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Tag Archives: rape

Call it what it is

11 Wednesday Apr 2018

Posted by Michael Bersin in Missouri General Assembly, Missouri Governor, Missouri House

≈ 32 Comments

Tags

Eric Greitens, governor, investigation, missouri, Missouri House Special Investigative Committee on Oversight, rape, social media, Stephen Webber, Twitter

This evening, via Twitter, from Missouri Democratic Party Chair Stephen Webber:

Stephen Webber @s_webber
If you’re reporting/commenting on @EricGreitens and find yourself about to write “non-consensual sex,” think of the hell the victim endured and instead write what “non-consensual sex” actually is: rape.
7:13 PM – 11 Apr 2018

Previously:

The Report (April 11, 2017)

Todd Akin: Forever unclear on the concept, forever whining

27 Friday Jun 2014

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

ethics of law, Hillarly Clinton, missouri, rape, Todd Akin

You know how rightwingers really, really want to be viewed as victims? It seems to be a twisted variant on the old adage that the best offense is a defence. The claim is usually brought up to justify offensive behavior like asserting that the ACA mandate that compels employers to offer a full healthcare package to their employees constitutes religious persecution since women might collude with their doctors to get contraception that not only encourages what these folks think of as immoral behavior, but might kill a zygote. We all know the drill by now.

Todd Akin, the former congressman from Missouri’s second district, used to excel at this game; his last legislative effort in the House was a classic example of the “if you don’t let me misbehave, you’re persecuting me” gambit. He offered an amendment to the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act that would have permitted abusive and discriminatory behavior on the part of servicemen and women toward their LGBT colleagues. He claimed that since hostility toward LGBT individuals is often based on religious beliefs, prohibiting its expression amounts to religious persecution. I guess that nobody ever explained to Akin that professional standards of civility make today’s diverse military workplace better for everyone – even the religious fanatics whose fanaticism is never, ever under assault just because they are encouraged to act like part of the team at work.

News from TPM is that Akin has given an interview in which he continues to try to vindicate himself after his laughable “legitimate rape” gaffe. What better way than to go the victim route,  particularly if he can claim an equivalence to someone really important like Hillary Clinton. Seems that Akin thinks that Clinton deserves the same hold-your-nose treatment that he got because, in the course of her career as a lawyer, she defended a child sex-offender and, as she was legally bound to do, did her best to get him off. Nor did she come to the defence of the women the righwing hauled out to accuse her husband during his sex scandal, for which Akin accuses her of being anti-woman. I don’t remember that Clinton was accused of rape or any real sexual crimes – just fibbing about consensual sex and propositioning staff. Tacky stuff, but not the kind of thing that would inspire the wronged wife to come to the defence of the “other” women. But still, the fact that she isn’t being pilloried from the left must, in Akin’s world view, mean that he is the victim of bias and he really wants to whine about the injustice of it all.

Akin is not the only conservative who is confused about how our law system works. Another recent example has been the outrage sparked in the Fox News world by Obama’s nominee to lead the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Debo Adegbile, who like Clinton, had the gall to do what a defence lawyer does:  uphold that pillar of our law that entitles all individuals accused of a crime to as good a defence as possible. Conservatives, in general, seem to have real problems with the nature of judicial process as opposed to moral judgement, and rarely seem to grasp the moral nature of the obligation that demands that lawyers carefully separate personal emotions and beliefs from the process of fulfilling their vital role in that process.

So is there parity between Clinton and Akin that we need to acknowledge? Clinton did a job of work and, as an ethical professional, she did her duty towards her client – just as the prosecutors tried to do the best job that they could do to represent the interests of the victim. That’s the way it works in the U.S. Akin, on the other hand, simply made a few dunderheaded public statements that revealed his real beliefs about women and sexuality. Lots of women heard Akin expressing these beliefs and, along with most educated, civilized folks, were so appalled that they put him out of office.

What’s worse, Akin gives every sign that, despite the opportunity to learn from his errors, he still holds fast to the beliefs that got him into trouble:

“My comment about a woman’s body shutting the pregnancy down, was directed to the impact of stress on fertilization,” Akin writes, as quoted by the Daily Mail. “This is something fertility doctors debate and discuss. Doubt me? Google ‘stress and fertilization,’ and you will find a library of research on the subject.”

“The research is not conclusive, but there is considerable evidence that stress makes conception more difficult,” he continues. “And what could be more stressful than a rape?”

Reassuring to know that a lawmaker in the federal government looks so uncritically to Google for information. And that he then can’t even manage to understand the better articles. I performed the search he prescribes and learned that, overall, researchers do say that ongoing, systematic stress affects fertility over time – but not necessarily fertilization. And the key seems to be the systematic nature of the stress as opposed to a single traumatic event like rape. And even these possible relationships are not well understood.

So not only is Akin consistently wrongheaded, in his quest to deny the right to rape victims – and, ultimately, other women – to control their own bodies, he was and presumably is still willing to use political power to write laws that would widely promulgate such wrongheadedness. In contrast Hillary Clinton only conformed to her legal and moral obligation to do her job and represent a client to the best of her abilities. And if you’re still obsessing about Bill Clinton’s sexual peccadilloes, she may have helped defend his presidency from individuals willing – or coerced – to kiss and tell.  

Maybe it’s time for Akin to accept the inevitable and stop bleating about how he’s been wronged. Somewhere down the line he’s going to have accept the fact that “Akin” has become the byword for the backward Republican approach to women and reproductive issues. No matter how many books he writes this won’t change. Apparently, given the tone of this latest interview, there’s also no chance of humility or intellectual growth on the part of the out-of-work politician.

Edited slightly for clarity, 6-17-14.

Todd Akin still winning the GOP race to scarytown

25 Thursday Oct 2012

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

domestic terrorism, militias, missouri, rape, Richard Mourdock, Tim Dreste, Todd Akin

What is it about Republicans and rape? Todd Akin got it all started, but since his infamous “legitimate rape” rap, it seems like his peers in GOPland have been trying to one up him with stunning regularity. (Take a look at this Daily Kos GOP rape advisory chart if you don’t believe me; it’s snarky, sure, but it’s also on the money.) The latest slap in the face to rape victims was the pronouncement by Richard Mourdock, the GOP senatorial candidate from Indiana, who believes that pregnancy resulting from rape is a gift from God.

Mourdock’s accidental honesty about what he really believes was bad enough that at first blush it might seem like Missouri will have to surrender pride of place to Indiana when it comes to misogynistic nuttjobery. At this rate, Rep. Akin will lose his place as the premiere bogyman Democrats use to scare loose change out contributors’ pockets. Maybe the next fund-raising e-mail will dangle before me the horror that is Richard Mourdock.

But never fear, Todd has gone and done ’em all one better. He doesn’t just talk the talk, he walks the walk. What I’m referring is his arrest record during the eighties. We now learn that he was arrested at least three times for obstructing patients trying to enter clinics for abortions.

Bad as it is to try to impose your will on women who are exercising their legal rights, what’s even worse is the fact that, to steal a line from Sarah Palin, he was paling around with terrorists – and I mean the hardcore, homegrown variety:

… As Salon reported this morning, the previously disclosed arrest ties Akin to a radical antiabortion activist who was a member of a right-wing militia – which Akin praised in a letter – and who was later convicted of inciting violence against abortion doctors. BuzzFeed also reported today that Akin used his state representative office to defend a pro-life activist who was later convicted of battery against an abortion clinic nurse.

Akin seems to have tried to deny these politically inconvenient relationships, but the evidence is pretty clear that he was hand-in-glove with a group of fanatics who advocated violence. One example:

… Tim Dreste, the milita’s chaplain and captain, whom Akin worked with in the pro-life movement and who, as it turns out, may even have been arrested along with him. Dreste was one of the most infamous anti-abortion activists in the state, known for threatening abortion doctors, leading several invasions of abortion clinics in the late 1980s, and apparently celebrating the murder of abortion doctor David Gunn in 1993.

Lay down with dogs, get up with fleas. I don’t know about you, but thinking about this man in the Senate is scary stuff. I’ve always just laughed at Akin’s dim-witted excess, but, as far as those fund-raising emails go, this guy could inspire me to visit Claire McCaskill with a little green-backed love.

Image

Akin’s Baggage

26 Sunday Aug 2012

Tags

2012 Presidential Race, abortion, Cartoon of Todd Akin, Congressman Todd Akin, G.O.P., legitimate rape, Missouri Senate Race, rape, U.S. Senate Race

Posted by Michael Bersin | Filed under Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

GOP furor over Todd Akin’s “legitimate rape” remark

20 Monday Aug 2012

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

abortion, missouri, rape, Todd Akin

Patrick Ruffini, GOP strategist, is one of the many conservatives who view Akin as poison in the aftermath of his “legitimate rape” remark. He has joined the chorus calling for Akin to step down. In the process, though, he makes an observation that has struck many of us who have observed the lock-step drill imposed on most GOP legislators:

Patrick Ruffini ‏@PatrickRuffini

Ultimately Senate nominees are expendable and interchangeable. No political downside in a switcheroo.

But it’s interesting to note who he’s thinks  viable as a candidate:

Patrick Ruffini ‏@PatrickRuffini

Trying to decide between Brunner/Steelman will be a bloody process. Talent would be a unity candidate.

Seems Mr. tweedledum and Ms. Tweedledee aren’t that attractive when it comes down to it; I can understand why Ruffini, like lots of GOP establishment types, would love to have Mr. Clean, Jim Talent, on the ticket. Ruffini cuts to the real chase:

Patrick Ruffini ‏@PatrickRuffini

A practical point: What corporate PAC is going to want to give to Akin? Who’ll bundle for him? These things matter…

And also:

Patrick Ruffini ‏@PatrickRuffini

GOP House candidates will be forced to take hard anti-Akin line. He can’t survive as the candidate under those conditions.

There’s lots more GOP moaning and groaning over Akin in Ruffini’s tweets, but I’ll leave you with this thought:

Tim Tagaris ‏@ttagaris

RT @PatrickRuffini: Akin has until Tuesday at 5pm to drop, so there is a fair amount of urgency here.

Will Akin bite the bullet?

You know you’re in bad shape when Dana Loesch comes to your defense

20 Monday Aug 2012

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

abortion, Dana Loesch, legitimate rape, missouri, rape, Todd Akin

I guess it was only a matter of time until St. Louis’ shrillest contribution to the world of punditry, Dana Loesch, would chime in on Rep. Todd Akin’s claims about the biological impossibility of rape victims becoming pregnant (h/t The Turner Report):

Seems to me like Akin was trying to fit medical explanation into a soundbite. Not the best statement, but some are stretching it majorly.

As Randy Turner notes, it wasn’t a soundbite, but an interview with a sympathetic interviewer. Nor, my poor benighted Ms. Loesch, is there a credible “medical explanation” behind Akin’s absurd claims. Evidently, Todd isn’t the only one to fall for junk science claims that happen to be ideologically convenient.

Loesch’s outrage about the treatment Akin is receiving is, however,  understandable when you realize that she thinks the belief that a rape victim should be forced to carry her rapist’s child to term on a par with attempting to discourage the use of infant formula. As Turner notes, among other of her inane efforts to shift attention to the horrors of left-wing policy, Loesch tweeted in response to criticism of Akin (whose facebook page has, incidentally, been deluged with angry comments):

Michael Bloomberg wants to treat moms who use formula as criminals in NYC. What was that about “creepy old men.”

Of course, Loesch is also guilty of hyperbole here since Bloomberg’s proposed regulation of infant formula would not prohibit its use by women unable to breast feed or just determined to bottle feed. While women may be inconvenienced, nobody would be “criminalized.” Is it asking too much that these folks try to be accurate when they’re attempting to trivialize the major faux pas of their dimmer colleagues?

Todd Akin: “legitimate” rape victims don’t get pregnant

19 Sunday Aug 2012

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

abortion, legitimate rape, missouri, rape, Todd Akin

Every politician slips once and awhile. Many tend to be more regularly gaffe prone, and lots of current Tea Party types have some pretty questionable opinions. But, so far as I know, only Rep. Todd Akin (R-2), Claire McCaskill’s senatorial election opponent, manages to say something foolish and offensive on just about every day of his campaign.  His latest: women who are victims of “legitimate” rape, rarely get pregnant:

Talking Points Memo (TPM) summarized the offending comments:

First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare,” Akin told KTVI-TV in an interview posted Sunday. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

Akin said that even in the worst-case scenario – when the supposed natural protections against unwanted pregnancy fail – abortion should still not be a legal option for the rape victim.

“Let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work, or something,” Akin said. “I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child.”

And then TPM noted that, contrary to Akin’s junk science beliefs:

A 1996 study by the American Journal of Obstetricians and Gynecologists found “rape-related pregnancy occurs with significant frequency” and is “a cause of many unwanted pregnancies. The study found an estimated “32,101 pregnancies result from rape each year.”

Almost as striking as Akin’s emphasis on “legitimate” rape, and his credulity when it comes to biology, is his belief that abortion in cases of rape has something to do with punishment. His failure to even entertain the idea that forcing a woman to carry her rapist’s child to term might be damaging to her welfare only underlines how insignificant the welfare of women and, in cases of rape, the unwanted child, is to anti-abortion fanatics.

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