Todd Akin’s jaw-dropping remarks spark intense backlash
In an interview on Sunday, Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO), who is running for Senate, questioned whether women who are raped can be impregnated by their attacker. The outcry was swift and fierce. The Senate candidate later said he ‘misspoke.’ Nice try.
The six-term congressman, who is running against incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill for one of Missouri’s Senate seats, made a jaw-dropping remark about rape.
When a St. Louis TV station on Sunday asked Akin about abortion in instances of rape, he said:
“It seems to me, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something: I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist, and not attacking the child.”
The female body does not, in fact, “shut that whole thing down.”
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