The information on, articles about and pot shots at Todd Akin are coming too fast and furious to try to focus on them all. Instead, here are a few hilights from today’s news. First, a very important song that will help you to know if (by Republican standards) you have been legitimately raped. via Buzzfeed
First of all, Akin has officially created an ad to apologize for his comments. Personally I’m unconvinced. I don’t think he ‘chose his words poorly’ and I don’t think he was misunderstood. I think he was wrong, I think he was stupid and I think he was in full agreement with the US Republican Party. The GOP platform, after all, calls for a Constitutional amendment to ban abortion in all cases, including rape and incest. I do feel a bit badly for Akin in that I’m sure that he felt safe echoing the official Republican party line and was surprised by the backlash.
If you are particularly interested in the topic, you should also pop over to BoingBoing and read “Going medieval on the female reproductive system” – which traces the roots of the idea that women produce their own birth control back to that delightful year 1290 (the same era that conservatives trace most of their ideas to). You should also have a look at “Science, rape and pregnancy” which rebuts the medieval quackery that informs Republican policy.