"It seems to be, first of all, from what I understand from doctors, it’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down."
—Congressman Todd Akin (R-MO), explaining why pregnancy does not result from rape, and abortion bans should therefore have no exceptions.
With the quote above, Congressman Akin created a firestorm of criticism from within his own party, as well as from Democrats. There were many calls for him to resign from the Senate race in Missouri—calls which, late this afternoon, he decided to reject. He is staying in the race. And why not? He still has a narrow lead in the polls there. And he still shares co-authorship of the "Sanctity of Human Life Act," with VP nominee Paul Ryan. The act is a so-called personhood measure that defines life as beginning at fertilization and authorizes the federal and state governments to protect life from that point forward, with no exceptions.
Mitt Romney has said (after Akin’s impolitic remarks) that a Romney-Ryan administration would not oppose abortion in cases of rape. But Ryan’s (and Akin’s) authorship of the Sanctity of Human Life Act says otherwise. And so does a plank in the official Republican Party platform, which was just approved today. The party’s anti-abortion plank makes no exceptions for cases of rape or incest.
The whole Akin episode represents one more reason (as if we needed it) to turn back the Republicans this fall.
It’s also one more reason why the Congressional election here in NY-19 is so vitally important. Please sign up to support and/or volunteer for the Julian Schreibman campaign today.
