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Missouri Republican claims 'legitimate rape' rarely results in pregnancy[W:137]

Re: Missouri Republican claims 'legitimate rape' rarely results in pregnancy

johnny_rebson said:
He should stand his ground.

Republicans should not let the pro-choice liberals influence who their candidates are.
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Actually the pro-choice liberals would be thrilled if he stayed in, as that makes this a safe Democratic seat.
 
Re: Missouri Republican claims 'legitimate rape' rarely results in pregnancy

tryreading said:
And I believe that figure is the upper range for women 'trying' to get pregnant. They probably have intercourse close to once a day.
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There's no point in having sex once a day (unless they want to). Women are only fertile a few days during each cycle.
 
Re: Missouri Republican claims 'legitimate rape' rarely results in pregnancy

Simon W. Moon said:
Per how many acts of intercourse?
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It varies. It's the timing that matters. Having sex 4-7 days before or 2 days after ovulation doesn't do anything. Having sex too frequently over a short period can actually reduce sperm count so they recommend you have sex every other day if you are trying to conceive and doesn't care to follow when you or your partner are fertile.
 
Re: Missouri Republican claims 'legitimate rape' rarely results in pregnancy

rocket88 said:
Actually the pro-choice liberals would be thrilled if he stayed in, as that makes this a safe Democratic seat.
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Obama lost Missouri in the last presidential election. Akin can still win.
 
Re: Missouri Republican claims 'legitimate rape' rarely results in pregnancy

johnny_rebson said:
Obama lost Missouri in the last presidential election. Akin can still win.
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It is not impossible, but it is much less likely now.
 
Re: Missouri Republican claims 'legitimate rape' rarely results in pregnancy

johnny_rebson said:
He should stand his ground.
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Well on that we agree. There are two ways to get the GOP back to being a rational part of this nation's political discourse. Either they can reverse course and start drifting back towards sanity, or they can become so absurd that they are unelectable and are forced to rethink things. At this point, we're close to the "hit rock bottom" end of the spectrum than the return to sanity end, so anything that results in crazier and stupider candidates in the GOP takes us one step closer to the day when they are a serious party again.

johnny_rebson said:
Republicans should not let the pro-choice liberals influence who their candidates are.
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Or anti-rape liberals for that matter?
 
Re: Missouri Republican claims 'legitimate rape' rarely results in pregnancy

johnny_rebson said:
He should stand his ground.

Republicans should not let the pro-choice liberals influence who their candidates are.
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It's not just the pro-choice liberals who are calling for him to drop out its pretty much everyone. And it's not like Sarah Steelman and John Brunner, the two likeliest candidates to replace him if he withdraws, aren't pro-life. It's really better for the GOP and conservativism in general if he drops out.
 
Re: Missouri Republican claims 'legitimate rape' rarely results in pregnancy

Anagram said:
It's not just the pro-choice liberals who are calling for him to drop out its pretty much everyone. And it's not like Sarah Steelman and John Brunner, the two likeliest candidates to replace him if he withdraws, aren't pro-life. It's really better for the GOP and conservativism in general if he drops out.
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Based on what I just saw, I predict that Akin will stay in the race, and he will probably still win too.

The Democratic Party just commissioned PPP to do a flash poll on the Missouri Senate race. Before Akin's commments, he was leading McCaskill 45-44. Tonight he leads 44-43. Nothing has changed, the reason being that, as much as some Republicans hate what Akin said, they hate McCaskill so much that they are not allowing Akin's gaffe to change their minds, and they know it's a gaffe too. Republicans who supported McCaskill went from 8% to 10%, which when accounting for the margin of error in the poll, is statistically nothing. Interestingly, independent numbers stayed exactly the same too. This is not like George Allen's macaca moment in Virginia. In Virginia, many voters liked the alternative. They don't in Missouri. I am still calling this race for the GOP.
 
Re: Missouri Republican claims 'legitimate rape' rarely results in pregnancy

SmokeAndMirrors said:
That is not quite right. He said the female body can "try" to shut down procreation in response to rape, and that conception is thus "rare." That is true.

It is not a response specifically to rape, and in that sense it would be false. I suspect he doesn't fully understand the mechanism he's talking about (like I said, it was probably fed to him by some advisor). But the statement that conception from rape is less likely because the female body will lower its fertility is correct.

You're fighting dishonesty with dishonesty.
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So shouldn't the question be what is a "legitmate" rape? Does incest where the victim might trust the rapist, or giving in instead of fighting to the death qualify as a legitimate rape?

Are we to let a politician redefine what rape is because a woman can't get pregnant from a "legitimate" rape?
 
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Re: Missouri Republican claims 'legitimate rape' rarely results in pregnancy

danarhea said:
Based on what I just saw, I predict that Akin will stay in the race, and he will probably still win too.

The Democratic Party just commissioned PPP to do a flash poll on the Missouri Senate race. Before Akin's commments, he was leading McCaskill 45-44. Tonight he leads 44-43. Nothing has changed, the reason being that, as much as some Republicans hate what Akin said, they hate McCaskill so much that they are not allowing Akin's gaffe to change their minds, and they know it's a gaffe too. Republicans who supported McCaskill went from 8% to 10%, which when accounting for the margin of error in the poll, is statistically nothing. Interestingly, independent numbers stayed exactly the same too. This is not like George Allen's macaca moment in Virginia. In Virginia, many voters liked the alternative. They don't in Missouri. I am still calling this race for the GOP.
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Yeah I just saw that and it surprised me. I wouldn't say that Akin still has a huge advantage here, but McCaskill is certainly very unpopular. If Akin does stay in though, and the RNC, Crossroads GPS, and American Crossroads all continue their policies of not advertising in Missouri, I could see it going the other way though. With almost no funding it'll be hard to stay afloat even against such an unpopular incumbent.
 
Re: Missouri Republican claims 'legitimate rape' rarely results in pregnancy

johnny_rebson said:
He should stand his ground.

Republicans should not let the pro-choice liberals influence who their candidates are.
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Hell yeah. I say keep him in there. He is the face of the Republican Party. I don't know why Romney didn't pick him for the VP position.


Am still uncertain about the "legitimate rape" though. I wonder if Akin got raped by an escaped male prisoner would that be "legitimate rape" or just a friendly rape?
 
Re: Missouri Republican claims 'legitimate rape' rarely results in pregnancy

What could he possibly have meant when he said:

'...the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.?
 
Re: Missouri Republican claims 'legitimate rape' rarely results in pregnancy

Moot said:
So shouldn't the question be what is a "legitmate" rape? Does incest where the victim might trust the rapist, or giving in instead of fighting to the death qualify as a legitimate rape?

Are we to let a politician redefine what rape is because a woman can't get pregnant from a "legitimate" rape?
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There are multiple questions, here. It would be very difficult to have any sort of productive discussion about all of them at once. So I'm choosing to focus on the question that was asked, and its follow up: Why does he believe in forced pregnancy and punishing rape survivors by denying them bodily integrity?

The "what the hell is 'legitimate' rape" is another question, and a very good one. He is probably another rapist apologist who believes in some variant of "she was asking for it because she's a whore," if I had a guess. And believe me, I could go off on that for ages.

But one of the things that is wrong with the public dialogue is that it lacks focus and is easily derailed. And that's what politicians like this count on. A confused and incomprehensible discourse that's been driven off the rails to buy them time to run for cover. This particular guy has a history of going for shock value whenever he doesn't want to talk about something, as someone posted earlier.

I'm sticking to the question in an attempt to not be part of that, even though there are multiple issues in play here. We know more about his stance on abortion than we do on rape (though it's not hard to guess what it is), and so I'm focusing on it.
 
Re: Missouri Republican claims 'legitimate rape' rarely results in pregnancy

While I think that his comment was STUPID, it was indeed a gaffe. This gaffe is distorted totally out of proportion. Methinks it's because of his political affiliation. Our dear VP (aka Uncle Joe) has made political gaffe history and the only one that got even the slightest attention (greater than 60 seconds) was his 'F-bomb'. And even that was brushed aside by the MSM.

Having once lived in Missouri for 3 years (not sure why I put that in but it seemed to enhance my credibility) ... I hope he stays in the race and wins. While I do think that the Republicans should condemn the statement ... I think they should learn from the Dims who refuse to condemn their own and keep on keepin' on.

A L
 
Re: Missouri Republican claims 'legitimate rape' rarely results in pregnancy

Another Lurker said:
While I think that his comment was STUPID, it was indeed a gaffe. This gaffe is distorted totally out of proportion. Methinks it's because of his political affiliation. Our dear VP (aka Uncle Joe) has made political gaffe history and the only one that got even the slightest attention (greater than 60 seconds) was his 'F-bomb'. And even that was brushed aside by the MSM.

Having once lived in Missouri for 3 years (not sure why I put that in but it seemed to enhance my credibility) ... I hope he stays in the race and wins. While I do think that the Republicans should condemn the statement ... I think they should learn from the Dims who refuse to condemn their own and keep on keepin' on.

A L
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It's the Republicans that think he should drop out of the race, not the Democrats....


Republicans pull money from Missouri - “National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (R-Tex.) has informed Rep. Todd Akin that the national GOP will not spend money to help elect him to the Senate in the aftermath of Akin’s controversial comments about "legitimate rape," according to an NRSC aide.”
Republicans pull money from Missouri


Crossroads pulls out of Missouri after Akin comments - “The conservative outside-spending powerhouse Crossroads GPS is pulling its ads from the Missouri Senate race, three sources confirmed to POLITICO.”
Crossroads pulls out of Missouri after Akin comments - POLITICO.com



Calls to step aside: “Many big-name Republicans have repudiated the comment, and Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.), Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Senate candidate and former congresswoman Heather Wilson (R-N.M.) have called for Akin to drop out of the race.”
The two ways Todd Akin could withdraw


Yeah, lets talk about rape and forcing women to have a rapist's baby and the death penalty for having an abortion for the next three months. After all, thats what Ryan believes and because he does thats what Romney believes now too.
 
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Re: Missouri Republican claims 'legitimate rape' rarely results in pregnancy

nonpareil said:
It varies. It's the timing that matters.
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I am aware of that. But the rapist probably isn't working with the victim to figure that kind of stuff out. So to make a more apples to apples comparison...[not that it ever could be]...of people having unprotected sex multiple times...
But to get some sort of a general ball park figure--even if it's known to include a certain amount of error in a known direction--with which to be able to make the general assessment of the relative likelihood of each sort of sexual intercourse resulting in impregnation.
The claim isn't a specifically quantified one, it's a vague one--"rare" is the term iirc. So we can get an idea of whether or not it's likely that there's some great difference possible in the numbers even if we don't have good idea of what the numbers might actually be.
 
Re: Missouri Republican claims 'legitimate rape' rarely results in pregnancy

MaggieD said:
What a fool!!!!!

Are you SURE he's not a Democrat? ;)
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Oh hes much much worse than a democrat maggie...hes a TEATARD lol
 
Re: Missouri Republican claims 'legitimate rape' rarely results in pregnancy

johnny_rebson said:
He should stand his ground.

Republicans should not let the pro-choice liberals influence who their candidates are.
Click to expand...

Those that want him to drop out are not influenced by liberals. They would never have voted for him. Republican leaders are worried about moderate republicans who won't vote for him now.

Liberals would rather he stay in the race because if he steps down now he can be replaced. Right now the race became much easier for his opponent, but not if he is replaced.
 
Re: Missouri Republican claims 'legitimate rape' rarely results in pregnancy

Simon W. Moon said:
I am aware of that. But the rapist probably isn't working with the victim to figure that kind of stuff out. So to make a more apples to apples comparison...[not that it ever could be]...of people having unprotected sex multiple times...
But to get some sort of a general ball park figure--even if it's known to include a certain amount of error in a known direction--with which to be able to make the general assessment of the relative likelihood of each sort of sexual intercourse resulting in impregnation.
The claim isn't a specifically quantified one, it's a vague one--"rare" is the term iirc. So we can get an idea of whether or not it's likely that there's some great difference possible in the numbers even if we don't have good idea of what the numbers might actually be.
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It's more accurate to compare rape to single encounter where either party might not be using birth control like this ( another poster provided the same numbers previously):

To find out, he and his wife Tiffany Gottschall examined the results of National Violence against Women Survey, a study by the National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The women studied were phoned at random and interviewed about their experiences. The Gottschalls focused on 405 women who had suffered a single incidence of penile-vaginal rape at some point between the ages of 12 and 45. Of these, 6.4 per cent became pregnant. But that figure jumped to nearly 8 per cent when the researchers allowed for the women who'd been using birth control-US government statistics show that 1 in 5 of the women in the sample were likely to have been using the pill or an IUD.

To complete the comparison, the Gottschalls needed to know how many women in that age group get pregnant from one-night stands and other one-off acts of consensual sex. The answer-reported this year in a separate study by Allen Wilcox, head of the epidemiology branch of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences-was a mere 3.1 per cent. "It was surprising to see this margin of difference," says Jon Gottschall.

Rape - an evolutionary strategy?

This one is a good read: Here is Some Legitimate Science on Pregnancy and Rape | Context and Variation, Scientific American Blog Network
 
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Re: Missouri Republican claims 'legitimate rape' rarely results in pregnancy

johnny_rebson said:
He should stand his ground.
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Even Sean Hannity was trying to get him to withdraw from the race -- he'll bring the GOP down.
 
Re: Missouri Republican claims 'legitimate rape' rarely results in pregnancy

hazlnut said:
Even Sean Hannity was trying to get him to withdraw from the race -- he'll bring the GOP down.
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He's staying in the race until he gets a big fat check from GOP HQ to drop out.
 
Re: Missouri Republican claims 'legitimate rape' rarely results in pregnancy

I am vehemently, sometimes even furiously, pro-choice and particularly in regards to sexual assault. "Pro-choice" means the woman's choice.

HOWEVER, people going berserk over his statement is just more political correctness crap. It was NO SECRET that he opposed abortion in the event of rape - so there is no real shocker in his statement OTHER THAN his attempting to trivialize rape-pregnancies - that DO happen. OFTEN. Whether this is statistically the same, higher or lower than consentual sex is an irrelevancy in my opinion.

I do NOT have a problem with his usage of "legitimate rape" - though not the best choice, but he likely meant he was not including statutory rape (consentual sex but the female is underage).

I AM TIRED OF THE EXTREME DEMANDS FOR POLITICAL CORRECTNESS!!! I intensely disagree with his view on abortion, but then that was all known BEFORE his statement. There were NO surprises about him in what he said. He was a no exceptions anti-abortion before his statement.

IF I were him I wouldn't drop out. He'll never have another political chance in his life and Missouri is an odd state where in at some point voters might get tired of the rabid raging against him. He has no other game left to play politically. This election is the only game he still has to ever play.

The EXTREME demand for correctness and perfect or the media does its OMG!!!!! thing - is resulting in politicians who will ONLY talk to a teleprompter with speeches written by professionals and just chanting pre-written talking points developed by using study groups.
 
Re: Missouri Republican claims 'legitimate rape' rarely results in pregnancy

Moot said:
Yeah, lets talk about rape and forcing women to have a rapist's baby and the death penalty for having an abortion for the next three months. After all, thats what Ryan believes and because he does thats what Romney believes now too.
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Hmmm ... the death penalty? Help me out and show me where you got this about Romney and Ryan wanting the death penalty. Somehow I've missed that.

A L
 
Re: Missouri Republican claims 'legitimate rape' rarely results in pregnancy

solletica said:
He's staying in the race until he gets a big fat check from GOP HQ to drop out.
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Are they negotiating his payoff as we speak?

I wouldn't doubt it.
 
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