What Senate Candidate Todd Akin Legitimately Just Did To his Career

For those who can't watch video, this jerk just implied that in "legitimate rape" (rough translation from the misogynist tongue: "when the woman wasn't really asking for it"), the victim's body "shuts down" the process of getting pregnant. That was so jaw-droppingly dumb, a lot of people might have missed the follow-up, which was the kind of creepy idea that women use abortion to punish the fetus for the rape.

What....the....fuck?

I can actually remember the first time I heard this junk-science because the anti-abortion weirdo who came up with it was from my general geographic location--and I don't think I've still gotten over how someone purports that any such a thing would work.

And yet, apparently, this is not an uncommon belief among the anti-abortion set. Gullible wingers who seem to believe it include Chris "Knickers" Loesch.  And he's actually a little surprised you all never heard of it, yourselves. Medical science!

Rep. Akin has tried to claim now that he "misspoke". Because you know how easy it is to promote false scientific information that paints rape victims as lying sluts, right?  This is something the senate candidate has believed for a while, and just last year, he teamed with Rep. Ryan, (R. WI), to sponsor HR 3, a bill aiming at changing the definition of rape to "forcible rape." You know, because if all she has to show for her experience is being pregnant--what does that even prove without a few hard knocks?

Other conservatives are now calling for him to withdraw from his race--but in his favor, he's kicked over quite a nasty stone and let us look at what some rape-apologist lady-haters really think. It's instructive, I give it that.

(X-Posted at Rumproast.)