Slog

News & Arts

Line Out

Music & the City
at Night

« Autopsy Rules Chavis Carter Shootin… | New American Horror Story Teasers!… »

Monday, August 20, 2012

The Ladies Akin Weakly Apologizes for "Legitimate Rape" Comments

Posted by Cienna Madrid on Mon, Aug 20, 2012 at 2:43 PM

Today, Representative Todd Akin apologized for what he called yesterday's "foot-in-mouth" moment, i.e. expressing his belief that abortion shouldn't be legal in this country, even in cases of rape, because "legitimate" rapes rarely result in pregnancy (ostensibly because of the mysterious magic of nature or the voodoo magic of wombs).

While forcefully worded, the apology—which clarified his belief that "legitimate rape" is really "forcible rape"—was weak at best:

“I’ve really made a couple of serious mistakes here that were just wrong and I need to apologize for those,” the GOP candidate explained. “I made that statement in error. Let me be clear, a rape is never legitimate. It’s an evil act, and it’s committed by violent predators. I used the wrong words in the wrong way. What I said was ill-conceived and it was wrong, and for that, I apologize.”

“I also know that people do become pregnant from rape,” he continued. “I didn’t mean to imply that that wasn’t the case. It does happen, and it’s also terrible, particularly the most terrible of all.”

But even as Akin says that he's "always had a compassionate heart for victims of sexual assault" and that pregnancy-by-rape is "particularly the most terrible of all," what he's not doing in this apology is changing his stance on abortion.

In fact, moments after trumpeting his compassion for rape victims, Akin uses 9/11 to justify why they still shouldn't have access to abortions—even tenuously comparing abortion-seeking women to terrorists.

“I remember in Sept. 11th, there were rescue workers running into the buildings that were about to collapse. They grabbed somebody in a wheelchair, pick them up, they don’t check their ID to see whether they’re important or not. They just take them to safety and run back for more,” Akin pointed out.

“That’s the very special thing about our country. And that’s what we have at risk right now, and we have to defend that.”

Republicans will no doubt praise Akin for being brave enough to apologize for his stupidity (as Huckabee praises him). But personally, I find his apology as repugnant as the comments that sparked it. Legislators like Akin have the power to turn their incredibly stupid, unsubstantiated beliefs into laws that hurt women and violate their rights; apologies over semantics don't mean shit when the underlying sentiment remains the same.

FacebookShare

Comments (24) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

When he said that his comments were "ill-conceived," he also became guilty of using a hideously inappropriate figure of speech.

Posted by Clayton on August 20, 2012 at 2:52 PM

"When you get raped, you make rape-en-ade. Also, Muslim terrorists!!!!".

Posted by mrbarky on August 20, 2012 at 2:58 PM

So what makes America unique is that our rescue workers don't check ID's before rescuing someone ... while other countries' rescue workers DO check ID's first? Huh?

"Let me be clear, a rape is never legitimate. It’s an evil act, and it’s committed by violent predators."

I don't think the issue was whether it was "legitimate" rape (vs illegitimate rape?) but that you were saying that doctors had said that women's bodies somehow prevent rape pregnancies and you were basing your opposition to abortions in such cases upon that stupidity.

Rape is rape.
Rape has nothing to do with 9/11.
Women can and do become pregnant from rape.
You are claiming that a woman who becomes pregnant from rape should be required to bear that child.

Posted by fairly.unbalanced on August 20, 2012 at 3:00 PM

I'm curious why people aren't jumping down his throat about the numbers he's apparently concocting in his head.

He said something like "thousands of rape victims" and "such a low number" when it just goes to show he's a little out of touch on the figures.

I believe it's said that 5% of all rapes end up resulting in pregnancy and the number for it was put at over 32,000 cases. So that means upwards of 640,000 rapes happen a year.

while saying "thousands of rape victims" isn't technically wrong, hundreds of thousands is much more accurate and gives me the impression that he actually doesn't feel that rape is as big of an issue as it actually is.

Posted by Pick1 on August 20, 2012 at 3:14 PM

You know, the human body has some sort of mechanism for shutting down when you're about to say something stupid, but like the vagina, conservatives have been advocating against exercising it for some time now.

Posted by Ziggity on August 20, 2012 at 3:22 PM

Was the foot-in-mouth insertion legitimate or consensual?

Posted by Keister Button on August 20, 2012 at 3:26 PM

Republican tyranny over our medical care is more dangerous than any terrorists anywhere because they want to enforce their stupidity on our doctors. And that, no doubt, will cost many thousands of lives and billions of dollars.

Posted by Pope Peabrain on August 20, 2012 at 3:28 PM

What I'm getting here is that we need to enact a fetal ID law so we can tell if they're important or not, except !SPOILER ALERT! every fetus is important, until sometime shortly after it's born.

Posted by blip on August 20, 2012 at 3:37 PM

I wish he had "foot and mouth" disease.

Posted by Simone on August 20, 2012 at 3:42 PM

From the best I can tell, Akin is referencing a medieval belief that reproduction was impossible without a female orgasm. THAT is some old-school assholery.

Posted by dkfha on August 20, 2012 at 3:43 PM

This man can't talk. Period. He shouldn't talk. Period.

Posted by westello on August 20, 2012 at 3:59 PM

Don't think you're going to live this one down Toddy boy.

Posted by Frank Blethen's vodka distiller on August 20, 2012 at 4:38 PM

Meh. I prefer his apology as written by The Onion: http://www.theonion.com/articles/i-missp…

Posted by JenV on August 20, 2012 at 4:42 PM

@1 - Nice one

Posted by sperifera on August 20, 2012 at 4:50 PM

I didn't know that he said all that in his "apology." So he feels that a woman exercising her rights over her own body makes her a terrorist? Wish I could hear more about this. He's a real loon.

Posted by Patricia Kayden on August 20, 2012 at 5:32 PM

legitimate = lawful - legal - rightful - just - licit - valid

rape = any act of sexual intercourse that is forced upon a person.

legitimate + rape = any (lawful - legal - rightful - just - licit - valid) act of sexual intercourse that is forced upon a person.

so legitimate rape is super thumbs up! or not!

i'm confused. . .

Posted by yourmomorsomeoneelses on August 20, 2012 at 5:51 PM

I still want to hear more detail about the human body's awesome ability to "shut down" bullshit like this. Like if assholes in Congress pass some heinous law, can my body just shut that down when they come to enforce it on me?

Posted by Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

on August 20, 2012 at 7:35 PM

Wow, so many layers of doublethink, I'm not sure if I understand them more or less because of this. They think women can't get pregnant from rape, so anyone who gets pregnant wanted to get pregnant just so she could pay a lot of money for a painful and unnecessary medical procedure just because? Because all the cool women are doing it? Or is this some extension of the "can't rape the willing" and since all women are sluts there can't be any such thing as rape?

Posted by Skye Blu on August 20, 2012 at 8:24 PM

http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/c…

McCaskill's #20 donor is....Bain Capital!!!

Wow.

(I just donated a few dollars to her. My first political contribution ever.)

Posted by fleetpacific on August 20, 2012 at 8:59 PM

This will only be to the advantage of the Republicans. In fact, I'm not sure that it wasn't planned. He makes a comment with which probably the majority of this benighted country agrees, then he is forced to apologize because of those awful heathen baby-killing liberals snapping at his heels, and now he's the martyr to those liberals who want to shut down the free speech of Real Americans.

Posted by sarah70 on August 20, 2012 at 10:01 PM

"I'm sorry that you all heard me when I accidentally said out loud what we republicans always think in our heads."

Posted by Urgutha Forka on August 20, 2012 at 10:37 PM

If men can get pregnant, then God, Allah or Yahweh (GAY for short) will tell their respective prophets to make it permissible to have abortions.

Posted by Are you Kidding me?! on August 21, 2012 at 12:31 AM

You fuckers love this guy, don't lie. Why else would the Democratic Party have spent $1.5 million trying to help get him elected.

Posted by delbert on August 21, 2012 at 7:00 AM

Com’n hon; don’t get angry! I understand how frustrating it is for you. Jumping to defend all those people who say things that contradict 4th grade science. I mean this is a full time job and it gets overwhelming and old pretty quickly.

You know what would be easy for you to do, just embrace science and reason. Any time you hear someone saying something that just does not pass the smell test, stop and ask yourself, what would GAY say?

Posted by Are you Kidding me?! on September 5, 2012 at 5:09 PM