The Todd Akin school of Christian thought on abortion and rape

[marmar]

The Todd Akin school of Christian thought on abortion and rape
The Republican senate candidate saying rape doesn't cause pregnancy is in line with other wild beliefs of the religious right

Amanda Marcotte
guardian.co.uk, Monday 20 August 2012


Maybe it's time for compulsory biology lessons for politicians, but this week Todd Akin, a US Republican senate candidate, claimed that rape didn't cause pregnancy. While attempting to explain his proposals for a no-exceptions policy on banning abortion Akin said there did not need to be an exception for rape, because "it was really rare" for rape to lead to pregnancy. "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down," he explained.

He didn't elaborate on what such a mechanism might be. But perhaps he had been talking to the similarly non-licensed or educated doctor-politician, Stephen Freind, who said in 1988 that rape victims "secrete a certain secretion" that kills sperm. Apparently, in conservative imagination, the interior of the vagina is much like a fleshy soda machine with a series of sacks filled with different kinds of liquids that dispense when the proper button is pushed. Press the "rape" button, and out comes the spermicide. Press the "she was asking for it" button and a welcome mat-style secretion comes out. Presumably pressing the "Jesus" button causes a secretion that enters a woman's bloodstream and teaches modesty and submission to her husband's will. The vagina really is a cave of wonders!

In all honesty, that Akin, who is a marching member of the Christian right, believes this should be no surprise. Anti-abortion Christians are well trained in the art of substituting wishful thinking for facts, and then aggressively promoting their made-up nonsense as if it were historical or biological truth. It starts with their rock solid belief that Jesus Christ wanted banning abortion to be a priority, despite never once even mentioning the issue. It shouldn't be surprising that those who make stuff up about their Lord and Savior would easily leap straight to spinning nonsense about the female reproductive system.

The belief that rape is effective contraception is just one of many wild beliefs. For years, activists have widely circulated two demonstrably untrue ideas about abortion: that it causes depression and breast cancer. Anti-abortion politicians frequently try to write these false claims into law – requiring doctors to "warn" patients about the nonexistent risks of breast cancer and depression. Just this summer, South Dakota has been defending a law requiring doctors to tell women that if they get abortion, their risk of suicide goes up. In reality, there is no causal relationship between abortion and depression. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/20/todd-akin-christian-abortion-rape