhuman dickhead.” Or better yet, “I am an evil, fucked-up man who should never have been elected to the United States Congress, and anyone who would vote for me is probably a pretty big fucking dumbshit, too.” See how much more sense that makes? It’s amazing how a few key word changes can totally alter the meaning of a statement.

Because, of course, it’s all about context. And yes, when you take what I said out of context, I can see how it might sound like I’m denying that women can be impregnated via rape. This is, I assure you, not what I was trying to express at all. Such is the age we live in that one little sentence excerpted in a news report can come back to haunt a person in a pretty big hurry. But if you actually go back and look at the remarks closely, you’ll see that what I was actually trying to convey in my statement was that

(1) I am a big fucking idiot,

(2) I am a nauseating slug of a human being who doesn’t deserve to live, and

(3) I am essentially everything that’s wrong with this country and with humanity in general.

Honestly, that’s all I was trying to get across there. It was a simple misunderstanding, really.

It’s funny, because, in my head, I remember thinking very vividly, “I, Rep. Todd Akin, am a bigoted jackass who probably should not be alive, let alone in political office. People need to know what a terrible person I am so they will then remember to punch me in the face anytime they get the chance.” But when I opened my mouth and tried to articulate that thought, somehow I blurted out the thing about rape instead of just saying, in plain English, that I am awful, just purely and incontrovertibly awful.

Frankly, it’s hard not to make a mistake from time to time when you’re in the public eye as much as I am. I am constantly having to speak my mind in a public forum, and sometimes, when all I’m trying to say is something simple and inarguable, like, “Sweet Jesus, I am the worst person who has ever lived,” I wind up saying something completely different. It’s frustrating, really. Because I have a lot of very pertinent and very well-thought out things to say about how somebody should just smack me in the head with a goddamned cricket bat because of how brainless and insensitive I am, but instead my words just come out all jumbled.

I guess I just have a habit of putting my foot in my mouth! And for being the very worst that Western Civilization has to offer!

So let me take this opportunity to be very specific about what I meant Sunday, which was this: I am not a competent or respectable politician; I am, essentially, a subhuman monster of a prick, a prick as profoundly insensitive as he is monumentally unintelligent in every respect; somebody should apply dozens of layers of duct tape to my mouth every morning so that words are not able to exit my large, dumb, misogynist, imbecilic mouth at any point; I make the planet worse; I don’t know jack shit about any of the topics I spoke about in that interview, or about any topics at all, really; I should apologize every day to the women of the world, but doing so would most likely be an exercise in futility given my rock-bottom intellect and my complete and utter lack of human decency; I am, in no uncertain terms, not even worth the time it took you to read this.

That’s what I meant to say. Sorry for the confusion.

[hey]

http://www.rainn.org/images/get-info...rix-2012-1.jpg

So 2 out of every 100 rapists get convicted of a felony, but don't spend even a single day in jail?

[Correction]

Pregnant Woman Relieved To Learn Her Rape Was Illegitimate

Republicans Condemn Akin's Comments As Blemish On Party's Otherwise Spotless Women's Rights Record

[archibaldcrane]

Random scenario, but in California:

Penalties, punishment, and sentencing for Penal Code 262 PC spousal rape

California marital rape laws make the crime a felony.5 Penalties may include any or of all of the following:

• formal probation,
• three, six, or eight years in the California State Prison. This prison sentence could increase by three to five years if you inflict a great bodily injury or harm on your spouse.6 It could also increase to a maximum life sentence if you have been convicted for multiple sex crimes7 or if this is your third "strike" under California’s Three Strikes Law8,
• up to $10,000 in fines9, and
• a lifetime duty to register as a sex offender pursuant to California Penal Code 290 PC10.

• Especially in states with prison overcrowding, and with how hard rape is to prove, it would not surprise me if many cases are pled down from one type to another, still a felony, but where the punishment is probation.

[Byrthnoth]

Apparently there's no reason to believe your odds of getting pregnant duration rape are different from normal:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/21/us...h-experts.html

[Andalusian girls]

It's at times like these I envy you americans. You guys have the best stand-up comed... wait, he's a politician and was totally serious?

not for long. RNC has cut all funding for him and Romney + McConnell have both pubicly damned the man's comments and told him to get the fuck out of the race

clearly primarily a political move designed to lessen the damage this will cause other Republicans in November but nice to see you can only be so mind-numbingly retarded and disrespectful before the vitriol of the entire country comes crashing down on you

[Kuya]

It's been a while since i've seen republicans turn their backs on something crazy one of them said.

[Cleverness]

Apparently there's no reason to believe your odds of getting pregnant duration rape are different from normal:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/21/us...h-experts.html

I'm sure the guy quoted in that article, Bryan Fischer who is a Director of a conservative Christian group and believes the world was created in 7 days by an unseen magical being, is the perfect person to be asking scientific questions to.

[MF Perm tha Fineass]

I got raped once and it felt like I had to crap pretty bad for a day or two but then it went away. Felt like I gave birth on the third day but it was just corn on the cob.

[Talint]

It's been a while since i've seen republicans turn their backs on something crazy one of them said.

Sir, I do believe you are mistaken.

[Plow]

Random scenario, but in California:
Especially in states with prison overcrowding, and with how hard rape is to prove, it would not surprise me if many cases are pled down from one type to another, still a felony, but where the punishment is probation.[/LIST]

the fact that there's a three strike rule relating to rape is so far beyond disturbing I just don't even have words to use

[archibaldcrane]

"We feel this is a case of gotcha politics," Mackey told reporters in Tampa, where the Republican National Committee was gathering ahead of the party's convention next week. "He has been elected five times in that community in Missouri. They know who Todd Akin is. We know who Todd Akin is. We've worked with him up on the hill. He's a defender of life." "Todd Akin is getting a really bad break here," she added. "I don't know anything about the science or the legal implications of his statement. I do know politics, and I know gotcha politics when I see it."

Holy fuck

[Plow]

global warming and rape are both myths

[Talint]

There are few terms in the English language that piss me off more than "Gotcha Politics".

Mostly because there is no such fucking thing.

There is, "This shit makes me look bad so I'm going to complain about the people who made me look bad", though.

I think some people call that "Gotcha Politics".