In Case You Were Wondering...

...there is NO SUCH THING as "legitimate rape."

Rep. Todd Akin's statement, "First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down," freaks me out for several reasons. How can someone be that ignorant, misinformed, and/or entirely lacking in empathy for rape victims? Who on earth were the doctors who gave him that idea?

A 1996 study by the American Journal of Obstetricians and Gynecologists found “rape-related pregnancy occurs with significant frequency” and is “a cause of many unwanted pregnancies” — an estimated “32,101 pregnancies result from rape each year."

Akin is currently a U.S. Representative to Congress and the Republican nominee for Senate in Missouri. Terrifying.

He has since said he "misspoke" while Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have been distancing themselves from Akin.

Do NOT be FOOLED! Republicans would have you believe Akin is an outlier to their party, but he is not. Overwhelmingly their agenda is to outlaw all abortions, even for rape victims and mother's whose lives are in danger, and to make many forms of birth control illegal.

Eve Ensler says it better than I can in her letter to Todd Akin in The Huffington Post:

As a rape survivor, I am reeling from your recent statement where you said you misspoke when you said that women do not get pregnant from legitimate rape, and that you were speaking "off the cuff."

Clarification. You didn't make some glib throw away remark. You made a very specific ignorant statement clearly indicating you have no awareness of what it means to be raped. And not a casual statement, but one made with the intention of legislating the experience of women who have been raped. Perhaps more terrifying: it was a window into the psyche of the GOP.

You used the expression "legitimate" rape as if to imply there were such a thing as "illegitimate" rape.

Please click to read Eve Ensler's letter to Todd Akin in its entirety. Really, please do, it's definitely worth your time.

One final thought from me: it is so very important people recognize agendas against women coming from elected officials and those running for office. Maybe it seems like these issues don't or won't affect you or are even morally wrong. This is America though, right? The land of the free? If Republicans are for less government involvement in people's lives, then why do they want to legislate my body?

Get informed and VOTE this fall!