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

"You find that along with the culture of death go all kinds of other law-breaking: Not following good sanitary procedure, giving abortions to women who are not actually pregnant, cheating on taxes, all these kinds of things," Akin said in the speech, as captured on C-SPAN.

Yes, let return to the good old days of the coat hangers.

BillRM wrote:

Yes, let return to the good old days of the coat hangers.

We have pills now, both to prevent and to end pregnancy. Don't you figure that the fact that abortion is no longer needed is the reason that the feminists have mostly abodoned abortion?

Don't you figure that the fact that abortion is no longer needed is the reason that the feminists have mostly abodoned abortion?

Fraud is rampent in the medical industry, so what makes you think Akin is wrong here?

In a 4-3 ruling Tuesday afternoon, the Connecticut State Supreme Court overturned the sexual assault conviction of a man who had sex with a woman who “has severe cerebral palsy, has the intellectual functional equivalent of a 3-year-old and cannot verbally communicate.” The Court held that, because Connecticut statutes define physical incapacity for the purpose of sexual assault as “unconscious or for any other reason. . . physically unable to communicate unwillingness to an act,” the defendant could not be convicted if there was any chance that the victim could have communicated her lack of consent. Since the victim in this case was capable of “biting, kicking, scratching, screeching, groaning or gesturing,” the Court ruled that that victim could have communicated lack of consent despite her serious mental deficiencies:


When we consider this evidence in the light most favorable to sustaining the verdict, and in a manner that is consistent with the state’s theory of guilt at trial, we, like the Appellate Court, ‘are not persuaded that the state produced any credible evidence that the [victim] was either unconscious or so uncommunicative that she was physically incapable of manifesting to the defendant her lack of consent to sexual intercourse at the time of the alleged sexual assault.’

According to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN), lack of physical resistance is not evidence of consent, as “many victims make the good judgment that physical resistance would cause the attacker to become more violent.” RAINN also notes that lack of consent is implicit “if you were under the statutory age of consent, or if you had a mental defect” as the victim did in this case.

Anna Doroghazi, director of public policy and communication at Connecticut Sexual Assault Crisis Services, worried that the Court’s interpretation of the law ignored these concerns: “By implying that the victim in this case should have bitten or kicked her assailant, this ruling effectively holds people with disabilities to a higher standard than the rest of the population when it comes to proving lack of consent in sexual assault cases. Failing to bite an assailant is not the same thing as consenting to sexual activity.” An amicus brief filed by the Connecticut advocates for disabled persons argued that this higher standard “discourag[ed] the prosecution of crimes against persons with disabilities” even though “persons with a disability had an age-adjusted rate of rape or sexual assault that was more than twice the rate for persons without a disability.”

An anchor on KOMU’s 5:00 PM news misquoted the women, described them as “controversial characters,” and falsely stated that they were “speaking out against McCaskill.” The network’s somewhat frustrated 10:00 PM anchor later apologized for the “errors”:

Quote:

We have a number of corrections tonight for a story in our 5 o’clock news. The story focused on three new ads from Senator Claire McCaskill aimed at opponent todd akin’s remarks about rape. We incorrectly said there was one ad. We mistakenly said the ads featured two women speaking out against McCaskill. The ads actually feature three women – all survivors of sexual assault – and they were speaking on behalf of McCaskill. Also, a reading error lead to a misquote of one of the women in the ad, who actually said “I’m a pro-life mother and a survivor of an extremely violent sexual assault. As a woman of faith, I must forgive Todd Akin. But as a voter, it’s not something I can forget.” And finally, the McCaskill camp objected to our use of the phrase “controversial characters” when refering to the women in the ads. We apoloigize for that characterization and the errors.

A Wisconsin state lawmaker endorsed by Paul Ryan has come under criticism for suggesting that “some girls rape easy.” While discussing a case in which “a 17-year-old high school senior was charged with sexual assault for having sex with an underage girl in the school’s band room,” State Rep. Roger Rivard (R) told the Chetek Alert newspaper in December that his father taught him that some girls will portray a sexual encounter as rape if they become pregnant. He is now claiming that those remarks were taken out of context and has issued a statement condemning sexual violence:

taught him that some girls will portray a sexual encounter as rape if they become pregnant.

You have no understanding of the laws of this country concerning sex with anyone under the age of consent.

It's rape whether the girl consented or not. It's called statutory rape.

I have no information concerning this case so it could be outright rape however as far as a woman/girl finding she is pregnant and then crying rape it does happen.

Madison - Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan has dropped his endorsement of a Wisconsin lawmaker who said that his father had told him "some girls, they rape so easy" as a way to warn him that women could consent to sex but then later claim they hadn't.

Gov. Scott Walker and U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson have not yet responded to inquiries about whether they are standing by their endorsements of freshman state Rep. Roger Rivard of Rice Lake.

It is the second time Ryan, a Janesville congressman, has withdrawn his support from a fellow Republican when they made comments about rape. In August, Ryan and other Republicans unsuccessfully urged U.S. Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri to drop out of his U.S. Senate race when he said women's bodies can "shut down" to prevent pregnancies in instances of "legitimate rape."