Wednesday, August 22, 2012

More than a gaffe

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Missouri Congressman Todd Akin made more than a gaffe recently when, in an interview discussing whether abortion should be available for women who become pregnant as the result of rape, he demonstrated why he should never hold public office again.

Abortion in this instance is not really an issue, he calmly explained, because “if it is legitimate rape … .” This is the phrase that made front page headlines. It’s a completely reprehensible juxtaposition of two words that should never bump together.

It might have been excused as a gaffe in his current campaign for the U.S. Senate. However, he continued to describe the female body as “having a way to shut this whole thing down,” meaning not to become pregnant as the result of rape.

The use of “legitimate rape” is a pretty clear indication that Akin wrongly differentiates an attack by a stranger from an attack by a date, a husband or a relative. Even more incredible is his assertion that women’s bodies have a magical capacity to prevent pregnancy in some instances but not others. Taken to a creepy and off-the-charts offensive level, what Akin implied was that if a woman becomes pregnant as the result of rape, she wanted it.

Every woman knows the horror of this view. It’s based on junk science and on the still existent belief that rape is about sex and not about power. It makes a woman not only vulnerable but somehow responsible. Every woman also knows that someone who says what Akin said cannot be trusted to represent her interests in matters of personal safety or, probably, anything else. And men know it, too.

Akin is resisting pressure to withdraw from the Senate race. That’s his choice. Voters, especially women, have a choice, too.

 

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