I’m about to do a dance on the new third-rail of American politics: pregnancy-rape.
It all started on a small conservative local access show when Senate candidate Todd Akin said the following:
“It seems to me, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare,” Akin told KTVI-TV. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something: I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist, and not attacking the child.”
It was because he said “legitimate” rape, which he probably meant to say a “rape that includes intercourse” but was taken as “the bitch is lying”.
Even referring to that incident is now considered a heinous crime against humanity, if Andrea Peterson had her way. Even if a woman refers to it. (psst…she’s a Republican so the outrage is warranted!)
Celeste Greig, president of California Republican Assembly, the state’s oldest and largest GOP volunteer organization told The Bay Area News Group this week that pregnancies resulting from rape are rare “because it’s an act of violence, because the body is traumatized.”
For good measure, they include a photo of her with Marco Rubio.
Here’s what the also-poorly-written source article says:
Grieg is the president of the conservative California Republican Assembly, the state’s oldest and largest GOP volunteer organization. Ronald Reagan once called it “the conscience of the Republican Party.”
Gotta get that Reagan slam in there!
The Bay Area Gazette or whatever continues:
That was an insensitive remark,” Greig said. “I’m sure he regretted it. He should have come back and apologized.”
Greig, however, went on to say: “Granted, the percentage of pregnancies due to rape is small because it’s an act of violence, because the body is traumatized. I don’t know what percentage of pregnancies are due to the violence of rape. Because of the trauma the body goes through, I don’t know what percentage of pregnancy results from the act.”
According to a study from the University of South Carolina: “The national rape-related pregnancy rate is 5.0% per rape among victims of reproductive age (aged 12 to 45); among adult women an estimated 32,101 pregnancies result from rape each year.”
Yes, the percentage is small. We don’t know why, but trauma appears to be a legitimate explanation, more so than
OMGYOUCANTSAYTHATYOUHATEWOMENANDLOVERAPE.
So yes: Akin and Greig appear to be right on the facts. Why has nobody acknowledged that?
