Todd Akin killed his career in 2012 with one sentence, suffering a political death. As of today, Akin finally has a legitimate death. Good riddance.
He didn’t “die of cancer”. He WAS a cancer.
It was Akin who ignorantly said during his 2012 senate re-election campaign, “From what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare [. . .] If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”
Akin may have been the one to say it aloud, but we all know full well that every rightwingnut who is a pro-rape, anti-woman, politician since then who has tried to outlaw abortion (e.g. Greg Abbatoir) believe the exact same thing: “If she’s pregnant, she wasn’t raped. If she says she was, it’s a false accusation against an innocent man.”
Proving that point, it was today that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had to school fools on the realities of pregnancy and rape, on rightwingnuts still promoting the fictions they learnt from Bill Cosby and teenage male bathroom talk. AOC is more than A-OK, she’s fantastic at exposing those frauds.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Teaches GOP Basic Female Anatomy During Abortion Hearing
“Once again we’re in a room of legislators who are attempting to legislate reproductive systems that they know nothing about,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a congressional hearing about the new law.
[. . .]
“When you are raped, you don’t always know what happened to you,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And I speak about this as a survivor. … You are in so much shock at what happened to you, sometimes it takes years to realize what actually went on.”
[. . .]
Ocasio-Cortez also pointed out that rapes are “overwhelmingly” committed by someone the victim knows, even though some legislators would lead you to believe otherwise.
“This myth, that it’s some person lurking on a street or in a parking lot waiting to sexually assault you, that myth only benefits the abusers in power that want you to think that that’s how it happens,” she said, peering around the room. “It’s your friend. It’s a boyfriend. It’s a boss. It’s a legislator.”
Akin may not have (as far as we know) raped women himself, but his words empowered those who want to legalize it, to criminalize and imprison women who have natural miscarriages, never mind having an abortion. His words made it possible. His words were Akin to legalizing rape.
Good pun!
ITA. And good riddance to those legalize and legitimize rape, by their words or deeds.
In that same election year, in which the question of whether abortion after rape should be “permitted” (!) was widespread, the republican senatorial candidate in Indiana also went from certain victory to a loss when he said that a “rape baby was a gift from god.”
A new political principle was demonstrated that election night: if you’re a rape apologist, keep it to yourself.
It’s good that Akin will always be remembered as losing his career because he legitimized and encouraged rape. It was his sole noteworthy accomplishment, and he deserves to forever be remembered as a man who legitimized it publically.
The homograph of “akin” was an easy fit, but it’s a one time thing.
However, I love saying “AOC is AOK” whenever and wherever possible. That always gets a smile among her fans.
“It’s your friend. It’s a boyfriend. It’s a boss. It’s a legislator.”
Lovely.