Republican Senate Nominee: "Legitimate" rape victims don't get pregnant

When did conservatism disappear?

and at the heart of liberalism really is a hatred for God and a belief that government should replace God.... This is a systematic effort to try to separate our faith and God, which is a source in our belief in individual liberties, from our country. And when you do that you tear the heart out of our country.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Akin

Long before his comments about women's bodies and "legitimate rape" made him a potential flashpoint in the fall campaign, Akin was a favorite among home-schooling organizations and conservative church groups in the area where his relatives have lived for generations. He seldom authored bills or sought wider recognition...

Akin, a member of the conservative Presbyterian Church in America, earned a master's of divinity degree from Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis in 1984. He never became a pastor but four years later won a seat in the Missouri House, where he established a track record as a staunch abortion opponent and supporter of gun rights.

Faith is never far from his mind. In a fundraising email sent to supporters Wednesday, Akin said he was accountable only to God and the voters, not "party bosses."
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/08/22/akin-cares-little-about-pressure-from-gop-leaders/#ixzz24KVztjE5

It seems to come down to a clash between the party establishment — campaign strategists and party officials — and the religious right. The politicos view Akin as damaged goods and want him to withdraw from the race in order to improve the GOP’s chances at picking up the Senate seat. The religious right views Akin as a faithful warrior whose only misstep was verbal.

As Pema Levy explains for Talking Points Memo: “If Akin stays in the race, it will be with the support of the Christian right, who stood by during the fallout Monday, but likely without his party’s infrastructure behind him.”

And make no mistake about it: the religious right is standing by Akin.

Missouri Right to Life and the Susan B. Anthony List quickly came forward with statements of support for Akins.

The Liar Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, has been growling at GOP officials who have criticized Akin, warning them to “be careful” lest they incur the wrath of anti-abortion voters.

And FRC’s “Action PAC” released a statement defending Akin from what it called “gotcha politics”:

For the religious right — the anti-abortion, Christianist “pro-life” wing of the Republican party — Akin is guilty of candor, not heresy. He made explicit the views that they prefer to keep implicit, but they have applauded or yawned in response to similar statements for many years now.

What Akin said was ludicrous, but the views he expressed are not at all unusual in his evangelical subculture, his political party or the anti-abortion movement as a whole.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2012/08/21/rep-todd-akins-views-typical-in-anti-abortion-religious-right/

Melody Crowder-Meyer, a political scientist who studies voter attitudes at Sewanee: The University of the South ... said Akin's position on abortion also draws attention to that of Ryan, who has co-sponsored legislation with the congressman to deny abortions to rape and incest victims.

Addressing the controversy surrounding Rep. Todd Akin’s (R-MO) offensive comments that “legitimate rape” doesn’t lead to pregnancy, President Obama joked last night at a fundraiser that the Missouri Senate candidate must have “somehow missed science class.” Obama’s point that Akin must not be aware of the actual science behind female sexuality, conception, and sexual assault is well-taken. However, the uncomfortable reality is that an entire generation of current Missouri students are likely to be just as uninformed about the same subjects.

Missouri is one of the 29 states across the country that do not mandate comprehensive sex education to inform public school students about the very issues that Akin needs to brush up on. In fact, Missouri goes a step further than merely failing to require sex education instruction in every school — if a school district does voluntarily choose to include some sort of sexual education curriculum, the course is required to use an abstinence-only program to instruct students.

Abstinence-only programs don’t work. They fail to give students the full range of information about sexually transmitted diseases or pregnancy, and they don’t discuss accurate information about preventative measures like condoms or birth control. One abstinence education program in California teaches students to prevent STDs by “getting plenty of rest,” even after the state’s recent jump in STD rates suggests that information about condoms is more important than ever. On a national level, studies report that abstinence education has contributed to the fact that 60 percent of young adults are misinformed about birth control’s effectiveness, believing they don’t need to use it because it won’t make much of a difference in preventing pregnancy. Unsurprisingly, states with the highest rates of teen pregnancy are the same states that push abstinence policies.

Missouri itself has a higher rate of sexually transmitted diseases — 119.6 cases of STD infections per 1,000 young women between the ages of 15 to 19 — than the national average of 100.8 among the same demographic. And Akin, a product of the state’s public school system, may actually represent the standard lack of knowledge among the state’s current students, who continue to be denied the comprehensive sexual education information that could help them distinguish Akin’s junk science from real facts.

If President Obama and other elected officials are serious about their desire to fully educate Americans about the facts on human sexuality in their high school classes, they have to stop supporting abstinence misinformation campaigns. Until schools in states like Missouri are required to teach students the reality about human physiology and sexuality, they may continue to inspire future generations of Akins.

Ann Coulter ripped into Todd Akin on Wednesday night, blasting his decision to continue his campaign for Missouri's Senate seat and urging Republicans to stage a write-in campaign.

She is one of many conservatives who have called on Akin to drop out of the race. Akin provoked outrage when he made outrageous comments about rape over the weekend. On Wednesday, Sean Hannity said that Republicans want Akin to withdraw, and alleged that the Obama campaign was trying to falsely tie him to Mitt Romney.

Coulter agreed. "This is a problem," she declared, calling on voters to stage a write-in campaign of a popular Missouri Republican. "This selfish swine, Todd Akin, is going to hurt the Republican party. We're not only going to lose a guaranteed Republican pick-up seat... but it is going to bleed over into other races."

She lamented going from an "easy win to a loss," and said that Akin's remarks are the "first thing" that could actually be seen as part of a Republican war on women.

Coulter said that Akin was trying to show off medical knowledge when he made the comments. "What he cares about is his own ego," she remarked.

Maybe I've missed it, but have prominent Republicans condemned Akins for what he said, and what he believes, or are they just upset about how it affects the election?