Senate candidate Todd Akin, currently a representative from Missouri, told a news station Sunday that “legitimate rapes” aren’t likely to result in pregnancy.
“First of all, from what I understand from doctors, [pregnancy from rape]
is really rare,” Akin told KTVI-TV. “If it’s a
legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole
thing down.”
Akin’s concept of “legitimate rape,” apparently set in opposition to fake rape, set off a firestorm on Twitter and Facebook. The story could affect the presidential race, as Akin co-sponsored a bill with Rep. Paul Ryan, the Republican vice presidential candidate, that used the phrase “forcible rape,” possibly another way to attempt to delineate real rapes from supposedly fake ones.
See the stories at Slate and The Nation.
