Todd Akin Was Arrested Multiple Times For Physically Blocking Women’s Access To Abortion Clinics

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

Source: Think Progress

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) — who came under fire after asserting that “legitimate rapes” don’t often result in pregnancy — was arrested multiple times in the 1980s for protesting outside of abortion clinics in St. Louis. Between 1985 and 1987, Akin worked with other anti-choice activists to physically block women’s access to reproductive health clinics in the city, during what RH Reality Check describes as a “hotbed of anti-choice violence and harassment” in St. Louis. At that time, Akin went by his given first name, William, rather than the middle name he currently uses.

Anti-abortion harassment has not certainly not faded away since Akin’s days as a participant. Incidents of violent harassment have been on the rise, prompting some cities like New York to implement clinic escort programs to safely accompany women into health clinics, and an anti-abortion harassment resulted in a stabbing incident in Oregon just yesterday.

Despite the outrage that Akin’s comments about women’s reproductive systems sparked — such as the long list of his Republican colleagues who called for him to drop out of the Missouri Senate race, although Akin did not heed their advice — a number of right-wing groups continue to financially back his campaign.

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/10/25/1091791/todd-akin-arrested-abortion-clinics/

[Bozita]

1. I shudder when I think that this religionut could be elected to a seat in the US Senate!

[HankyDub]

2. It's time to waterboard some christo-fascist terrorists

[pennylane100]

4. Do you think that waterboarding is going too easy on them.

I must have a really dark soul because I would love to see them suffer much more.

[HankyDub]

6. well I wouldn't want to torture them

just "enhanced interrogation" to find out who they plan to murder next.

[Tumbulu]

26. My vote is to impregnate them

Now that is torture!

[funkhowser1]

39. My vote for all those talking about rape as god's plan ... ability to not impregnate ...

from a rape, etc., ... to be forcibly sodomized. By somebody who is really packing. Sorry, I'm just over hearing this crap.

[smirkymonkey]

3. K&R!

[freshwest]

5. The phrase, 'to implement clinic escort programs to safely accompany women into health clinics'

Sounds too much like little Afghan girls having to be guarded on their way to school, their schools being bombed. People see the clothes and the names, and think it's different. It's not.

It's not about abortion or education. It's about a worldwide war on the female of the species to keep them as breeding stock and nothing else in this world.

America, get a good look at places in the world that embrace living in the Dark Ages. This could be our future, all the signs are there now,.

[silverweb]

7. Well said.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]And not overstated in the least.

[freshwest]

9. Yes, when women have to be protected from mobs who may not stop at verbal abuse, we're there already

Last edited Fri Oct 26, 2012, 02:09 PM - Edit history (1)

They, like women in these other places, are going about their lawful business but these people don't respect the law. With a history of bombings, and some even this year, outright murder and calls by politicans to kill the doctors and convict these women who are doing what is lawful for murder, we are very close to what the Taliban does.

The Teahadist politicans and right wing preachers are like imams issuing fatwas on other citizens for not obeying their religion and they have employed lethal force before. They have violated patient confidentiality and gone after women who visited the clinics, so imagine what would happen if they applied their calls for charges of murder on women?

Obama is clear, it should not be men who are so removed from the personal lives and responsibility they are seeking to enforce on others, to be making the decisions for women's healthcare. And we point the finger at people rioting in the streets over cartoons?

Looks like a duck, walksl like a duck, talks like a duck...

[FailureToCommunicate]

10. Agreed. You say this so well...have you posted OPs on these points?

[freshwest]

24. No, I don't post OPs of my own. I tell people who ask to feel free to use my words. We're all...

Sojourners and the words I write are intuitive. If I am quoting anyone, I always give credit, the rest is from myself. I write of the similarities obvious to me. We're all here to work this out and to help each other.

[silverweb]

27. So true, so true.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]I always look for and appreciate your thoughtful and insightful posts, freshwest.

[freshwest]

31. ...

[femrap]

15. FYI

There have been 'escorts' at Planned Parenthood going back to the early-mid '80's....and believe it or not, this was in progressive SAN FRANCISCO!

I went through this on a Saturday morning. Women in bright orange vests help push thru the Lunatics. One dude got in my face. I told him if didn't get out of my way, I'd cut off his dick and then slammed my foot on his. He moved. I was so pissed off.

If young women of today don't start fighting back and standing up for themselves, they'll forever be nothing more than eye candy stumbling around in 5" heels.

You're right, those 2 words, Dark Ages, come into my mind quite a bit lately. In fact, I sure hope the Mayans and Hopi are correct about the upcoming Paradigm Shift in December.

[freshwest]

25. I'm aware of the history, but people have not seen this for what it is. No burka to them means

No oppression by religion. They can't get past the language, name of the religion, clothing or skin color. It is the same mentality, restricting another's religious or lack of religious beliefs on others.

The GOP has run the legislatures in this country as it they were the arbiters of morality, and are deeply suspicious of women.
Remember the guy who wanted to have all pregnancies in a database, to see if women were illegally having abortions that they were claiming to be miscarriages?

Of course it's been worse since the Teahadists have taken over. All in the name of their religious beliefs. They treat women like witches, or heretics in the Spanish Inquisition. Mandated rape by object is torture, and it is not the state's business. None of it is.

In the old days, virginity was proven by an exam by strangers on women before their wedding night. There were lords who took the privilege of first night with peasant women getting married, having sex with them before their intended husband. Their right, it was said.

I don't see any difference in the attitude here. The Teahadists didn't complain about the TSA touching people's 'junk' until Obama got in office, but they see this as an entitlement of the government, inserting a Star Wars troopers gun sized device way up hard into a woman's body that they don't know.

The 'patriots' scream about a world order coming, so they want to kill Obama and all Democrats, but they are legislating it state by state. The female is abused because they can be bullied, although anyone can be bullied by a group. No society that goes after women is an enlightened on.

Burka or not, this is what is being foisted on us here. We are, because of military might and media, an example the world follows. Imagine an entire planet sunk into the Dark Ages, no matter what religion is the most dominant. It's not the religion, it's the mindset.

And good on you for telling that clown off. They gather in mobs because they are cowards. But mobs have brought down many good people. It seems that median IQ of the individuals is divisible by the number gathered together. They quickly act like a pack of coyotes, howling as they encircle their prey. You showed that dog that you were not dinner.

[femrap]

35. Women have to

stand up against this Organized Religious Crap. I have many Fundie Repugnants in my family. They are absolutely unbearable. I see them as little as possible.

They think they have the right to tell me what to do with my life? Is that what Jesus told you to do? Go oppress people. What f*cking idiots.

I fight back w/ my relatives and I always have a REASONABLE AND INTELLIGENT response to their bunk. My grandparents were not outwardly religious at all. How their kids got so screwed up is beyond me....it's the Times, I guess...all of these men who don't want to see women have good jobs and be able to take care of themselves.

I hope young women will WAKE UP!

I remember back in 2004 (I think), there was a HUGE MARCH in D.C....it was around the time that Ashcroft was going to start looking at women's abortion records or something mortifying like that. I drove to DC with a friend and it was just totally amazing .... there must have been over 1/2 million women there. People from all over the country. Our hotel was filled w/ nothing but women going to the Demonstration. And the signs were fabulous. We all marched and chanted clear around The Mall.

Ashcroft never mentioned his little idea again. It was a massive march. Great speakers. People need to stand up about this locally and have local marches and speeches.

Bring rape and incest out into the public and tell our stories....and if they think God wanted a woman to be raped, then I guess I'll have to tell them that God just told me to kick their fat ass.

Don't get me started on the Religious Kooks. All my relatives have their Romney signs out and every other f*cking repugnant. Makes me so damn mad. Racist, asshats. Greedy shits. And they're raising their kids to be religious asshats as well. One fled to San Fran so maybe he'll be OK.

is now over! I feel better! All of those poor women in Afghanistan should be armed. I hope someday they unite and fight against this oppression so to be free.

[IfPalinisAnswerWatsQ]

8. Yeah, but were they legitimate arrests?

Because if so, the system has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.

[femrap]

16. Women's groups

went all the way to the SCOTUS trying to get these Lunatics under 'racketeering charges.' Now just guess what the SCOTUS said???

It's Free Speech for them, no Justice for us.

[Skittles]

29. I got it

[IfPalinisAnswerWatsQ]

30. Some people just arrest easy

[Skittles]

32. some people invite arrest

you know, by LOOKING suspicious

[IfPalinisAnswerWatsQ]

33. Maybe if Akin wouldn't act the way he does in public, you know, approaching clinic patients...

he wouldn't have gotten arrested. Some might even say that he should know better than to be at that location at those times, given the type of characters that hang around there. Maybe he was asking for it?

Akin has to lay off the short skirts, don't you think? That way he can avoid legitimate arrests.

[Sadiedog]

37. Thank you for the laugh! nt

[onecent]

11. kick and Recommend. n/t

[Coyotl]

12. Sometimes, religious fervor is simply a symptom of a psychological disorder

When religion is used to attempt to control others, it certainly is a mental problem.
The good news William, mental health is covered under ObamaCare

[FiveGoodMen]

21. "When religion is used to attempt to control others"

It has no other purpose.

[sarcasmo]

23. +1

[Coyotl]

28. Upon further reflection, yes

and was likely created to supply slaves with an acceptable and acceptance world view.

[Sadiedog]

38. All Religion is about control!

Just my opinion.

[jsr]

13. Nice, William

[Solly Mack]

14. More on his ties with Tim Dreste and Randall Terry

http://www.salon.com/2012/10/23/todd_akins_militia_ties_exposed/

At the time of Akin’s arrest, Pro-Life Direct Action was headed by a radical anti-abortion activist named John Ryan, who was accused of leading a “reign of terror” against abortion clinics nationwide and who bragged of being arrested almost 350 times. But after it came out later in 1987 that Ryan was having an extramarital affair, Tim Dreste pushed Ryan aside and took over the group. Shortly thereafter, Dreste started an even more radical new group affiliated with Randall Terry’s Operation Rescue called Whole Life Ministries. “Whole Life Ministries soon became the paramount anti-abortion activist group in St. Louis,” journalists James Risen and Judy Thomas wrote in their 1998 book about the pro-life movement, Wrath of Angels.

The next year, Akin addressed Dreste’s new group. In late October of 1988, Whole Life Ministries planned to blockade an abortion clinic as part of a national protest organized by Operation Rescue. Akin rallied Dreste’s troops in a church the night before. “As far as I am concerned, you are the freedom fighters of America… My hat is off to you,” Akin said, according to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch story. Dreste told the paper that night that he expected to get arrested, explaining, ”We will tell (police) we will obey God’s law before we obey man’s law.”

[ryan_cats]

18. Ugghh Randall Terry

Ugghh Randall Terry, this guy is a loser from way back. Who pays for his lifestyle, does he have a job or does he live off of donations to his organization, Operation Rescue?

Is operation Rescue a tax exempt organization? Does that mean its finances are open to inspection or not?

[Solly Mack]

20. The group lost its tax exemption a few years ago.

Has 2 branches now. The one in Kansas is lead by a follower of Terry.

Terry ran for president in 2012 (primary)

[ryan_cats]

17. You realize this raises his stock among his fellow travelers?

You realize this raises his stock among his fellow travelers? Don't like abortion, don't have one.

Has any of these protests actually stopped an abortion or are these folks just in to hassling innocent woman who have made a painful choice?

[KamaAina]

19. Oner of my fellow clinic defenders noticed an interesting pattern

We were in a largely African American neighborhood in New Orleans. Thus, about 80 percent of the women going in were black.

Eventually Susan figured out that the anti's would generally harass and shame the black women on their way out. It was only when a white woman showed up that they went into some satanic frenzy to keep her from going in.

None of us were terribly surprised when we were counterdemoing a Dukkke rally and the head anti showed up circling around looking for parking.

[FiveGoodMen]

22. That is VERY revealing, isn't it?

[Skittles]

34. if they really, truly cared about "life"

they would work to reduce to NEED for abortion but then, that's not what it is all about for them, is it? It's all about harassing and controlling women

[dontknowmuchbout]

36. Crazy

The crazy part is he probably would have won if it hadn't been for this!

[DFW]

40. Yes, but were they legitimate arrests?

Right wing nuts have ways to counteract things like that.....