The R Does Not Stand for Rape
In what can only be called an effort to torpedo his own campaign, Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO), running for the Senate in Missouri said that "legitimate rape" leads to "the female body [trying] to shut that whole thing down." Comments are here and the video of the morning show he said this on is available here. Yes, he said that women who are raped rarely get pregnant because the female body will shut it down. Note, he was saying this while defending his views that abortion should not be a legal option under any circumstances, including rape and incest. He has sponsored legislation to limit abortion, funding, notification of same and defining a person at conception. Basically, he's been the pro-life poster boy in the House, which is what Clare McCaskill was counting on earlier in the primary season when she was subtle supporting him by calling him the most conservative man in Congress. Akin won that primary by just a few percent, and many polls actually had him ahead of McCaskill. While obviously there have been no polls as of yet in reaction to this, there is little doubt this won him any votes he did not already have and probably lost him votes he might have been able to win. What is even scarier in all of this is that Republicans are not likely to disown this guy like Democrats did to Clayton in Tennessee. The most disturbing thing is that this is not the first time Republicans have been in trouble with women over rape, female physiology, or badly connecting with female voters.
Todd Akin, as a member of the House of Representatives, has long been a staunch defender of life, as he would say. More accurately, he has been a staunch opponent of abortion. Here, we will restate the MidnightRanter philosophy on discussing abortion: I don't; you're not gonna say anything new and you're just gonna piss people off. Akin has proved this point nicely. His bills in the House that was a co-sponsor include making it a crime to transport a minor over a state line for an abortion, prohibiting funding and assistance to family planning facilities that help or perform abortion except for immediate health of the mother, amending PPACA to prohibit funding abortions except for "forcible rape", incest, health of mother, making it a crime to abort for reasons of race, gender or other test of the baby and with Paul Ryan sponsoring legislation that declared to life to begin at "fertilization, cloning, or its functional equivalent". He has also stated a desire for Roe vs Wade to be overturned so states can decide on their own about abortion laws (although, given how gay marriage is going, he'll probably end up going against that if states keep making it legal). He is, all told, one of the strongest anti-abortion/pro-life/anti-choice/you adjective here Representative in the Congress. Note in HR 3, the language says "forcible rape", which caused a bit of a stir at the time it was introduced since, well, isn't all rape forced? Given that Ryan and Akin are both in the spotlight again, this will likely come up again. Especially since Akin made this mistake on a Sunday, which means we have all week to talk about it. It should be noted, he issued a half-assed non-apology apology.
While Akin has said in the past "at the heart of liberalism is a hatred for God, at the heart of this is a factual error. He is claiming that a woman's body, during rape, will do things to stop a pregnancy. The closest thing to true is that a woman's vagina will constrict, which is how rape can be determined postmortem from the style of vaginal bruising. However, according to an NIH study, a woman's body will simply not just shut down and stop a pregnancy from occurring. In that study, they found approximately 5% of forcible vaginal intercourse resulted in pregnancy. This is consistent with consensual intercourse averaging between 1% and 9%, depending on day. That study also noted 11.8% of women suffered a miscarriage, more medically called a spontaneous abortion. This is also not out of line with other pregnancies across that broad of a spectrum. Rape leads to about 32,000 pregnancies per year in the US alone, which is hardly the "rare" descriptor that Rep. Akin used. Again, these aren't points of policy contention, these are facts that are researched and known by medical professionals and scientifically verified. The scientific method may not be the best way to pick your favorite car, but it is the best way to determine the stats for your favorite car.
The real problem is that this is not the first time Republicans have had problems understanding female physiology. Now, last I checked women are human, but still, there are some gaps in some people's understanding. To bring up an old charge Palin had problems with this before. This was a woman who was in the last trimester of her fifth pregnancy, which was a high risk pregnancy by every credible definition I can find. (People who think I have no right to talk about this because I am a man can kindly see themselves out and not come back) Then Governor Palin boarded a plane when she was about 8 months pregnant, flew to Texas, her water broke, she gave a speech, flew home then drove 50 minutes to a hospital. Now, first off, unlike the "Trig Truthers" out there, I am certain Trig is her son. No doubt in my mind. However, there are some disturbing facts in this account, which can be found in her book Going Rogue. Again from many of the above sources (no, I'm not linking again to all of them), they say the same thing: if your water breaks, get to a hospital immediately since the amniotic fluid protects the baby from infection, disease and other problems. And if this is not your first pregnancy, labor may not last that long. Again, Palin boarded a plane AFTER her water broke. There are possible complications that can arise and it's bad for the baby to be without amniotic fluid for very long. However, the worst story belongs to former Texas gubernatorial candidate Clayton Williams who said if a woman is getting raped, and it's inevitable, just "lie back and enjoy it". As a Republican, he lost two to one to Ann Richards in the early 90s. Both of these show a certain party line stance inconsistent with reality in regards to women's health issues and, well, outright terror talking about rape. This is not about disagreeing about policy about how things should be funded and what, this is a problem with knowing facts.
Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." He made a long career as liberal and long serving government worker for both parties to back up all of his assertions with facts. George Will, a columnist of a different political stripe, once said he had written more books than most Senators had read. He had a knack for a fact-based, well presented argument. He used the same facts as everyone else and decided to act differently. This is the basis of the best kinds of politics. We all agree taxes are fact, we all agree defense needs to have money spent on it in order to work, but we can differ as to what should be spent on it. Regardless of one's feelings on abortion, it is a falsehood that women's bodies react differently, in a substantive way, to a pregnancy caused by forcible vaginal intercourse than consensual intercourse. IVF is different in utero than a zygote that has grown naturally, but that's the biggest difference there is in pregnancies. John Adams said "Facts are stubborn things" and in this case, that will be trouble for Akin. It is a fact he as sponsored a lot of anti-abortion legislation and a fact that he doesn't know how rape affects of a woman's body. It is an opinion, perhaps informed by fact, that he doesn't care about women, but that's not a fact. It's not a fact he wants to wage war on women. It is a fact he needs to be better informed about health issues before making such sweeping statement. I would also postulate that since he worked on these things with Paul Ryan, he might have to play some defense as well on this.
It is, however, a judgement, that McCaskill's race just got a whole lot easier.
So it is written, so do I see it.
Todd Akin, as a member of the House of Representatives, has long been a staunch defender of life, as he would say. More accurately, he has been a staunch opponent of abortion. Here, we will restate the MidnightRanter philosophy on discussing abortion: I don't; you're not gonna say anything new and you're just gonna piss people off. Akin has proved this point nicely. His bills in the House that was a co-sponsor include making it a crime to transport a minor over a state line for an abortion, prohibiting funding and assistance to family planning facilities that help or perform abortion except for immediate health of the mother, amending PPACA to prohibit funding abortions except for "forcible rape", incest, health of mother, making it a crime to abort for reasons of race, gender or other test of the baby and with Paul Ryan sponsoring legislation that declared to life to begin at "fertilization, cloning, or its functional equivalent". He has also stated a desire for Roe vs Wade to be overturned so states can decide on their own about abortion laws (although, given how gay marriage is going, he'll probably end up going against that if states keep making it legal). He is, all told, one of the strongest anti-abortion/pro-life/anti-choice/you adjective here Representative in the Congress. Note in HR 3, the language says "forcible rape", which caused a bit of a stir at the time it was introduced since, well, isn't all rape forced? Given that Ryan and Akin are both in the spotlight again, this will likely come up again. Especially since Akin made this mistake on a Sunday, which means we have all week to talk about it. It should be noted, he issued a half-assed non-apology apology.
While Akin has said in the past "at the heart of liberalism is a hatred for God, at the heart of this is a factual error. He is claiming that a woman's body, during rape, will do things to stop a pregnancy. The closest thing to true is that a woman's vagina will constrict, which is how rape can be determined postmortem from the style of vaginal bruising. However, according to an NIH study, a woman's body will simply not just shut down and stop a pregnancy from occurring. In that study, they found approximately 5% of forcible vaginal intercourse resulted in pregnancy. This is consistent with consensual intercourse averaging between 1% and 9%, depending on day. That study also noted 11.8% of women suffered a miscarriage, more medically called a spontaneous abortion. This is also not out of line with other pregnancies across that broad of a spectrum. Rape leads to about 32,000 pregnancies per year in the US alone, which is hardly the "rare" descriptor that Rep. Akin used. Again, these aren't points of policy contention, these are facts that are researched and known by medical professionals and scientifically verified. The scientific method may not be the best way to pick your favorite car, but it is the best way to determine the stats for your favorite car.
The real problem is that this is not the first time Republicans have had problems understanding female physiology. Now, last I checked women are human, but still, there are some gaps in some people's understanding. To bring up an old charge Palin had problems with this before. This was a woman who was in the last trimester of her fifth pregnancy, which was a high risk pregnancy by every credible definition I can find. (People who think I have no right to talk about this because I am a man can kindly see themselves out and not come back) Then Governor Palin boarded a plane when she was about 8 months pregnant, flew to Texas, her water broke, she gave a speech, flew home then drove 50 minutes to a hospital. Now, first off, unlike the "Trig Truthers" out there, I am certain Trig is her son. No doubt in my mind. However, there are some disturbing facts in this account, which can be found in her book Going Rogue. Again from many of the above sources (no, I'm not linking again to all of them), they say the same thing: if your water breaks, get to a hospital immediately since the amniotic fluid protects the baby from infection, disease and other problems. And if this is not your first pregnancy, labor may not last that long. Again, Palin boarded a plane AFTER her water broke. There are possible complications that can arise and it's bad for the baby to be without amniotic fluid for very long. However, the worst story belongs to former Texas gubernatorial candidate Clayton Williams who said if a woman is getting raped, and it's inevitable, just "lie back and enjoy it". As a Republican, he lost two to one to Ann Richards in the early 90s. Both of these show a certain party line stance inconsistent with reality in regards to women's health issues and, well, outright terror talking about rape. This is not about disagreeing about policy about how things should be funded and what, this is a problem with knowing facts.
Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." He made a long career as liberal and long serving government worker for both parties to back up all of his assertions with facts. George Will, a columnist of a different political stripe, once said he had written more books than most Senators had read. He had a knack for a fact-based, well presented argument. He used the same facts as everyone else and decided to act differently. This is the basis of the best kinds of politics. We all agree taxes are fact, we all agree defense needs to have money spent on it in order to work, but we can differ as to what should be spent on it. Regardless of one's feelings on abortion, it is a falsehood that women's bodies react differently, in a substantive way, to a pregnancy caused by forcible vaginal intercourse than consensual intercourse. IVF is different in utero than a zygote that has grown naturally, but that's the biggest difference there is in pregnancies. John Adams said "Facts are stubborn things" and in this case, that will be trouble for Akin. It is a fact he as sponsored a lot of anti-abortion legislation and a fact that he doesn't know how rape affects of a woman's body. It is an opinion, perhaps informed by fact, that he doesn't care about women, but that's not a fact. It's not a fact he wants to wage war on women. It is a fact he needs to be better informed about health issues before making such sweeping statement. I would also postulate that since he worked on these things with Paul Ryan, he might have to play some defense as well on this.
It is, however, a judgement, that McCaskill's race just got a whole lot easier.
So it is written, so do I see it.