Todd Akin is getting a real kicking from his own party over remarks he made in which he claimed that women rarely get pregnant from being raped. Not stopping there, he added, "From what I understand from doctors... if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."
However, wouldn't it be strange if the same party that has pulled Akin's funding and called for him to step down from the Missouri Senate race he is trying to win, actually had some of the same crazy ideas about rape and pregnancy? On second thought, where did Todd Akin get the strange idea that a woman cannot get pregnant from rape? And where did he get the idea that there are shades of rape? It is not just your imagination. Misogynous ideas about rape and the apparent mystery of female conception are rampant in the right wing, even amongst elected officials. Rachel Maddow points out that the third bill that House Republicans introduced after taking over the chamber in 2010 would have essentially created a new category of rape, called "forcible rape," which is the term Mike Huckabee used when asking Akin what he meant by "legitimate rape." To which Akin replied, yes. Sure does seem awful similar to "legitimate rape."
Kudos to Rachel Maddow and her excellent research staff.
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