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SunsetDreams

(8,571 posts)
Mon Aug 20, 2012, 11:55 AM Aug 2012

Rep Todd Akin is not alone on the Right in his "legitimate rape" beliefs

Rep. Todd Akin is wrong about rape and pregnancy, but he’s not alone

The argument was most recently – and perhaps most fully – articulated by National Right to Life president John Wilke in a 1999 essay titled “Rape Pregnancies Are Rare.” Wilke made a pretty similar case to Akin: That the “physical trauma” of rape has a way of preventing pregnancy.

“To get and stay pregnant a woman’s body must produce a very sophisticated mix of hormones,” Wilke wrote. “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.”


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/08/20/rep-todd-akin-is-wrong-about-rape-and-pregnancy-but-hes-not-alone/


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Just this year
Akin and Republican vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan were co-sponsors of the bill, along with 225 others.

A Canard That Will Not Die: 'Legitimate Rape' Doesn't Cause Pregnancy

Take Christian Life Resources, an educational site, for example. It reprints an 1999 article on the topic that seeks to make the same distinction between categories of rape as did Akin, and for the same reason. Wrote John C. Willke -- a physician who in the 1980s and early 1990s was president of the National Right to Life Committee -- in the piece, originally published in Life Issues Connector:

When pro-lifers speak of rape pregnancies, we should commonly use the phrase "forcible rape" or "assault rape," for that specifies what we're talking about. Rape can also be statutory. Depending upon your state law, statutory rape can be consensual, but we're not addressing that here .... Assault rape pregnancies are extremely rare.

.... What is certainly one of the most important reasons why a rape victim rarely gets pregnant, and that's physical trauma. 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 what further percentage reduction in pregnancy will this cause? No one knows, but this factor certainly cuts this last figure by at least 50 percent and probably more.


...

In 1980, attorney James Leon Holmes wrote, in a letter arguing for a constitutional ban on abortion, "Concern for rape victims is a red herring because conceptions from rape occur with approximately the same frequency as snowfall in Miami."


http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/08/a-canard-that-will-not-die-legitimate-rape-doesnt-cause-pregnancy/261303/


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‘God’s Little Shield’: A Short History Of The False No-Pregnancy-From-Rape Theory

Rep. Todd Akin is far from the only conservative to suggest women rarely get pregnant from rape. He’s not even the first lawmaker to make the assertion (which flies in the face of medical evidence).

“The odds are one in millions and millions and millions,” Freind said in a debate in March of that year. “And there is a physical reason for that.”

Freind said that women possess a “certain secretion” that kills sperm.


Seven years later, a state legislator in North Carolina championed the same theory. Henry Aldridge, a Republican state representative, argued for the elimination of a public fund to help poor women pay for abortions by using a similar argument.

In 1998, Republican Arkansas state Rep. Fay Boozman botched his own Senate bid against Sen. Blanche Lincoln when he said at a rally that pregnancy resulting from rape was rare. He denied having used the phrase “God’s little shield,” according to the Washington Post.


http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/akin-not-the-first-a-short-history-of-the-false-no-pregnancy-from-rape-theory.php

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More on Feind and his "certain secretion" remark:

Article Used By Freind In His Pregnancy-rape Theory Cites Nazi Study

One of the documents Rep. Stephen F. Freind used Tuesday to support his pregnancy-rape theory cited a World War II Nazi study on pregnancy and stress.

Yesterday, the president of the state affiliate of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said Freind's use of the study was ''inappropriate."

...

Gilmore, a Pittsburgh obstetrician and gynecologist, said that as a ''personal choice" he did not perform abortions. The American College, which represents about 27,000 obstetricians and gynecologists nationwide, however, was a plaintiff in the case that struck down portions of Pennsylvania's 1982 Abortion Control Act.

Gilmore said that while he had not seen the specifics of Freind's comments, ''I do not know any secretion, pro or con, that is going to change whether a woman ovulates or does not ovulate. If the egg already left the ovary and is already in the tube, I don't see how you can claim that individual can't become pregnant."


http://articles.philly.com/1988-03-31/news/26274890_1_abortion-and-social-justice-freind-obstetricians

They use their belief system as a way to deny abortion rights even in the case of rape or incest. WTF is wrong with these people? I am sick of their "science" in the world of make believe in order to fool people into seeing it their way. Todd Akin is just another in the long line of Right Wing idiots who believe this stuff. You even have a Vice Presidential Candidate who has Co Sponsored legislation that argues this way with Akin. Paul Ryan! Romney has flip flopped so many times on Abortion rights...he simply can't be trusted! What I do know is he CHOSE someone as his running mate who has these far right wing views...so he has given his approval stamp by doing so.

For you guys to take your BS Anti Abortion stance and try to apply it to Rape Victims is beyond the pale. Then you want to talk about "forcible rape" and "legitimate rape" and add further insult??!!??? As if there are somehow "fake rapes" and you can only get pregnant from those??? SHITE! Are you out of your mind????? Wait don't answer that.

GOOD GRIEF STAY OUT OF MY WOMB IDIOTS!
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Rep Todd Akin is not alone on the Right in his "legitimate rape" beliefs (Original Post) SunsetDreams Aug 2012 OP
So the solution is to place raped women in concentration camps and torture them... rfranklin Aug 2012 #1
There are more unspoken ideas that right wingers have. I was born in South Carolina Lint Head Aug 2012 #2
 

rfranklin

(13,200 posts)
1. So the solution is to place raped women in concentration camps and torture them...
Mon Aug 20, 2012, 11:59 AM
Aug 2012

like Dr. Mengele did and then no pregnancy will occur. Okay, got it!

Lint Head

(15,064 posts)
2. There are more unspoken ideas that right wingers have. I was born in South Carolina
Mon Aug 20, 2012, 12:05 PM
Aug 2012

and I think I've heard them all. Once in a while the window is opened and these things are exposed and shot down. I will not state the many things I've heard here because it would be so unbelievable. When they come from the mouths of the right wingers it holds more water and gets them into trouble. It's like the old "Masturbation will make you go blind." thing but worse. I always have popcorn waiting for the next time.

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