RogerMartim (#1) wrote on: August 27, 2012, 07:49:24 PM:
"I simply can't abide by the ignorance that is displayed by some politicians on this issue.
"Of course, I am referring to the recent remarks made by Congressman Todd Akin from Missouri in which he said that a woman's body shuts down during a 'legitimate' rape and her chances of becoming pregnant is minimized."
It would help increase your credibility, Roger, if you referred to the recent remarks ACTUALLY made by Congressman Todd Akin:
"It seems to me, first of all, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, uh 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. You know, I think there should be some punishment but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child."
So even in his statement Akin admitted that women who are raped can get pregnant. He also reiterated that in his apology. And it is clear from the context of the statements that Akin intended “legitimate” to mean “actual,” not “acceptable." Furthermore, Todd Akin probably got the assertion he expressed on pregnancy from rape based on one or more of the following articles:
“The Indications for Induced Abortion: A Physician’s Perspective,” by Dr. Fred Mecklenburg in
Abortion and Social Justice, an anthology compiled by Dr. Thomas W. Hilger in 1972. Dr. Mecklenburg was the former chairman of obstetrics at Inova Women’s Hospital in Falls Church, Va.
Handbook on Abortion, by Dr. John C. “Jack” Willke, founder of the National Right to Life Committee.
Willke also wrote an article, “
Rape Pregnancies are rare,” in the Christian Life Resources, April 1999. According to Dr. Willke:
“Every woman is aware that stress and emotional factors can alter her menstrual cycle. To get and stay pregnant a woman’s body must produce a very sophisticated mix of hormones. Hormone production is controlled by a part of the brain that is easily influenced by emotions. There’s no greater emotional trauma that can be experienced by a woman than an assault rape. This can radically upset her possibility of ovulation, fertilization, implantation and even nurturing of a pregnancy.”
So, while one can certainly say that Akin should have worded his statement differently to avoid misunderstanding, it hardly can be described as "ignorance,"
George Neumayr explains it well in these excerpts from his article, “
Cowed by Political Correctness“:
Barack Obama hired as one of his top Department of Education officials a gay-rights activist named Kevin Jennings, who once glibly counseled a “15-year-old” student thought to have been statutorily raped by an older man: “I hope you knew to use a condom.”
Don’t expect Obama to receive any questions from the press about these views of his first “Safe Schools Czar.” No, outrage in this culture is restricted to those deemed unenlightened in the nuances of avant-garde morality. According to its porous scorecard, Christianity is bad for women while Islam is good for them. Pro-life countries receive scoldings from Hillary Clinton, while the one-child policy of China, which kills female infants, isn’t “second-guessed” by this administration, as Joe Biden put it on a visit.
Beneath all the hysterical extrapolations from his [Akin's] remark, which grew wilder and wilder as the days passed, lay that essential demand: approve of killing unborn children conceived under circumstances of rape or be deemed “anti-woman.”
This culture of hectoring explains why Mitt Romney rushed to the cameras upon hearing Akin’s remark to pronounce abortion in those cases “appropriate.” In a rotten culture, proof of one’s “civilized” bona fides comes from such shameless pandering.
An authentically conservative party would find Romney’s unprincipled position far more chilling than Akin’s gaffe. If unborn children gain or lose their right to life depending upon the circumstances of their conception, then the party has already conceded that that right doesn’t exist.
[Emphasis added]
