The news media are having a field day with some inartful comments by a Republican.<\/p>\n
The New York Times writes: “Representative Todd Akin of Missouri said women\u2019s bodies can block an unwanted pregnancy in cases of \u201clegitimate rape.\u201d”<\/p>\n
I understand exactly what the man meant to say — that instances of women seeking abortions after rape are a tiny portion of all abortions, so tiny that they are statistically insignificant.<\/p>\n
And what is “legitimate rape”? It is real rape. When a woman is forced by force to have sex against her will.<\/p>\n
Why this tortured language? Because the word “rape” has become debased to mean any sex that a woman regrets. Say a woman gets drunk and goes to a frat house and has sex with a stranger? The next day, she might regret that sex and call it rape even though it was consensual at the time.<\/p>\n
Here are the comments in context: \u201cIt seems to me, from what I understand from doctors, that\u2019s really rare,\u201d Mr. Akin said of pregnancies from rape. \u201cIf it\u2019s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let\u2019s assume that maybe that didn\u2019t work or something: I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist, and not attacking the child.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The news media are having a field day with some inartful comments by a Republican. The New York Times writes: “Representative Todd Akin of Missouri said women\u2019s bodies can block an unwanted pregnancy in cases of \u201clegitimate rape.\u201d” I understand … Continue reading