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Another Senate Republican Candidate Compares Rape To “Out Of Wedlock Pregnancy”

Trying to distance himself from the “legitimate rape” comment that Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) made last week, Pennsylvania Senate candidate Tom Smith (R) stirred up further controversy by comparing a pregnancy caused by rape to “having a baby out of wedlock.”

Smith said Monday at the Pennsylvania Press Club that although he condemns Akin’s comment, he agrees with Akin that abortion should be banned without any exceptions, including for rape and incest victims. Pressed by a reporter on how he would handle a daughter or granddaughter becoming pregnant as a result of rape, Smith said he had already “lived something similar to that” in his family.

“She chose life, and I commend her for that,” he said. “She knew my views. But, fortunately for me, I didn’t have to … she chose the way I thought. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t rape.”

When a reporter asked Smith to clarify what kind of situation was similar to becoming pregnant from rape, the candidate responded, “Having a baby out of wedlock.”

He added, “Put yourself in a father’s position. Yes, it is similar.”

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Featured Paul Ryan Rape war on women

The Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan, Todd Akin Connection

The Republicans would love for you to believe that what Todd Akin said was just something that happened in his brief moment of  insanity. That Todd had a moment, a very bad and unfortunate moment.

But a quick check of the Congressional voting record of other Republicans found that Mr. Legitimate Rape’s comment was not only accepted by the Republican base, Congressional Republicans like Paul Ryan even tried to create laws based on Akin’s belief.

In fact, over the past decade in Congress, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) has co-sponsored 32 abortion-related bills that Akin has also sponsored or co-sponsored. Here are a few anti-choice bills that both Akin and Cantor supported:

HR 3: The 2011 No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, first introduced in 2011, included language about “forcible rape” in its early versions that set a dangerous precedent for Republican attempts to narrow the definition of “legitimate” forms of sexual assault.

HR 5276: The Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act of 2010 would require doctors to describe “the pain experienced by the unborn child” to women seeking an abortion.

HR 649: The 2009 Ultrasound Informed Consent Act sought to force women to look at an ultrasound of their fetus before being allowed to continue with their decision to have an abortion.

HR 2752: Akin was the primary sponsor of the Parents Right to Know Act of 2009, which sought to strip funding for health clinics like Planned Parenthood that provide FDA-approved contraceptives to minors without first obtaining parental consent.

Akin’s anti-abortions views are not, in fact, too radical for the top Republican in the House. Akin’s fellow Republicans want to claim they disagree with his offensive views behind the GOP’s stance toward women’s health, but their voting records say differently.

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Paul Ryan Politics

Paul Ryan Throws Todd Akin Under The Bus

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Paul Ryan Politics

Todd Akin – It’s Not About Ego, It’s Not About Politics. I Stand On Principles

Paul Ryan, the Republican vice presidential candidate, is very familiar with Mr. “Legitimate Rape” also known as Todd Akin. The two were responsible for a bill attempting to change the definition of rape from its present meaning to “forcible rape.”

So when Todd Akin got into trouble for expressing his and the Republican party’s views that rape is not “legitimate” if it’s not forced, Paul Ryan was tapped by the Romney campaign to contact his friend and ask him to withdraw.

But there will be no withdrawal from Mr. Akin, as the deadline for him to withdraw came and went yesterday without much fanfare from the Akin camp. Mr. Akin is now on an apology tour, making his rounds to all the news outlets asking for forgiveness.

Paul Ryan was asked about Akin and his statement. He wasted no time throwing Akin under the bus. In an interview with KDKA of Pittsburgh, Ryan said, “His statements were outrageous, over the pale. I don’t know anybody who would agree with that. Rape is rape period, end of story.”

Akin spoke to NBC’s The Today Show and confirmed that his alley Paul Ryan had turned on him.  He also stated that he’s not going anywhere, even if his party’s future depends on it. When asked if his cause or ego will trump the greater cause of the Republican party, Akin answered, “this is not about me,” Mr. Akin said. “It’s not about ego. It’s about the voters of the state of Missouri. They have chosen me because of principles that I stand on and put principles over politics.”

Video…

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Mitt Romney Politics Rape

Todd Akin Attacks Mitt Romney – Run Your Race, I’ll Run Mine

Appearing on Sean Hannity’s radio program for the second time in as many days, Missouri Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin attacked the GOP’s presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, for joining a chorus of Republicans asking him to withdraw from the race. Akin said that Romney had blown the controversy out of proportion and implied that he had done so for his own political gain.

Hannity asked Akin, given the number of prominent Republican politicians asking Akin to drop out including Romney, if he is even pausing to consider leaving the Senate race in Missouri.

“Let me ask you this,” Akin began. “If you were in Romney’s position, don’t you think that he may have bid this thing up and made a bigger deal about it than he needed to?”

“Why couldn’t he run his race and I run mine,” asked Akin. “If things really look like they’re getting in trouble in Missouri than maybe — but he has just assumed.”

Akin went on to cite a Public Policy Polling flash poll from last night which showed him still leading Sen. Clair McCaskill even amid this controversy. Hannity pointed out that that particular poll sampled 9 points more Republicans than Democrats and it was a poor indicator.

Later in the interview, Akin said that he was contacted by Republican vice presidential candidatePaul Ryan who, according to reports, also asked Akin to consider dropping out.

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Politics Rape

New Poll Has Todd Akin Leading Claire McCaskill In Missouri

Maybe it’s too soon to take this poll. And maybe we would love to think that the people of Missouri are smarter than this. Never the less, a new poll from Public Policy Polling is reporting that even after the false and offensive comments on rape from Todd Akin, he is still leading Claire McCaskill for the Senate race.

Public Policy Polling found that “Missouri voters strongly disagree with the comments Todd Akin made about abortion over the weekend, but it hasn’t moved the numbers a whole lot in the Senate race. Akin leads Claire McCaskill by a single point, 44-43. That’s basically identical to our last poll of the contest in late May, which found Akin ahead by a 45-44 spread.

“It’s not that Missouri voters are ok with or supportive of Akin’s comments. 75% of voters, including even 64% of Republicans, say they were inappropriate to only 9% who consider them to have been appropriate. 79% of voters say they disagree with what Akin said, including 65% who express ‘strong’ disagreement with him. 51% of GOP voters say they strongly disagree with him.”

We can only hope the people of Missouri are smarter than this poll indicates. We can only hope that taking this poll 24 hours after Akin’s infamous statement is too soon to gauge Missouri’s voters on their preference for November. With just about everyone – from Democrats to Independents to Republicans – asking Akin to withdraw from the Senate race, this poll may not even matter.

Let’s wait and see what happens in the next 24 hours. If Akin withdraws his name, the deadline is today at 5PM.

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Paul Ryan Politics Rape

President Obama Responds To Republican’s War On Women – “Rape Is Rape”

President Obama on Monday called Rep. Todd Akin’s remarks about rape “offensive” and sought to tie the Republican Senate candidate to the GOP presidential ticket.

“Rape is rape,” Obama said at a White House press briefing. He called Akin’s comments “way out there.”

Defining rape, he said, “doesn’t make sense to the American people and doesn’t make sense to me.”

“What I think these comments do underscore is why we shouldn’t have a bunch of politicians, the majority of which are men, making decision that affect health of women,” Obama said.

The Obama campaign said Ryan supported a constitutional amendment that would ban abortion in all instances, including in the case of rape. It also said Ryan, who opposes abortion except in cases where the mother’s life is in danger, had worked with Akin on tough anti-abortion rights legislation.

“The underlying notion that we should be making decisions on behalf of women for their healthcare decisions … that is a significant difference in approach between me and the other party,” Obama said.

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Paul Ryan Politics

Todd Akin And Paul Ryan Co-Sponsored Bill Changing Definition of ‘Rape’ to ‘Forcible Rape’

Now that Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin has made us aware that there is something called “Legitimate Rape,” and that a woman’s body is capable of “shutting that whole thing down,” we are now getting word that Mr. Akin and the Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, sponsored a bill called ‘No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,’ that would have changed the definition of word “rape” to “forcible rape.”

The new definition of rape did not go through because of public pressure and the bill’s absurdity, but imagine what would have happened if these crazy nuts had their way – a woman who suffered the torture of being raped, would have had to explain how forcible the rape was and then a qualified third party would then determine if the forcing was enough to qualify as a rape.

Akin and Ryan were the original co-sponsors of the controversial bill H.R. 3, “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” which initially included language which changed the definition of “rape” to “forcible rape,” until public pressure forced the bill’s supporters to remove that unacceptable and narrow definition. As I wrote previously, Paul Ryan is not just anti-choice, his anti-choice views are extreme and just plain bad for all women.

Linking Ryan to Akin and the idea that there is such a thing as “legitimate rape” based on pseudo-science and folklore is something that needs to be done before the upcoming election. While Team Romney attempted to create distance with Akin, saying that both Romney and Ryan “disagree” with his statements, there was nothing in their statement that said they condemn his remarks as hurtful to victims. There was also nothing in Team Romney’s statement that pointed out that what Akin said about pregnancies resulting from rape being rare is just flat-out wrong.

Ryan was against abortion in all cases including rape until Team Romney’s statement. Romney has said he would get rid of Planned Parenthood and has been moving further right on women’s issues since he was a pro-choice governor of Massachusetts. This could be a huge problem for the Republican ticket in November.

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