Font Resize
The question that first came to mind when we heard Missouri Republican Rep. Todd Akin’s comments on abortion was: What’s the difference between legitimate rape and illegitimate rape?
It also makes us wonder if while those words were coming out of his mouth he realized how big of a misogynist (we would like to use a harsher word, but that’s not fit to print) he sounded like? Do you think his brain was telling his mouth to stop but there was a short-circuit somewhere between the two?
In case you haven’t heard already, this is what he recently told KTVI-TV: "First of all, from what I understand from doctors, (pregnancy from rape) is really rare. If it’s legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."
He quickly backpedaled, and said his comment "does not reflect the deep empathy I hold for the thousands of women who are raped and abused every year."
Nonetheless, he would still not allow a rape victim to have an abortion.
We would like to think that people like Akin (who is running against current U.S. Senator Democrat Claire McCaskill to represent Missouri) are an aberration, but in the Republican party, though they may not come out and say it the same way as he did, they basically believe the same thing.
The Baltimore Sun’s Thomas Schaller reminds us that Akin’s comment is just the tip of the "GOP wacko iceberg."
As examples, he
As The Rumble’s Michael Cohen pointed out, Akin is only echoing one of the core beliefs of today’s GOP.
"If they had their way, Republicans would force all women -- not just those who are raped -- to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term," wrote Cohen.
As proof, just consider the seemingly endless list of state laws initiated by Republicans (we don’t have enough space here to list them all) that are nothing more than a heinous attack on the rights of women to make decisions for themselves about their own bodies.
"Whether Todd Akin is or is not elected to the U.S. Senate from Missouri," wrote Cohen, "the unceasing rollback of women’s reproductive rights will undoubtedly continue. But if Mitt Romney is elected president, that process will only gather steam particularly with the potential of the next president to appoint new justices to the Supreme Court."
Despite the fact that GOP leaders are backing away from Akin and his run for the Senate, with many suggesting he take his hat out of the ring, the truth is many Republicans and their enablers want to bring back the 1950s, when women took care of the home, raised children, washed the laundry and cooked.
And, of course, a time when men made all the decisions in a family.
If you don’t believe that’s a major tenet of the modern GOP, you haven’t been listening.
