So says Todd Akin, yet another right-wing man who apparently has no idea how all those “women parts” work:
“If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down….”
Wow. Truly… wow. This man is a Congressman and is running for a senate seat. Lord help this country. Legitimate rape… shut that whole thing down…
Click to jump down article >> the connection between Todd Akin and Paul Ryan.
I’m not going to get into how David Alexrod is trying to tie this to Romney / Ryan (at least to the extend to which he is)… what’s important is the focus on the level of comfort that the extreme right talks about this sort of stuff.
Complete quote sited by the Huffington Post on Todd Akin’s comments:
Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) justified his extreme opposition to abortion by claiming that victims of “legitimate rape” rarely get pregnant.
In an interview with KTVI-TV on Sunday, the GOP Senate nominee was asked if he supported abortion in the case of rape.
“From what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare,” said Akin said of pregnancy caused by rape. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume maybe that didn’t work or something. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist.”
… “the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down”…
Wait… am I being punk’d!?!? I’m being punk’d, right?
Why is it that so many Republican leaders seem to, basically, “not get it” to the extent. Remember Rush Limbaugh when he went off on Sandra Fluk and contraception… how his knowledge of the topic was so thin as to shout to his millions of nodding-head listeners that a woman has to take a birth control pill every time she has sex… then there’s the “just look away” party with forced trans-vaginal ultrasounds… medically necessary, of course… now, we have a SENATOR who says women can just “shut the whole thing down”
I get that trying to outlaw abortion is a litmus test for Republicans to win primaries, but do they all have to be this stupid? Is there, like… a test they have to fail in order to get OK’d by Grover Norquist and Karl Rove? How does this whole thing work, anyway, now I’m genuinely curious.
How Todd Akin is Connected to Paul Ryan?
Insofar as the Obama Campaign experimenting with connecting Todd Akin to the Romney / Ryan ticket, they’re attempting to do so via Paul Ryan’s anti-abortion bill… Yes, Republicans…. Paul Ryan has a very agressive anti-abortion bill, co-sponsored with Todd Akin, which focuses on redefining rape to target Medicaid recipients (b/c you know how popular poor people are with Republicans these days). Once again, piece by piece, doing everything they can to eliminate all access to abortion… even if raped or if the mom might die carrying or giving birth…. any yet… they have no idea how “women parts” work.
The connection between Ryan and Akin is clearly there. If anything, it might be a chance for the Obama campaign to help bring more awareness to the general public as to how extreme Paul Ryan really is on women’s rights, contraception, and abortion. In that regard it’s some potential leverage, but be careful Axelrod, don’t overplay the hand. Use it as information to expand Paul Ryan extremism, not as an indictment by proxy for the republican ticket.
Published: by | Updated: 03-15-2013 19:14:52
