Todd Akin and the Issue of Abortion

There has been much deserved anger directed at Missouri’s Republican candidate for the Senate Todd Akin this past week. Mr. Akin recently asserted in a television interview that women do not get pregnant from what he called “legitimate rape” and that the bodies of women have a way of shutting down and preventing conception.  Virtually the whole of the Republican Party has either disowned him or have openly come out to state he should step down from the race but the representative from Missouri has refused to do so. That he has apologized for what he called words being taken out of context does not reduce the stupidity of his actions and opinions in relation to rape and the rights of the fetus.

This issue brings up an interesting view of many Republicans in relation to abortion. In the recent past Todd Akin with Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan co-sponsored a “personhood” Bill that would have given full rights to a fetus upon conception. This is not a new idea within the ranks of conservatives in the United States and especially evangelicals. However conservatives have been trying to justify such an extreme view in relation to abortion, with many believing that under no circumstances should a termination be allowed.

What this extreme opinion creates is heated debate over how certain pregnancies happen, most importantly in relation to rape. It is the opinion of this writer and many others that a woman should have the right to terminate a pregnancy if it was a consequence of rape. Rape is the upmost violation anyone can happen upon them and to carry that fetus to term when the woman does not want it is a horrific, nine-month long ordeal that I would never wish upon someone. In essence it is as if the rape continues after the initial violation.

It seems to be a similar opinion of many conservatives who advocate for banning abortion. However because of their extreme and blinded views being attacked by people who have the same opinion as me, some sort of twisted deflections and opinions are thrown back at us. Todd Akin’s attempt to categorize rape and state wildly unfactual biology is a perfectly distilled extreme example of this. These advocates of a complete ban on abortion are aware of the wrong this stance causes and attempt to find excuses or obfuscate.

The banning of abortion under all circumstances is an ignorant, unwieldy position to take and to categorize rape in to less malicious terms should be completely condemned. The simple, inexcusable fact is that rape is rape, no matter how it occurs. Todd Akin demeaned women with his statements recently and showed complete contempt for this shockingly prevalent vicious act. For this reason the representative of Missouri should take the advice of many in his party and step down.