August 20, 2012
Is He Serious: “Legitimate Rape Rarely Causes Pregnancy”
Really? Since when did GOP Representative Todd Atkin complete a residency program in obstetrics and gynecology? Or for that matter, attend medical school?
In a television interview with KTVI-TV in Missouri, Representative Atkins allegedly said:
‘It seems to me, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare,” Mr. Akin said of pregnancies from rape. ”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.”
What an outrage! Someone really has to draw the line. First, you mandate a diagnostic test such as ultrasonography prior to pregnancy terminations and demand that the woman view the fetus. Then you tell women they can’t have birth control on one hand and then condemn them if they have an abortion on the other. And now you have the temerity to suggest that the human body can categorize the atrocity of rape into a “true-false” mode. Are you kidding me?
So what are you saying, Representative Atkins? Do you think a rapist’s sperm is color-coded so that the ovary will put up a barrier to prevent its penetration to a woman’s egg? Will the fallopian tube sound an alarm when the process of fertilization comes from a rapist’s sperm? How will the human body be able to differentiate the sperm of a rapist from the sperm of a consenting adult? Will a woman’s body produce shock waves to the rapist upon his unlawful entry? How will a woman’s body be able to “shut that whole thing down?”
Do these candidates get screened for intelligence? Atkin’s statements are both reckless and unequivocally false.
“A lie unchallenged becomes the truth.” Please do not allow this lie to prevail.
Lisa Plymate said,
August 20, 2012 at 8:05 pm
Hear, hear! You don’t have to go to medical school or do an ob-gyn residency to know this is totally ludricrous. You just have to have taken 6th grade science. I’m appalled that this man wants a seat in the elite U.S. Senate.
Thank YOU for emphasizing the utter lack of knowledge reflected in Rep. Akin’s statement. The media has jumped all over the term “legitimate rape,” which is of course morally reprehensible. But you are discussing the other point, which I think is even more important: He doesn’t know basic facts.
drlindagalloway said,
August 21, 2012 at 12:01 am
As always, Lisa, your comments are deep and profound. Thanks so much for sharing your perspective both as a woman and a physician.