Aug 20, 2012 
What a hoot. I started to write a post about Rep. Todd Akin, R-Missouri, last week, when he announced he wanted to end federal support for school lunch programs because they are unconstitutional. But now that he’s stepped in the rapes-don’t-cause-pregnancy doo doo he’s even more fun. Why haven’t we noticed this guy before?
The national Republican Party has withdrawn funding from the Missouri Senate race in the wake of his development.
National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (R-Tex.) informed Rep. Todd Akin on Monday that the national GOP will not spend money to help elect him to the Senate after Akin’s controversial comments about “legitimate rape,” according to an NRSC aide.
Cornyn also told Akin that, by staying in the race, he is endangering Republicans’ hopes of retaking the majority in the Senate, the aide said.
And now I’m seeing that Karl Rove’s Crossroads PAC is pulling funding from the Missouri Senate race. This is serious.
Several elements of the Republican Party are pressuring Akin to drop out of his Senate race against Claire McCaskill. Nate Silver says Akin may have just handed to election to McCaskill.
This incident could serve to make the public aware of Romney-Ryan’s extremist views on abortion, which hasn’t come up that much so far.
The Romney-Ryan campaign has tried to distance itself from Akin, but the Obama campaign released this statement this morning:
“While Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are working overtime to distance themselves from Rep. Todd Akin’s comments on rape, they are contradicting their own records. Mr. Romney supports the Human Life Amendment, which would ban abortion in all instances, even in the case of rape and incest. In fact, that amendment is a central part of the Republican Party’s platform that is being voted on tomorrow. And, as a Republican leader in the House, Mr. Ryan worked with Mr. Akin to try to pass laws that would ban abortion in all cases, and even narrow the definition of ‘rape.’ Every day, women across America grapple with difficult and intensely personal health decisions—decisions that should ultimately be between a woman and her doctor. These decisions are not made any easier when Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan treat women’s health as a matter of partisan politics.”
So, you know Obama is going to hang Todd Akin around RR’s lying little necks.
Ryan and Akin largely agree when it comes to abortion rights. Both believe abortion should be illegal even in the case of rape and incest. Both were co-sponsors of H.R. 3, the 2011 bill that would have limited the federal abortion coverage exemption only to victims of “forcible rape” and women whose physical health was in danger from her pregnancy, closing a supposed loophole in health-of-the-mother exemptions conservatives have been crowing about for years.
After massive vocal protest from women’s rights advocates, the sponsors dropped the “forcible rape” language from the bill, giving up their quest to redefine rape in the federal code with little explanation.
But while the Republicans are running from Akin and his “legitimate rape” comments as fast as they can, the Fetus People are standing firm with Akin. So seems to me RR is in a tough position — run too far from Akin, and they may leave a chunk of their base behind.
For the record, Sarah Kliff writes,
Research published in the Journal of American Obstetrics and Gynecology suggests over 30,000 pregnancies result from rape annually. “Rape-related pregnancy occurs with significant frequency,” the trio of researchers from the University of South Carolina concluded. “It is a cause of many unwanted pregnancies.”
A separate 2001 study – which used a sample of 405 rape victims between ages 12 and 45 – found that 6.4 percent became pregnant.
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