Zero score and two years ago today, Todd Akin shook the political world with his now infamous claim that “[in the case of] a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down.”
We could go on for hours mocking Akin’s asinine comments and his recent attempt to rehabilitate his image, which included a retraction of his apology and a slew of evidence that he still doesn’t understand why anybody was offended in the first place.
But at this point, Akin is nothing more than another extreme Tea Party has-been. What’s far more important is that, while Akin may have had a unique flare for the offensive, his extreme positions on women’s health are anything but unique within the Republican party.
Supporting so-called “personhood” is the de facto position in today’s GOP — a position that could make common forms of birth control like the pill illegal. Many Republican candidates oppose abortion even in the case of rape or incest, and some have gone as far to oppose it even when the mother’s life is in danger.Republicans have voted to slash funding for Planned Parenthood and redefine rape as “forcible rape,” and the list goes on and on.
So today, American Bridge is relaunching ItsNotJustAkin.com to continue to expose Republican candidates for their ongoing efforts to regulate women’s bodies. Todd Akin may not be in Congress anymore, but his legacy lives on.
Published: Aug 19, 2014