General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA possible theory on Aikins comments.
Seems to me he's trying to tie into abortion debate. He says "legitimate" rape doesn't lead to pregnancy... therefore, he's implying if a pregnancy occurs it wasn't rape, therefore abortion isn't allowed. Basically an end around way of calling for no abortion, even in cases of rape, while trying not to use that wording.
Anyone else see this as the motive? Other thoughts?
napi21
(45,806 posts)Joe said he thought that's what Todd intended to say and support his bill, but it won't matter to most women. Joe also said how much comments like this hurt the Pub Brand.
There's a video clip of Morning Joe at the link above.
LadyHawkAZ
(6,199 posts)Also underhanded slut-shaming: "You got pregnant so it wasn't REALLY a rape, now was it?".
Even on the insanely slim chance that he didn't really mean what he said, it still puts the idea in people's heads. Can you imagine the Akin supporters having to sit a rape jury now? Or the officers that interview a victim: "Did you ask for emergency contraception? Why would you do that if it was a legitimate rape?". This horseshit has implications far beyond just being an offensive and ignorant comment.
Mr.Bill
(24,330 posts)I agree. Comments like his are just a hint of what they really feel about the topic.
JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)or "forcible rape".
grantcart
(53,061 posts)BlueNinja
(25 posts)Whenever any politician makes a comment that has the words "pregnancy" and "rape" in the sentence ten to one it's about abortion. Also seeing as that was the question the guy who was interviewing him asked, yes, that was his answer to the whole abortion for rape question. And I quote, "...I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child." Here's the interview:
I find it ironic that he actually uses an anecdote of footage taken by arms dealer Ollie North (oh how quickly we forget) as an example to prove the US-of-A's "respect for life." And yes, he was stating that a magical fairy lives inside of each woman who eradicates all sperm from rapes so there's no chance a woman could ever get pregnant if she was "legitimately" raped hence no need for abortions -what-the-fuck-ever.
Motown_Johnny
(22,308 posts)himself that he is not really a rapist because those were not "legitimate" rapes.
LynneSin
(95,337 posts)I remember a long time ago when I had sex-ed in high school, the teacher had talked about stress being a big cause of miscarriages in women. Stress was not said to some form of magical birth control, just that extreme stress isn't good when you're pregnant.
I'm guessing, and trust me I don't understand the mind of a gop douchebag, that this idiot Akin assumed that a woman raped would be highly stressed and thus a miscarriage would happen. It's a piss poor sense of logic like saying that if you like ice cream then you must enjoy living in cold weather environments.