GOP: 'Legit Rape Victims Don't Get Pregnant', Twitter Reactions

GOP Missouri Rep. Todd Akin insisted "legitimate rape" victims don't get pregnant. 

Todd Akin, a representative for the state of Missouri, said that according to some doctors he’d spoken to, “pregnancy from rape is really rare” and that “if it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down.” 

 We can always count on old male politicians to know the most about the female reproductive system, am I right, ladies?! Sometimes this as-yet-unnamed anti-pregnancy rape mechanism thingamajig “or something,” as Akin puts it, doesn't work, in which case, Rep. Akin says we are shit outta luck.

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As a birth doula and (almost) certified professional midwife, I have seen some pretty extraordinary things that have happened with a woman's body, including a very strong relationship to the mind and body of a laboring woman, but I have never heard of being able to "secrete certain secretions" to stop a pregnancy. 

If that were the case, there would be no such thing as birth control, because a woman would be able to control whether or not she got pregnant. duh.

Twitter Reactions to Rep. Todd Akins

@DamonLindelof: Congressman Akin- Your brain has a way of shutting down when your fucking mouth starts moving.

@Thuggy_G: Tomorrow Tom Akins will explain that legitimate murder doesn't actually kill people

@PLVTO: Republican Tom Akins says Legitimate Rape victims can't get pregnant..Im starting to think the republican party is being retarded on purpose 

@GuardianUS: 'Legitimate rape' – a medieval medical concept http://trib.al/EtfnYp - via @guardianscience

@Naomimic: Dear God. Someone just commented under my New Statesman blog that it should only be rape if by a stranger:

@Slate: Todd Akin's "legitimate rape" comment was not a misstatement. It was a worldview.

@MichaelSkolnik: Dear @PaulRyanVP, can u please explain difference between rapeand "forcible rape." Because that term is uncomfortably close to "legitimate"

Below is the video of Tom Akin's interview in which he spoke about legitimate rape: