Rep. Todd Akin’s ‘Legitimate rape’ comment and the reaction

Rep. Todd Akin: The Statement and the Reaction
By LORI MOORE  August 20, 2012

(note: This website disagrees with Rep. Akin’s statements about legitimate rape)

The sequence of events after Representative Todd Akin, Republican of Missouri, commented to a St. Louis television station on pregnancy as a result of rape.

Sunday

11:24 A.M. KTVI-TV posts to its Web site an interview with Mr. Akin in which he is asked whether he believes abortion is justified in cases of rape and replies that rape does not result in pregnancy. Twitter soon erupts with outrage and links to the interview.

“It seems to be, first of all, from what I understand from doctors, it’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down.”

4:28 P.M. Senator Claire McCaskill, the Democrat whose Senate seat Mr. Akin is seeking, releases a statement denouncing his comments.

“As a former prosecutor, Claire McCaskill has worked closely with hundreds of rape victims and intimately understands their trauma and pain. It is that experience that makes Akin’s statements so outrageous.”

4:59 P.M. Mr. Akin releases a statement saying that he misspoke in the interview.

“I believe deeply in the protection of all life, and I do not believe that harming another innocent victim is the right course of action. I also recognize that there are those who, like my opponent, support abortion, and I understand I may not have their support in this election.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/21/us/politics/rep-todd-akin-legitimate-rape-statement-and-reaction.html

AUGUST 19, 2012 – Akin Statement on “Jaco Report” Interview
“In reviewing my off-the-cuff remarks, it’s clear that I misspoke in this interview and it does not reflect the deep empathy I hold for the thousands of women who are raped and abused every year.  Those who perpetrate these crimes are the lowest of the low in our society and their victims will have no stronger advocate in the Senate to help ensure they have the justice they deserve.” http://www.akin.org/updates/akin-statement-jaco-report-interview

‘Legitimate rape’ comment was not a misstatement. It’s a worldview 
By LAURA HELMUTH Monday, 08.20.12

Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri, the Republican candidate for the Missouri Senate race, told a St. Louis news station on Sunday that “legitimate rape” rarely causes pregnancy: “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

He later took it back….In case anybody missed this dig at the “no means no” crowd, “legitimate rape” is a coded phrase meant to distinguish between a stranger attacking you in a parking garage, or, say, your date or your youth pastor doing the same. If you’re tipsy or wearing a short skirt, it’s not rape-rape, etc.

The statement was actually intended to soften Akin’s absolute opposition to abortion, even in the case of rape or incest. Why bother to have loopholes for such conditions when they’re going to be so rare, goes his thinking? As Talking Points Memo notes, the congressman has long suspected that rape and abortion laws are less likely to protect women from abuse than to allow them to be abusive:

Akin’s past includes praising a militia group linked to anti-abortion extremism in the 1990s and voting against creating a sex-offender registry in 2005. Back in 1991, as a state legislator, Akin voted for an anti-marital-rape law, but only after questioning whether it might be misused “in a real messy divorce as a tool and a legal weapon to beat up on the husband,” according to a May 1 article that year in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch….
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/20/2960507/legitimate-rape-comment-was-not.html

Pastor Guilty Of Raping Teen, victim forced to confess her sin, the pregnancy

Ernest Willis, New Hampshire Man, Found Guilty Of Raping 15-Year-Old Tina Anderson; Pastor Sent Teen Off To Colorado (UPDATE) 9/6/11

Ernest Willis, a 52-year-old New Hampshire man, was found guilty of raping and impregnating a 15-year-old girl from his church who was shipped to Colorado by church leaders to give birth to his baby. Willis faces up to 54 years in prison for the sexual assault, The Denver Post reports. Willis will be sentenced Tuesday in Merrimack Superior Court.

UPDATE:

The Associated Press reports that Ernest Willis was sentenced Tuesday to 15 to 30 years in prison for raping Tina Anderson twice in 1997. Judge Larry Smukler said that Willis “robbed the girl of her childhood.” But Willis was stoic and although he said he was “sorry and ashamed for this thoughtless act of sexual misconduct,” he never admitted to forcible rape or to a second rape. Willis’ lawyers said they are planning to appeal those convictions.

EARLIER:

Tina Anderson, who was 15 at the time of the rape, knew Willis from babysitting his children and from attending the same fundamentalist Baptist church in Concord, N.H.. The church pastor made young Anderson apologize to the congregation when she discovered that she was pregnant, but she was not allowed to tell the church goers that the pregnancy occurred because she was raped. With the consent of Anderson’s mother, the pastor then shipped the teenager to the home of a Colorado couple that she didn’t know and arranged for her baby to be adopted, according to ABC News.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/06/ernest-willis-new-hampshi_n_950332.html

New Hampshire Man Found Guilty of Rape of Tina Anderson
By SEAN DOOLEY and ALICE GOMSTYN
May 27, 2011

Ernest Willis, a New Hampshire man accused of raping and fathering a child with a 15-year-old girl from his church in 1997, was found guilty today of three counts of forcible rape and a count of felonious sexual assault.

Willis’ case drew national headlines because his victim, Tina Anderson, who gave an exclusive interview to “20/20″ last month, said she was forced to confess her “sin” — the pregnancy — in front of their congregation at Trinity Baptist Church, an Independent Fundamental Baptist Church (IFB) in Concord, N.H. The church’s then-pastor, Chuck Phelps, helped arrange for Anderson to move thousands of miles away from home to live with an IFB family and give her child up for adoption….

In an April interview with “20/20,” Anderson said that after being sexually assaulted twice by Willis, she was forced to stand before her Baptist congregation and confess her “sin” — that she had become pregnant. She said she wasn’t allowed to tell the group that the pregnancy happened because she was raped by Willis, a man twice her age.
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/new-hampshire-man-ernest-willis-found-guilty-rape-tina-anderson/story?id=13702833

Clergy who conceal abuse, Vatican lifts veil of secrecy, child abuse traumatic

Clergy who conceal abuse should be dismissed: cardinal – Silvia Aloisi ROME Apr 11, 2010 (Reuters) – The powerful head of Italy’s bishops, responding to mounting pressure on the Vatican, said on Sunday those in the Church who mishandled, minimized and covered up sexual abuse of children should be dismissed. Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco said in a newspaper interview that pedophilia was a “heinous crime” and even more serious when committed by members of the Church.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63A0X620100411

Vatican lifts veil of secrecy on abuse cases – As two more cover-ups are revealed, a simple online guide to the canonical procedures for dealing with accused priests is launched  By Nicole Winfield in The Vatican 11 April 2010 The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – the office once known as the Inquisition – has long epitomised the secrecy of the Vatican, with responsibility for banning books and meting out punishments as severe as excommunication and burning at the stake. Now, as the office’s handling of child-molesting priests comes increasingly under fire, the Vatican is starting to open up. Tomorrow, it will release online a concise guide for the layman on how the congregation handles sex abuse allegations.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/vatican-lifts-veil-of-secrecy-on-abuse-cases-1941264.html

Child Sexual Abuse: A Risk Factor for Pregnancy, Study Finds ScienceDaily (Apr. 6, 2010) — A new study carried out by researchers at the University of Haifa and Soroka Hospital has found that women who were victims of sexual abuse in childhood reported higher levels of depression and symptoms of post-trauma during pregnancy. Sexual abuse in childhood increases the chances of high-risk pregnancy, according to the new study, which was conducted by Prof. Rachel Lev-Wiesel, Head of the Graduate School of Creative Arts Therapies at the University of Haifa, Lee Yampolsky and Dr. Tzachi Ben Zion, Deputy Director of Soroka Hospital….The current study, which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Advanced Nursing (January 2011), examined the possibility of sexual abuse experienced in childhood triggering retraumatization during wanted pregnancy.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100406073255.htm