All right, Republicans, you don’t know where babies come from, we get it
Say what you will about Republican Congressman Joe Walsh, but at least he was already a fairly well-known politician, if only because of his history of public embarrassment, when he declared his ignorant stance on abortion this past Thursday. He may be a lot of things, but his chances of going down in history as “that right-wing abortion moron” are pretty slim. Most of the other front-runners in the GOP’s “Who Can Say the Dumbest Thing About Abortion?” contest aren’t so lucky.
Most of us had never heard of Todd Akin, for example, before he declared that “the female body has ways” to prevent pregnancy in cases of “legitimate rape.” Not only is this completely false, but it also implies that if a woman does conceive through rape, then she probably basically wanted it. The previously unknown Akin was suddenly America’s “legitimate rape guy,” and it’s probably going to cost him the election; according to a subsequent poll, 84% of voters disagreed with his comments and 63% believed he should “definitely” or “probably” withdraw from the race.
Then there’s Richard Mourdock, a Senate candidate in Indiana who said yesterday that when a woman gets pregnant as a result of rape, “that’s something God intended.” He could have come and gone without attracting the nation’s attention, but now he’s the “God works through rapists” guy. Mitt Romney, as a result, is doing everything he can to distance himself from Mourdock, just one day after a television ad featuring Romney’s endorsement started airing in his state.
Not only are these two statements total nonsense, but as my friend Scott deftly pointed out, they also contradict each other. “It’s miraculous that God can overcome a woman’s body’s way of preventing pregnancy in cases of legitimate rape to start new life,” he said.
Listen, I don’t want to tell anybody how to do their job, but abortion is a very difficult issue that deserves mature consideration. There are many valid arguments on the pro-life and pro-choice sides alike, but there’s also a lot of unmitigated nonsense coming mainly from right-wing pundits and politicians. It’s muddying the issue, and it’s not doing anyone any favours – including, thank God, the people who can’t stop spewing it.
I just think that if you’re going to weigh in on an issue as divisive as abortion, then you ought to know what you’re talking about. And if you don’t know what you’re talking about, then you should at least avoid proving that you’re a grown man who doesn’t know how the female body works. And if you are a grown man who doesn’t know how the female body works, then good lord, at least try and make sure that it doesn’t become your “thing.”
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To be fair to Akin, the female body does have a way to shut out male sperm in cases of rape . . . if you are belong to certain species of duck.
Well, that ought to work out fine for Akin, since ducks get the vote but women don’t.