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So the hottest political story coming out of the weekend was a set of self-destructive comments on abortion from the freshly-nominated Missouri Republican Senate candidate, U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, who in defense of his no-exceptions position on banning abortion, allowed as how he understood the “female body” somehow prevents or ends pregnancy in cases of “legitimate” rape. This combination of late-medieval ignorance (from a member of the House Science Committee!) and piggish insensitivity is now in danger of earning Akin a one-way ticket to Palookaville if national Republicans can figure out a way to arrange one.
Before Akin is shown the door (if indeed that happens; it’s basically up to the leaders of anti-choice groups to decide if they want to defend a loyal lawmaker or sacrifice him to the Greater Good of the Cause), some reflection is in order on why people with his views keep popping up on general election ballots with alarming regularity.
The official position of the Republican Party, as reflected repeatedly in party platforms, congressional votes, thousands of speeches, and the positions expected of presidential and vice presidential candidates, is that full Human Life—not just “potential” human life, as suggested in Roe v. Wade, but the just-like-me-and-you life that deserves the full protection of the laws and constitution of the United States—begins at the moment of conception. Perhaps I’ve missed it, but I’ve yet to hear more than one or two statewide Republican candidates anywhere in the country express any doubt on this subject, or indicate that life in the legal sense might begin a bit later, whether it’s a week after conception or at the point of fetal viability.
If you actually believe that, then the rape-and-incest exceptions that GOP politicians routinely (though not uniformly) endorse are logically and morally difficult, implying as they do a balancing of equities between the existence and non-existence of life and, well, anything else. According to the strict “pro-life” point of view that the vast majority of GOP politicians embrace these days, from the moment of conception pregnancy should become compulsory. It may be sad that the victim of rape or incest is in that position, but in the end life is life and a zygote is ontologically identical to a grown woman, so no “balancing” is in order unless the woman’s own life is in danger.
Now as applied to such cases, this is not a very popular position, so most GOP (along with “pro-life” Democrats) anti-choicers simply abandon it, figuring if they can succeed in making pregnancy-after-conception compulsory in 99.9% of the cases, they can, at least temporarily, tolerate exceptions that make no logical or moral sense. And beyond those who make this jesuitical rationalization, of course, there are many who actually don’t believe any of this stuff. Some simply want to restrict abortion rights to those enjoyed and relied upon by middle-class white folks, and some just want to reflect a vague conservative belief that too many bad woman have sex and that any diminished likelihood of a pregnancy carried to term will let them get away with being bad.
But those of us who find anti-choice politics a messy gruel of fanaticism and dishonesty should not let the GOP or the “pro-life” movement dissociate themselves from people like Todd Akin too casually. What, specifically, did he say that they disagree with, and why? If it was just the offensive assertion that conception somehow depends on a woman’s consent, just say so. But if it’s just that Todd Akin drew unwelcome attention to what millions of people in the almighty conservative “base” believe, or because he just forgot how to use code words to disguise the radicalism of his position, it would be helpful to know that as well.
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BillFromPA on August 20, 2012 10:25 AM:
From Wasserman Shultz: “The real issue is a Republican party — led by Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan — whose policies on women and their health are dangerously wrong.”
Finally, a Dem points out the obvious, that it's the whole Grey Old Party that's the problem, that we, the liberals and other sane Americans, need to drive the lot of them out of office. We'll never get them all, there will always be red districts in BumFuck Mississippi and East Jesus Nebraska with GOP representation, but a super majority in the Senate, absent major rule changes there, and a solid Dem majority in the House is a requirement.
Remember, it's the whole GOP, not just the Looney du Jour, that's the problem.
arkie on August 20, 2012 10:29 AM:
What is "illegitimate rape"? Is "illegitimate rape" what occurs when a woman wears the "wrong" kind of clothes? Or is in the wrong neighborhood at the wrong time of night? Or she didn't put up enough of a struggle? Or that it was her husband or boyfriend that forced her to have sex?
Is getting pregnant after being raped proof that it was an "illegitimate rape"? Proof that she really wanted to be "raped"?
And all the Romney campaign had to say was that "a Romney-Ryan administration would not oppose abortion in instances of rape."
Which is a lie. Both have said (and Ryan sponsored a bill) that they would support a federal "personhood" amendment which would make all abortions illegal. Abortion would be crime even in cases of "legitimate rape", incest or saving the life of the mother.
jjm on August 20, 2012 10:33 AM:
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/08/19/712251/how-todd-akin-and-paul-ryan-partnered-to-redefine-rape/
Paul Ryan co-sponsored a bill with Akin to redefine rape along these lines so no one who is pregnant could claim exemption for being forcibly raped, otherwise, she wouldn't BE pregnant...
Peter C on August 20, 2012 10:33 AM:
Above and beyond their abhorrent views on choice, I am deeply distressed at their ability to utterly and completely believe things which have no basis in reality. They will gleefully make policy based on fantasies which devistate peoples lives.
Government has concrete consequences for people's lives. It needs to be grounded in reality. We cannot afford to empower people who are unable to see anything other than their self-delusions.
ComradeAnon on August 20, 2012 10:38 AM:
Don't overlook that the doctor probably did tell Akin what he said. There's plenty of late-medieval ignorance all around.
Jeffrey Mitchell on August 20, 2012 10:43 AM:
Speaking of avoiding unpopular positions… One issue right-to-lifers will never honestly confront is what punishments are appropriate for people who are involved in abortions. If full human life begins at conception, then abortion is murder, isn’t it? And shouldn’t murderers be harshly punished? And shouldn’t a women who has an abortion be considered a murderer? After all, she may not have performed the abortion on herself, but she has abetted and even initiated the baby-killing. Doesn’t she deserve a harsh punishment? Shouldn’t those millions of wicked women—murderers all—be put away for life?
These questions never get answered—not least because they are too seldom asked. They should be asked again and again.
arkie on August 20, 2012 10:43 AM:
Have Romney's "boys" taken Akin for a "ride" over the Gulf of Mexico this morning? Did Romney ask himself what would Tony Soprano do in this situation?
TPM has just posted this:
Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) was scheduled to appear on KMOX radio in Kansas City Monday morning, his first interview since his "legitimate rape" comments threw the Missouri Senate race in disarray. He missed his scheduled appearance at 9:20 local time after his campaign called the station and said his schedule "was totally blown out," according to a KMOX producer.
The campaign told the show that "because of what happened his schedule had totally changed," producer Peggy Cohill told TPM. She said the campaign told the show Akin is "on a plane right now" and was "very evasive" about where he's going and what he's doing.
stormskies on August 20, 2012 10:46 AM:
In a country in which 20% of the population 'believes' that the Sun revolves around the Earth, another 50% believe that the Earth is less than 10,000 years old and that humans co-mingles with the Dinosaurs, only 25% accepts the natural law of evolution, and in which more people vote for American Idol that vote for the presidency of the USA, can we really be surprised at this utter ignorance ?
Within the sickness of so many, a sickness defined by conscious stupidity, we need to also remember that in Ryan's plan defined by 'person hood' that a women using an IUD can be charged with PREMEDITATED MURDER.
Fucking a..........
Mad_nVt on August 20, 2012 10:49 AM:
Hey Kilgore: Great way to highlight the absurd position of GOP regarding full-human-life-as-protected-by-Constitution begins at conception.
Keep banging that drum !!!
Please.
bcinaz on August 20, 2012 10:52 AM:
Too bad Wingers don't have the same passion to preserve life after the baby is born when all the Randian ideology kicks in and the infant turns into a moocher and a looter.
DAY on August 20, 2012 10:59 AM:
Many (most?) men do not understand Ladyparts- which is which, and what is what, and WHERE (as in, the Eternal Search for that Elusive Clitoris)- so they feel threatened by them.
And they are DOUBLY THREATENED by the owners of those parts. -And have been, since Adam told Eve to "cover thy nakedness."
Ron Byers on August 20, 2012 11:15 AM:
Akin didn't say anything that isn't Republican canon. He just said it in an inartful way that we couldn't ignore. Until yesterday Ryan's official position and Akin's were identical. The same position is implied by the Personhood Amendment endorced by Romney, but Romney has statements on all sides of all issues, so it is impossible to know where he really stands.
I for one, don't want Akin to leave the race. His honesty is refreshing.
bkmn on August 20, 2012 11:16 AM:
Since Paul Ryan cosponsored the bill that would have outlawed abortion in cases of "legitimate rape" I would love to see some reporter on the campaign trail or even better a general citizen ask Mr. Ryan to explain the term "legitimate rape".
boatboy_srq on August 20, 2012 11:28 AM:
@arkie: "Illegitimate rape" is straight-up four-humour medicine. "Illegitimate rape" = "Teh Secks," and we all know that women don't get pregnant unless they enjoyed Teh Secks in the first place, which makes it not "legitimate" rape - and she can't change her mind afterward and say she was coerced because she's carrying proof that she went along with it all a-willing. Women can turn off pregnancy when they were forced to have Teh Secks in the same universe where witches float, so if a woman gets pregnant she can't have been raped since she only has Teh Baybeez when she liked Teh Secks - just like if you throw a woman in the water and she floats then she's a witch (but if she drowns instead she's an innocent, virtuous woman whose death proved that).
Going down this rabbit-hole they get the slut-shaming along with the bad science, because "rape victims" getting pregnant and wanting to abort are just slackers getting Good, Upstanding Taxpayers to pay for their retroactive contraception. So these women (and their supporters) are bad for Killing Teh Baybeez, they're bad for Having Teh Secks (and Liking It), and they're bad for wanting Big Gubmint to help them Commit Murder (!) and continue their sluttiness.
Does anyone else get the idea that the Puritans were shipped over to Massachusetts Bay because even the Roundheads thought they were bats##t-crazy?
c u n d gulag on August 20, 2012 11:47 AM:
I hope that they come up with a male contraceptive pill soon, so we can accuse any Conservative men who might want to use it, with wanting to be baby-murderers.
And that Liberal pharmacists and drug store workers will refuse to sell it to Conaservatives, since they'll be helping them to damn their souls to Hell, and they can't live with that on their consciences.
I don't think they'll get it, since being a Conservative means you suffer from an irony deficiency.
Joe Friday on August 20, 2012 12:11 PM:
Neanderthals still walk amongst us.
castanea on August 20, 2012 12:23 PM:
Mitchell--
Yours is an important question to ask, and one which I have asked family members who are anti-choice. They hem and haw and give non-answers. Then again, brownshirts never are known for their higher thinking skills, are they?
Joe Friday--
Lay off Neanderthals. Call brutish Homo sapiens what they are: brutish Homo sapiens. Neanderthals were around for tens of thousands of years longer than we have been here, and they didn't despoil their environment and make it inhabitable for other creatures like we have.
Anonymous on August 20, 2012 12:26 PM:
Peter C: "Above and beyond their abhorrent views on choice, I am deeply distressed at their ability to utterly and completely believe things which have no basis in reality."
Stormskies pretty much covered what I was going to say, although he left out the parts about how the first two humans whose names were Adam and Eve lived in special garden and talked to God and some snake talked them into eating something God told them not to and so they had to start living like people in the future, who were all their descendants, would. Which all happened exactly 4000 or maybe 6000 years ago.
And some special people used to get to live for 900 years or something and God told people that back then it was OK, in fact required, to kill your daughter if she was raped or make her marry her brother or something and cut off peoples heads or hands or something or maybe stone them to death for various reasons and have hundreds of mistresses in some cases, but because of two or three other sentences from he same times in a huge book, God says you can't be gay.
And at the other side of things, there is no global warming if is there is, it is caused by an invisible God who created each and every one of us so he loves us ever so infinitely as only he can, even more infinitely than everything else, which he also created, in exactly seven days, with one day off.
All this stuff is exactly totally word for word true facts.
And you're surprised.......???!!!
emjay on August 20, 2012 12:34 PM:
Joe Friday: As you probably know, the latest thinking is that all non-African humans are maybe two or three per cent Neandertal. As a totally European American, I am extremely proud of my very hunky if somewhat culturally conservative Neandertal ancestors.
smartalek on August 20, 2012 12:53 PM:
Anon, that was brilliance.
With the loss of the late, great Geo. Carlin, I see a market niche waiting to be filled.
Fame, fortune, and (most important) duty to your country and humanity are calling.
Whatever are you waiting for?
To the webcam!
Tess on August 20, 2012 1:09 PM:
When the government mandates all convicted rapists get vasectomies, then we can talk about whether their victims deserve abortions. Why is it that everyone else gets a choice but the woman?
boatboy_srq on August 20, 2012 1:26 PM:
@Tess - exactly how many (male) rapists do you think would actually get convicted using Akin's measurements? After all, their victims would have to have the physical trauma of the act (recorded by police within a timeframe short enough to actually capture the relevant evidence) followed by not actually getting pregnant from the experience. If anything, Akin's logic would allow a whole lot of perps to skate thanks to his bad science and "she asked for it" moralizing.
TCinLA on August 20, 2012 3:23 PM:
Being a shallow Hollywood writer, I would say if I was a casting director, I would have no problem hiring Akin to play the character "crazy evil inbred Southern white trash hillbilly with too many guns" in a New York Minute. I mean, he'd have been perfect as one of the hillbilly rapists in "Deliverance."
TCinLA on August 20, 2012 3:27 PM:
Akin was told this by a "doctor." If you go to the Doctors For Life website, the original article on the topic, written by a "doctor" is prominently displayed on their front page.
Another good reason when choosing a doctor to ask for his political affiliation. Republicans are always quacks.
TCinLA on August 20, 2012 3:37 PM:
OK, final proof I should read the thread completely before answering one by one all the great comments.
Does anyone else get the idea that the Puritans were shipped over to Massachusetts Bay because even the Roundheads thought they were bats##t-crazy?
Actually, the Roundheads didn't kick the radical Puritans out (Roundheads were Puritans too). It was actually the Dutch, who did it. Holland, then as now the culturally most tolerant and liberal place in Europe, couldn't put up with the pigheaded scum and gave them the boot. It's really too bad the Mayflower didn't sink somewhere in mid-Atlantic.
boatboy_srq on August 20, 2012 3:49 PM:
@TCinLA: Roundheads were Puritans too was actually my point: MassBay and Plymouth were too wingnutty even for their peers in the Old World. Though you're quite right that the Dutch finally gave them the sabot.
Juliet on August 20, 2012 4:36 PM:
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4jkb4ia on August 20, 2012 5:49 PM:
And this post is not funny at all. The reason I was howling with laughter is precisely because Akin did not use the proper code words. Ross Douthat knows better than to say "legitimate rape" or anything like it. Because Douthat and people who believe as he does can justify opposition to abortion in almost all circumstances with some veneer of reason does not mean that most people don't understand why bearing a child that is the result of rape would represent a heroic level of resignation to what happened to you.
Anonymous on August 20, 2012 6:08 PM:
@Jeffrey Mitchell: Yes. Ray Hartmann kept getting at that point when he was editor of the RFT time and time again--"Do you want to make a woman a criminal for this?"
@DAY: Not the text--their eyes were opened, they saw they were naked, and they took fig leaves and sewed aprons for themselves. Adam didn't tell Eve to do anything. But the rabbis upbraid Adam for passing the buck and blaming Eve for the whole affair.