Todd Akin: Because you can't get pregnant without consent

I was going to avoid this topic with a ten foot pole as the media seems to be content with pounding the crap out of this man, but as Todd Akin announced he was staying in the race; he also announced that “his party overreacted a bit” and “it was just a word in the wrong place.”

The background; in a television interview Republican Congressman Todd Akin made the comment, “It seems to me, first of all, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare [impregnation of a woman from rape]. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down, ”after being asked what his thoughts on abortion under any circumstances, including rape.  He is obviously a master of the female reproductive system.

What could have meant? One thought could have been that he meant cases where a woman was raped; having had a man put his penis in her vagina and ejaculate without protection. The other being that in cases where a woman was raped in the above mentioned that if she were to get pregnant somehow an element of consent would be there.

Either way, Akin’s message clearly resonates; the female body will stop a pregnancy if she is raped. I think that’s an absolutely terrifying message to put for to women. We are human, we don’t come with a failsafe in case of rape. If your body has ovulated and you’re able to conceive and are raped, unless counter measures (Plan B) are taken, you can get pregnant, with consensual and non-consensual sex. Instead of accepting women’s bodies as being selective in the child-bearing process, why don’t we look at the fact that most women won’t go to a doctor or clinic for Plan B because they’re ashamed of their sexual assault? Why don’t we look into the fact that some women can’t afford Plan B after they have been sexually assaulted?

Akin stated that, “by taking this stand, this is going to strengthen our country. It will strengthen the Republican Party.”

This will strengthen the anti-feminist rape-culture that’s dominating our society both in Canada and the United States. By creating this “Failsafe” guarantee in women you’re insinuating that women have been created to be raped. Look, look, even if you do rape her, she’s not going to get pregnant, her body doesn’t allow that. Are you kidding me? Instead of focusing on the what a woman’s body can and can’t do, why don’t you focus on the fact that we’ve reared a culture that jumps to blame the victim before the rapist, before, during and after the rape.

We blame the woman/ for how he/she looks, what he/she was saying, her level of intoxication before the rape occurs. We blame the man/woman for not fighting hard enough, not saying no enough, not calling for help enough during the rape. We blame the male victims for being weak for calling it rape afterwards and we blame women for choosing abortion after they’ve been raped and have gotten pregnant. This is a culture that justifies the acts in all its stages, and chooses to elect asshats like this to back that thinking up.

**UPDATE
Will be posting a second post about rape culture, feminism and rape.