GOP: The Party of Rape

[DonViejo]

The Party of Rape

Every time the GOP claims to have purged rape extremism, another Republican opens his mouth.

By William Saletan|Posted Monday, Jan. 14, 2013, at 7:45 AM ET

Four months ago, when then-Rep. Todd Akin, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Missouri, claimed that abortion in cases of rape was unnecessary because “if it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,” the GOP renounced him. Republican leaders called him an outlier. The National Republican Senatorial Committee pledged not to lift a finger for him.

But the problem spread. A day after Akin’s gaffe, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, deflected a question about abortions for 12-year-old rape victims by saying, "I just haven't heard of that being a circumstance that's been brought to me in any personal way.” On Oct. 18, Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill., asserted that “with modern technology and science, you can't find one instance” where abortion is necessary to protect a woman’s life or health. On Oct. 23, Richard Mourdock, the Indiana state treasurer and Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, opined that “even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen." And five days before the election, as the Missouri GOP put up $380,000 for last-minute ads to boost Akin, the NRSC sent the state party $760,000, apparently to cover the cost.

Now another Republican leader is speaking up. Rep. Phil Gingrey of Georgia, a 10-year congressman and co-chairman of the 21-member House Republican Doctors Caucus, is defending Akin’s remark. At a Chamber of Commerce breakfast on Thursday, Gingrey argued:

What he meant by “legitimate rape” was just, “Look, someone can say, ‘I was raped.’ A scared-to-death 15-year-old that becomes impregnated by her boyfriend and then has to tell her parents—that’s pretty tough, and might on some occasion say, ‘Hey, I was raped.’ That’s what he meant when he said legitimate rape versus non-legitimate rape. I don’t find anything so horrible about that.

Really? That isn’t how Akin explained his remark. On Aug. 20, a day after the gaffe, Akin went on Mike Huckabee’s radio show. Huckabee asked Akin: “What did you mean by ‘legitimate rape’? Were you attempting to say forcible rape?” Akin replied: “Yeah, I was talking about forcible rape.” If that’s truly what Akin meant, then he was using the term legitimate to suggest that any woman impregnated by rape must have suffered statutory rape, not forcible rape.

-snip-

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/human_nature/2013/01/phil_gingrey_todd_akin_and_richard_mourdock_the_gop_s_rape_problem_is_spreading.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content

[niyad]

1. I haven't had enough caffeine this morning--WHEN has the gop ever claimed to have purged

their woman-hating rape extremists? seems to me, rather, that they are proud of them.

[niyad]

2. if that woman-hating bastard gingrey still has an active medical license, it needs to be revoked

immediately.