Republican Senate Nominee:"Victims Of ‘Legitimate Rape’ Don’t Get Pregnant"

[GenuineRisk]

Ryan and Akin are much more morally consistent than politicians who oppose abortion except in the cases of rape and incest. Opposing legal abortion except in cases of rape and incest means that the pregnancy is intended to punish a woman for having consensual sex. Which says some pretty awful things about how that person views pregnancy, childbirth and babies.

On some level, though, Akin knows it's a pretty awful position to hold, ergo his attempt to justify it by saying, well, raped women don't get pregnant anyway. Can you imagine a rapist using that as as defense? Well, your Honor, she got pregnant, so clearly she was asking for it. Not to mention a rapist then extending a paternity claim and demanding visitation rights as a way to keep himself in a woman's life, regardless of how she feels about it.

Pennsylvania Congressman Freind claimed something similar about rape and pregnancy, back in the 1980's. I think he claimed women secreted some kind of mysterious substance during rape that stopped them from getting pregnant.

But this is very consistent with the GOPs policy agenda regarding women's rights since 2010- limit abortion, reduce access to affordable contraception (and of course, it's the hormonal contraceptives and the IUD they object to, which, purely coincidentally I'm sure, are the forms of contraception women can go on without their partners having any say about or even knowledge of.

It's really not surprising at all if one's been following legislation passed at the state levels since 2010.