McCaskill surges in polls as Akin’s abortion comments draw fire Read more here: http://www.kansasci

Two new polls Wednesday showed Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill leading Republican U.S. Rep. Todd Akin by six points as Akin faced a new round of questions about four-year-old comments about abortion providers.

In a 2008 speech on the House floor, Akin linked abortion providers to terrorists and suggested it was a “common practice” for those providers to give “abortions to women who are not actually pregnant.”

The remarks made the rounds on the Internet as Akin was in Washington raising money for his Missouri race against McCaskill. For Akin, the attention to the remarks was ill-timed as he struggles to emerge from the weeks-old shadow of his remarks about “legitimate rape” that were broadcast Aug. 19 on a St. Louis television station.

Akin, a six-term congressman from the St. Louis area, reacted to the new remarks by releasing a statement from Abby Johnson, whom the campaign identified as a former Planned Parenthood director in Bryan, Texas, from 2007 to 2009.

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