Team Ro-Ry quickly distanced itself from Rep. Akin's gross comments about "legitimate rape," and, this morning, candidate Romney himself called Akin's comments "insulting, inexcusable, and, frankly, wrong. Like millions of other Americans, we found them to be offensive," but, as Ian Millhiser notes at Think Progress:
Last year, Akin joined with GOP vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) as two of the original co-sponsors of the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," a bill which, among other things, introduced the country to the bizarre term "forcible rape."[NB: Not only women get pregnant via rape.]
...Although a version of this bill passed the GOP-controlled House, the "forcible rape" language was eventually removed due to widespread public outcry. Paul Ryan, however, believes that the "forcible rape" language does not actually go far enough to force women to carry their rapist's baby. Ryan believes that abortion should be illegal in all cases except for "cases in which a doctor deems an abortion necessary to save the mother's life." So rape survivors are out of luck.
Team Ry-Ro can distance itself from Akin from here to the Romney Moon Compound and back, but the fact is that one-half of that team has engaged in precisely the same sort of survivor-hostile rape-ranking as Akin's, and he didn't do it in an interview: He did it as an official co-sponsor of legislation that sought to codify rape apologia into federal law.
How is that not "insulting, inexcusable, wrong, and offensive," one wonders?
* * *
In other news today...
The Republican convention will be as terrible as ever. Donald Trump will be given a key role at the convention, just to keep it classy. Paul Ryan is an unserious man. And Team Obama plays hardball on the economy.
Legitimate rape. Birthers at the GOP convention. Nothing but a constant stream of bullshit and lies. Every presidential election, I say it's the worst one I've ever seen. And every time, that's accurate.
Worst election ever.
Shakesville is run as a safe space. First-time commenters: Please read Shakesville's Commenting Policy and Feminism 101 Section before commenting. We also do lots of in-thread moderation, so we ask that everyone read the entirety of any thread before commenting, to ensure compliance with any in-thread moderation. Thank you.
blog comments powered by Disqus