So, less common, but still quite possible... right?
So, how the issue of the relative frequency of conception for forcible and non-forcible rape at all relevant from a public policy point of view? Which is to say, why is it something that a Senatorial candidate should be commenting on?
After all, if a pregnancy can result from forcible rape, it doesn’t matter, from a public policy point of view, if the rape is forcible, statutory, “legitimate” or any other type of rape you can imagine.
Missouri Rep. Todd Akin—who sparked a firestorm of criticism with his comments about “legitimate rape” in August—gave a speech on the House floor in 2008 in which he called those who perform abortions “terrorists” and claimed some do so on “women who are not actually pregnant.”
“It is no big surprise that we fight the terrorists because they are fundamentally un-American, and yet we have terrorists in our own culture called abortionists,” Akin said in the Jan. 22, 2008, speech. “One of the good pieces of news why we are winning this war is because there are not enough heartless doctors being graduated from medical schools. There is a real shortage of abortionists.
“Who wants to be at the very bottom of the food chain of medical profession?” Akin continued. “And what sort of places do these bottom-of-the-food-chain doctors work in? Places that are really a pit. You find that along with the culture of death go all kinds of other law-breaking: not following good sanitary procedure, giving abortions to women who are not actually pregnant, cheating on taxes, all these kinds of things, misuse of anesthetics so that people die or almost die.”
“So, less common, but still quite possible... right?”
Yes, of course it is still possible, and people result from the act of rape. Oprah Winfrey was fathered by a rapist as a matter of fact.
I can’t really speak to whether Akin should have commented on it. He was probably asked a question, I don’t know, and maybe he should have demurred.
The point is he was not defending the act of rape in ANY way, and FReepers of all people should not be acting as though he did.
Akin is an excellent conservative and deserves our support.