A Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin is out with a new ad. Akin seems to believe that he might be able to weather the storm. He really thinks that he has some sort of natural defense system where he can “shut this whole thing down.”
Just two weeks ago, Akin in a radio interview said that he would ban the morning after pill “totally, for everyone.” And I’m sure he feels the same way about the “day before pill” too. Akin refused to consider exceptions for rape or incest, and he was even hedging on an exception for when the life of the mother was in danger. He essentially was asking “Well, how much danger?”
Akin’s problem isn’t that he said something wrong. It’s that he said something that Republicans think is right. It’s just that most of them know not to say it out loud. Paul Ryan is on record opposing abortion even in the case of rape and incest. But the campaign issued a statement saying a “Romney-Ryan administration would not oppose abortion in instances of rape.” The tricky part comes with what their definition of “rape” is. Last year, Paul Ryan co-sponsored a bill with Todd Akin that would have redefined rape to only include “forcible rape.” The Ryan/Akin bill would have created a whole class of rape victims who would have to be told they weren’t “raped enough” to qualify for the rape exception. When you know all this, you suddenly realize exactly what Todd Akin meant when he used the phrase “legitimate rape.” And it’s even scarier than when you didn’t know what that term meant.
Mitt Romney said that Akin’s comments were “deeply offensive.” The most offensive thing about them for Mitt was that they mirror everything he's been saying since he started running for president—and he’s trying to get people to forget all that. Romney said that “I can’t defend what he said. I can’t defend him.” You know what else I bet you can’t say, Mitt? I bet you can’t say “Rape is rape.”
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