Candidate’s comments echo party platform
If the concept of legitimate rape could ever be used to describe a practical situation, then the opposite, illegitimate rape, must also occur in some cases. With the exception of statutory rape, which Akin clearly wasn't referring to (if he was, he could have cleared everything up by saying so), there hasn't been nor will there ever be an instance of nonconsensual sex which doesn't deserve the assumption of legitimacy. The fact is, every rape is legitimate and each victim must be taken seriously and treated with the utmost care and respect. It is despicable that a man running to represent the state of Missouri in the United States Senate would stoop so low as to delegitimize the horrible act of rape simply to advance his anti-abortion political agenda.
Equally offensive to some is the assertion that rape rarely results in pregnancy. There is no scientific basis to support this claim. In 2004 and 2005 there were 3,204 pregnancies as a result of rape in the United States. Anyone who claims that this is a small number in relation to the total population or in relation to the number of annual rape victims has no respect for women and doesn't take the act of rape seriously. Akin attempted to manipulate reality to support his anti-abortion argument. He doesn't look as barbaric claiming that abortion in the case of rape should be outlawed if rape never resulted in pregnancy. The sad reality is that it does, all too often, and women in these cases have every right to take back control of their bodies after being forcibly denied that right in the most disgusting way.
The reaction from the Republican base was all too predictable. Mitt Romney publicly called for Akin to drop out of the Senate race and nearly every other major player in conservative politics, with the exception of Mike Huckabee and a few others, has distanced himself or herself from the candidate. What I have not heard, though, is what exactly Akin said that the Republican establishment objects to. His stance on abortion seems to be the direction that the party as a whole is headed in.
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