Rep. Todd Akin isn't alone in his radical views of rape—or his bizarre beliefs about reproductive biology.
In 1995, North Carolina State Rep. Henry Aldridge said that “the facts show that people who are raped—who are truly raped— the juices don’t flow, the body functions don’t work, and they don’t get pregnant," before adding that “to get pregnant, it takes a little cooperation.”
In 1997, Leon Holmes, a prominent Republican pro-lifer in Arkansas wrote, “Concern for rape victims is a red herring because conception from rape occur with approximately the same frequency as snow in Miami.” Holmes was later appointed as a federal judge by President George W. Bush.
The list of Republicans who are pro-life, even in cases of rape or incest, is long: Nevada’s Sharon Angle suggested bearing the child “was really a lemon situation into lemonade." Rick Perry and Sarah Palin both opposed abortion in all cases, and Republicans from seven states have proposed bills that remove protections for rape and incest victims seeking abortions.
This “position is not the outlying position for the Republican Party, it has become the Republican norm,” Rachel Maddow said on Monday's The Rachel Maddow Show. She went on: “Quietly over the last few years, as the Republican Party has slipped its mooring, and the party apparatus has largely fallen apart, and the conservative movement has taken over, rape and incest exemptions have sort of fallen out of favor.”
One particularly famous bill, the mandatory transvaginal ultrasound legislation in Virginia, was championed by Republican Governor Bob McDonald.
“The furor over the bill is widely viewed as having derailed Bob McDonald’s chances at being a vice presidential nominee. And honestly I think that’s because he got famous for it,” Maddow said. “But in skipping Governor Ultrasound, Romney just picked someone who has the exact same policy record as Governor Ultrasound.”
Enter Rep. Paul Ryan.
“Why didn’t that exact same policy record derail Ryan’s chances for getting picked for the number two spot on the ticket?” Maddow asked.
Indeed, Ryan has co-sponsored a federal version of the mandatory ultrasound bill, and was an early co-sponsor, along with Akin, of H.R. 3, a bill that sought to narrow the definition of rape in federal law to only include “forcible rape.”
“I think we’re seeing a cycle that just keeps repeating itself," New York Magazine columnist Frank Rich told Maddow. "When the whole Sandra Fluke, contraception, Rush Limbaugh fracas happened, everyone was embarrassed in the Republican Party who wants to win, because it blew the story. It told America what this party is about in terms of women’s issues.”
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Ryan cosponsored legislation that would outlaw any and all abortion. Meanwhile back in the real world and not his obvious universe, women should be seeing just what these clowns are up to. How do you people think they got women in burkas? I wish on all these people to have a daughter. These policies are laughable and women MUST stand up and be counted.
So let's see what the next "issue" will be that these people will discuss. hen 9/11 happened in NY, we all came together...can we all remember that and get back to the issues our gov't should be addressing? Economy and getting people back to work...creating new industries. We are better than these clowns!
What we must remember is that Akin and Ryan are sponsoring bills and making these comments because there are people in their party that think this way. Maybe not the majority of Americans, but some traditional religious folks who are the people that vote for them.
I am Catholic, but my views differ from that of a lot of Catholics in my age group. At 76 I have the same views I had as a younger person. The Catholic Church used to hold views that there were exceptions regarding abortion. Now that is no longer the "public" stance, but the question is, why is this an issue that is a government matter. We have a very diverse nation and always have from the very beginning. So for evangelicals, Catholics, or any other religious group to try to impose their views is not in keeping with democracy. Yes, "one nation under God" but not under the Pope, or Jerry Falwell.
The only distinction I can see between the so call T-pubs and the Mainstream GOP is the Mainstream folk are more adept and their lies and hypocrisy to trick the American people into forgetting that their rhetoric has little to do with the extreme policies and platforms they have and will continue to put forth. The new T-pub leadership are just less adept at hiding this.
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So, let me get this right...if the wife or daughter of one of these extreme conservatives became pregnant as a result of being raped, they would figure she cooperated with the rapist? And aborting the resulting pregnancy would be out of the question? Hmm...
Oh of course not. They would make a special exception" in secret of course" for those potentially embarrassing cases where their rank hypocrisy would be on display for the world to see. Just like the good ole days when those of a certain class were afforded all the abortions they wanted to have in the privacy of their doctors offices til the invention of the pill leveled the playing field to a degree.
As cable news brings on Republican after Republican saying
that they have all condemned Akin’s language, "I used the wrong
words" - his apology, they have NOT condemned the idea. Except the idiotic
blurb about a rape victim not being able to become pregnant according to his
"doctor", this guy only said out loud exactly what the Republicans
believe! There are so many things they are not aloud to say out loud until they
win the election and then look out. Look at Wisconsin and Scott Walker - look
at all the Republicans who ran and won in 2010 for Congress and Governors. They
hide what they really believe to pull in the independents and other moderate
Republicans. Shhhhhh don't say it! You can see it every time Romney or Ryan are
asked what they will do. Shhhhh don't say it! Because you won't get elected!