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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAFA's Bryan Fischer: Todd Akin Wasn't 'Misspeaking' but Speaking for a Movement
Todd Akin Wasn't 'Misspeaking' but Speaking for a Movement
Submitted by Brian Tashman on Mon, 08/20/2012 - 11:45am
Missouri Republican senate candidate and congressman Todd Akin is trying to run away from his claims that legitimate rape rarely leads to pregnancy, insisting that he misspoke while making off-the-cuff remarks, even though they were in an interview with a local reporter. Akin made a similar half-apology following his claim that at the heart of liberalism really is the hatred for God, with his spokesman arguing that his claim during a radio interview were off-the-cuff.
Akin is a beloved figure of the Religious Right, and his campaign advertises endorsements from Concerned Women for America activists and activists like Mike Huckabee, Phyllis Schlafly, Michele Bachmann and David Barton. Barton, who recorded campaign ads calling Akin a true Christian leader, has compared Akin to John Witherspoon and other founding fathers. American Family Association spokesman Bryan Fischer, who hosted Akin on his radio show the day after the congressmans primary victory, said people need to lighten up about his rape comments :
Previously, Akin said he wants to ban the morning after pill, worried marital rape laws will be used as a legal weapon to beat up on the husband and sought to narrow the definition of rape in legislation. Akin also prominently advertises his endorsement from Schlafly, who has said women cannot be raped by their husbands.
Sarah Posner in Religion Dispatches notes that Akin, who has a masters in divinity, received his degree at a denomination which teaches that rape seldom leads to pregnancy and should not be relevant to laws on abortion rights, and as Kate Sheppard of Mother Jones pointed out, anti-choice luminary John Willke asserts that hormones make pregnancies resulting from rape extremely rare and Physicians for Life believes the rate of pregnancy is actually very rare because the stress from the rape alter[s] bodily functions, the menstrual cycle included.
more:http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/todd-akin-misspeaking-speaking-for-movement
LeftinOH
(5,355 posts)term BECAUSE THEY'VE NEVER HEARD IT BEFORE. Akin is clearly familiar with the concept of "legitimate rape".. why they fuck else would he say it?
Care Acutely
(1,370 posts)He doesn't think he was wrong - he just didn't mean to actually say it out loud.
We need a Neanderthal smiley.
ananda
(28,868 posts)Jennicut
(25,415 posts)These people are clueless.
tanyev
(42,573 posts)librechik
(30,674 posts)down our throats. Cooked up in some nightmarish focus group by Ryan and others.
ashling
(25,771 posts)Bake
(21,977 posts)Because they're as stupid as he is. America is totally screwn by ignorance.
Bake
coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)ignoring the indisuptable fact that the phrase occurred within a context that suggests women's vaginas have the magical power to determine whose sperm shall make them pregnant.
EPIC FAIL.