Top 5 Most Offensive Women's Health Comments Made By Out of Touch Politicians
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Todd Akin’s offensive comments about “legitimate rape” on Sunday touched off a huge firestorm. Unfortunately, his comments are not isolated rants from one bad apple — the sad reality is this incident was by no means a “one-off.”
For years politicians have been attempting to redefine rape, insinuating that women make false claims in order to access emergency contraception or receive a safe and legal abortion.
Unfortunately, we don’t have to go far to find outrageous statements from politicians on this issue. Here are the top five worst comments from this year alone:
- Idaho State Senator Chuck Winder discussing the mandatory ultrasound bill he sponsored that makes no exceptions for victims of rape or incest: "I would hope that when a woman goes in to a physician with a rape issue, that physician will indeed ask her about perhaps her marriage, was this pregnancy caused by normal relations in a marriage or was it truly caused by a rape. I assume that's part of the counseling that goes on.” For what it’s worth, his outrageous comments likely torpedoed the legislation.
- Former Republican presidential candidate and Texas Congressman Ron Paul had an interview with Piers Morgan. When asked if he would support abortion or even emergency contraception in cases of rape, he replied, "If it's an honest rape, that individual should go immediately to the emergency room, I would give them a shot of estrogen." He later said, "Yes, it's a tough one. And I won't satisfy everybody there."
- Just yesterday, in response to the Akin quote, Rep. Steve King came to his defense telling an Iowa reporter, “Well I just haven’t heard of that [a child becoming pregnant after statutory rape or incest] being a circumstance that’s been brought to me in any personal way, and I’d be open to discussion about that subject matter.”
- Asked why he doesn’t support abortion in most cases of rape, here is his response: "From what I understand from doctors, that's really rare. If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let's assume maybe that didn't work or something. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist…."
- What’s worse than saying there’s a difference between “legitimate rape” and presumably less-legitimate rape? How about made-up claims of rape? Here is Akin trying to clarify his initial “legitimate rape” comment: “There isn’t any legitimate rapist…. [I was] making the point that there were people who use false claims, like those that basically created Roe v. Wade.”
Todd Akin earns not one but two of the spots...
Frankly, it’s not surprising that these out-of-touch politicians wouldn’t support exceptions for rape or incest. Their own party reaffirmed two days after Akin’s original comments that it wants to outlaw abortion, with no exceptions for rape or incest. Akin’s comments aren’t an anomaly. They aren’t new. They are exactly what his party believes — that women shouldn’t have the right to make their own health care choices.
This is the party that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan lead. And this is why they are not our ticket.
