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A Georgia Republican congressman said that former Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin, R, was "partly right" in asserting that victims of "legitimate rape" rarely become pregnant.
Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., a former obstetrician-gynecologist, said at a town hall meeting that Akin was “partly right” in his controversial suggestion, which was widely cited as a factor in his loss to Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, D, this past November.
Gingrey said, according to the Marietta Daily Journal:
“And in Missouri, Todd Akin … was asked by a local news source about rape and he said, ‘Look, in a legitimate rape situation’ — and what he meant by legitimate rape was just look, someone can say I was raped: a scared-to-death 15-year-old that becomes impregnated by her boyfriend and then has to tell her parents, that’s pretty tough and might on some occasion say, ‘Hey, I was raped.’ That’s what he meant when he said legitimate rape versus non-legitimate rape. I don’t find anything so horrible about that. But then he went on and said that in a situation of rape, of a legitimate rape, a woman’s body has a way of shutting down so the pregnancy would not occur. He’s partly right on that.”
[...]
“And I’ve delivered lots of babies, and I know about these things. It is true. We tell infertile couples all the time that are having trouble conceiving because of the woman not ovulating, ‘Just relax. Drink a glass of wine. And don’t be so tense and uptight because all that adrenaline can cause you not to ovulate.’ So he was partially right wasn’t he? But the fact that a woman may have already ovulated 12 hours before she is raped, you’re not going to prevent a pregnancy there by a woman’s body shutting anything down because the horse has already left the barn, so to speak. And yet the media took that and tore it apart.”
Akin originally told KTVI-TV in August: “First of all, from what I understand from doctors, [pregnancy from rape] is really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”
Republicans quickly distanced themselves from Akin, urging him to end his bid for Senate to allow another GOP candidate to step forward. Mitt Romney, then the party’s presidential nominee, publicly said that Akin should end his campaign.
However, Akin, a congressman, resisted the calls for him to drop out, giving Democrats fodder to paint Republicans as out-of-touch with women voters. Another GOP Senate candidate, Indiana’s Richard Mourdock, also gave fodder to Democrats when he suggested that pregnancies by rape were “something God intended.” (Mourdock, like Akin, lost a Senate race on which Republicans had been counting to win.)
Gingrey addressed the cost of those controversies before making his own assessment of the science behind Akin’s remarks:
“Part of the reason the Dems still control the Senate is because of comments made in Missouri by Todd Akin and Indiana by Mourdock were considered a little bit over the top ... Mourdock basically said ‘Look, if there is conception in the aftermath of a rape, that’s still a child, and it’s a child of God, essentially.’ Now, in Indiana, that cost him the election.”
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See that's what I love about Republicans not only is their party made up of cowardly draft dodgers and chicken hawks that truly hate America All the rest of us "real" true patriotic Americans have to do is let them tell us how they "really" feel. They just can't contain themselves. I think it's an IQ thing. Their constituents IQ is so low there is a lot of danger they will be to talking over their bases heads. ROFLMGDFAO!
JH-479998 I see its typically partisan stuff from you. No, hes not wrong because he is Republican, although Republicans are usually wrong when it comes to anything that has to do with science, he is wrong because he is wrong.
Look, the important thing here is that this isn't just some guy we are talking about. You do get that this all comes from those crazy religions that think it is their job to usher in the Apocalypse don't you? They hear voices in their heads and hate any facts. Look at Louie Gommer of Texas. Do you seriously think that he is stable enough to be in freaking Congress? Or Michelle Bachmann with her paranoid religious delusions? This is not about right wing and left wing anymore. These people are simply freaking crazy.
If you do not want people laughing at you, please clean the nuts out of your party so we can continue running the country. Your Christian control has trashed the economy, gutted education and had us in two seemingly endless wars for more than a decade. Can the adults have the country back?
Oh, and by the way JH-479998 the 2012 Congress BLOCKED these Bills:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=447136158655673&set=a.447118748657414.94576.100000778778146&type=1&theater
While at the same time trying to repeal the ACA 34 times and pushing a record number of anti-abortion bills and anti-same-sex marriage bills. THAT is what happens when you let these nutcases into Congress. They have the right to their opinion, but NOT to force said RELIGIOUS opinion on the rest of us. Clean up your act and people will stop treating you like your crazy.
I have noticed that all of these comments about rape have been made by men. Considering that the female population of the United States, comprise between 53 and 54 percent, just how much longer that they are willing to allow a bunch of white men decide what is best for them?
Who says we are?
This dead horse has been beat enough. What do Americans want their elected representatives to focus on? Top ten items:
1. Jobs
2. Jobs
3. Jobs
4. Jobs
5. Jobs
6. Debt Ceiling
7. Debt Ceiling
8. Debt Ceiling
9. Debt Ceiling
10. Debt Ceiling
Elected reps should keep their nose out of personal matters and focus on what they were hired to do. Now get to work so Americans can get back to work!
Are Republicans REALLY THIS STUPID???
It's amazing to think there are people in this day and age that are just this S-T-U-P-I-D... This guy needs to be impeached.
Yes, the Teapublicans are this stupid. Actually, they're even more stupid. Either that, or they've come up with a conspiracy of idiots just to let the Democrats win.
I'm so sick of these racist, misogynist, secessionist, survivalist idiots that comprise the GOP
whiter but not brighter...the 21st century republican aprty is quickly becoming the party of white males with less than the average education and income...you know...dummies
It's about wives and pity.
I pity the wives of Akin and Mourdock and Gingrey and all the looney TPGOP.
Once again he is right and liberals are on the warpath willing to do anything to protect the continued holocaust against children, currently at more than 53 million dead and last year alone at a rate of 1 abortion per 90 seconds in the US. Here are the facts. Fertility is in part dependent on stress levels, in fact in large part. Women have trouble getting pregnant if they are under stress, ask any couple dealing with this issue and they will agree. Rape is a highly stressful situation thus, unless the woman has ovulated recently she is unlikely to get pregnant. It is estimated that approximately Which is exactly what was said in the article. 4.7% or rapes result in pregnancy. But this is not significant as far as statistics go why? Because in statistics significance requires a threshold of 5% or greater. Thus mathematically it is not significant. When you factor in the percentage of women who were not biologically capable of pregnancy sat the time of the rape the the actual percent drops even lower. Now why does thi matter? Because liberals are treating moral significance for mathematical significance when they are two completely different things.
Morally any rape is wrong. In fact it is among the worst crimes any person can commit and one of the worse events any victim can face. But mathematically pregnancy resulting from rape is just not that common, or to use the actual word it is not statistically significant.
But all this is nothing more than a red herring because even if every rape resulting pregnancy were counted it would amount to a tiny fraction of overall abortions in this country. Instead of 53 million dead babies today that count there would only be 51 million dead babies that count and anyone who starts assigning value over human lives, even life in the womb, anyone who says this 15 week old fetus is more worthy of life than another 15 week old fetus has no ground for any moral argument at all.
Tell that to the 31,000+ women it happens to annually.
You base your comments on which reliable sources exactly? Are you a doctor, or is this just your opinion? I think we all know the answer.
Blah, blah, blah. Quit defending the idiocy of the Teapublicans with anti-abortion rhetoric and blather. A woman who is pregnant as a result of rape couldn't possibly care less about your so-called statistics.
introducing the next candidate to be put out of office
I am a GOP supporter, for the most part. However, I have to say that people like Gingrey and Akin make it hard to follow their thoughts. Do they not think about what they are about to say before saying it? Akin made the original statement and it probably cost him the election. What makes me even more concerned is that Gingrey is my state Rep. I contacted him on the up coming gun control, then find out he is pretty much following the party line...of the Democrats. More and more I ask myself who's side are these guys on? I don't think very many from either side of the isle cares a bit about our country or the citizens.
welcome to the new gop. hateful bunch of old ignorant men
What? These politicians haven't heard of a thesaurus?
Where does the GOP find these morons? I am embarrassed to call myself a Republican when I hear sh*t like this. No freaking wonder we lost the GD election.
"Where does the GOP find these morons?"
Well -- when 14% of Registered Republicans are morons and only that 14% votes in primaries, the morons tend to win. That's why they lost Indiana and Missouri last November and Deleware, Colorado and Nevada in 2010.
The idiocy continues...
It sounds like this guy is over rationalizing to me. Stress doesn't prevent pregnancy, it causes miscarriage. Especially in early pregnancy. By the GOP's own rational this is murder as the egg has already been fertilized.
He should have kept his mouth shut. Trying to justify Akin's comments only brings the issue back to the fore front and hurts the Republican party as an ignorant attack on women.
Yes, the Republican party is trying to justify their aversion to abortion. Which is about as serious a decision as anyone can make. But their attitude is appalling and turns people off to even the discussion of how to reduce the need for abortions. And there is a need and no progress will be made on this social issue until people realize that they need to address the need and stop bickering over the morality of it.
Republicans are retarded
Wow... you would think these guys would have learned better than to open their mouths on this by now. Apparently not.
Why would anyone in the GOP think it was a good idea to go back to the Akin comments after the media had let them die and moved on? Is it sort of a "Update from the GOP: Yes, we are still the dumb and no, we haven't learned anything yet" type of public service announcment?
So what he is saying is " if you are raped and become pregnant you must be a liar. Nice . Good luck with that never ending spin.
I swear these Reps. are lunatics.. What kind of drugs are they on ? Misogynist freaks.
Where do they get these idiots from? Just goes to show that Congress needs term limits badly to get rid of most of the trash (both sides of the isle).
If this idiot IS a doctor, where did he learn medicine? At Ed's School of Medicine?
Obviously the Teapublican Party is STILL the Party of Stupid. Why doesn't leadership just tell these morons to shut up? Akin and Mourdock were ancient history and this knucklehead brings at all up again. As long as the Teapublicans elect idiots like this, they will continue to be the Party of Stupid.
Better yet, maybe they should just keep spewing this idiocy. That way, the Democrats are guaranteed to win.
wow the GOP is still hell bent on sefl destruction. where do these baffoons come from,your just fanning the flames giving the Godless liberal rodents more talking points for another slaughter in the mid terms and maybe beyond. if our GOP members keep this up i may as well get my Mao hat or maybe a turbin now the liberal rats will win again.
Sorry but this is nonsense:
What this is is another confirmation of the republicon belief in women as property.
"Underlying the Republican rape comments and actual Republican political goals are a few fundamental convictions: first, women are vessels for childbearing and care-taking; second, women cannot be trusted; and third, women are the property of men."
Do the wise democrats suggest that there is an alternative vessel for childbearing? Are we saying that woman never lie? If that were true there would never be cases of false accusations and the dumb a@@ from Missouri wouldn't have needed to differentiate between legitimate an illegitimate. Please point out your references of republicans regarding woman as property claim.
Firm believer in a woman's right to abortion, but don't believe it should be used as a means of birth control. Don't believe that birth control should be publicly funded, that money would be better spent in public schools educating the children on sex.
Not a doctor, but highly skeptical of the adrenaline precluding ovulation. I believe the real question and the point the Senator was trying to make was what percentage of abortions performed are performed because of impregnation through rape. I would guess that it's less than 50%. I am suprised that neither side of the aisle has produced these statistics. If we removed any public funding for abortions except those of rape, do you think that the rape statistics would jump and do you believe that none of those folks lied to receive the benefits? Wasn't the head of Planned Parenthood just ran through the ringer for being disingenuos?