See this from potential Presidential Candidate in 2016, Chris Christie for the GOP here...
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Monday called Rep. Todd Akin's (R-Mo.)suggestion that victims of "legitimate rape" rarely get pregnant "reprehensible." The GOP governor, who will deliver the keynote speech at the Republican National Convention next week in Tampa, blasted the congressman's statement as "absolutely asinine" and "ridiculous," according to CBS New York. "He should be ashamed of himself to be talking about it in that way," Christie said. "It’s stunning to me that somebody who’s offering themselves for high office like that would have those kind of thoughts and use that kind of language."
That's an amazing attack. Yet it really was all about words. See if Todd Akin had said Forcible Rape none of this would have come up. Earlier this year, every Republican in the House along with some 16 Blue Dog Democrats voted for a bill that would have redefined rape in federal statutes to be "forcible rape." If this bill had become law, then statutory rape, the rape of a drugged or mentally impaired woman, or any rape where the rapist did not use physical force would not be considered rape. The bill died in the Senate. When Akin said "legitimate rape" he undoubtedly meant "forcible rape" as defined by the House bill but forgot the exact terminology.
All of this is a smokescreen. A candidate for the GOP said what is the reality behind their plans to change rape laws. If the woman somehow doesn't scratch the hell out of the attackers back and claw his eyes out, its not 'forcible rape'.
Legitimate Rape has been part of the GOP anti-abortion lexicon for years. Garance Franke-Ruta at the Atlantic goes into much of the background here. These folks generally see women as asking to be raped. Sure the guy shouldn't have done it, but yeah, I understand how any red blooded American man would succumb to a woman's charms.
The sin of Todd Akin was not that he opposed abortion for rape victims that weren't legitimate rape, but that he called it the way most the GOP see it. They have a word for it, forcible. The GOP are using language to hide their intent. Akin spoke the GOP truth. It makes you wonder, when a rape is not forcible. Legitimate Rape is what they want, Forcible is what they call it. Either way its repugnant to democracy and especially to women that have been raped.
If Akin had stuck to the GOP code words, Forcible Rape, we would be sitting back and watching his lead grow over the Democratic incumbent.
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