transcript:
Charles Jaco:
“On abortion, you’ve been pro-life your entire career.”
Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.):
“Yeah.”
Charles Jaco:
“You’ve been very staunchly pro-life. Are there any circumstances in your mind in which abortion should be legal?”
Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.):
“Well, I think that sometimes people talk about life of the mother as a situation, Charles. And in my sense, one of the foundational things America is built on is a respect for life. So I would say you optimize life.
“So, for instance, a woman has a tubal pregnancy or something. Well, technically by my understanding life begins at conception, so you technically had conception. But the child doesn’t have a chance and will soon kill a mother, okay? So I would say in those kinds of situations, you try to optimize life.
“But, you know, my case in this, Charles, has been even if you sort of separate a little the whole abortion question out, one of the things I love about this country is the fact that Americans do consider life really important.
“And it’s not because of some theoretical thing – you’re on a talk show and somebody asks you about it – but you have Sept. 11 and you’ve got these guys that are running into a building that’s about to collapse. They find somebody in a wheelchair. They never checked their ID or anything like that or whether they’re important. They grab them and get them to safety, and they run back and get another one.
“Same kind of thing that we saw – Ollie North has some footage. You know, he’s been right there in the front with cameras taking footage. This is over in Iraq. And there’s a Marine – a big guy, and he’s got this guy who’s wounded over his shoulder and he’s running. The bullets are flying around. And there is a cameraman in a safe position saying, ‘Hey, that guy’ – and the guy’s fatigues are just up and you can see that this is an Iraqi citizen. This isn’t the U.S. soldier. Says, ‘Hey, that’s an Iraqi citizen. Why are you risking your life there?’ This Marine turns around and he looks straight into that guy’s camera and he said, ‘Because that’s what we do.’
“And that spirit of America, I think, is so important for us to protect that idea of the importance of all of us.”
Charles Jaco:
“Okay, so if an abortion can be considered in the case of, say, tubal pregnancy or something like that, what about in the case of rape? Should it be legal or not?”
Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.):
“Well, you know, uh, people always want to try to make that as one of those things, ‘Well, how do you – how do you slice this particularly tough sort of ethical question.’
“It seems to me, first of all, 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.
“But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something. You know, I think there should be some punishment but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child.”
.
Congressman Todd Akin statement
“As a member of Congress, I believe that working to protect the most vulnerable in our society is one of my most important responsibilities, and that includes protecting both the unborn and victims of sexual assault. 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.
“I recognize that abortion, and particularly in the case of rape, is a very emotionally charged issue. But 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.
“But I also believe that this election is about a wide-range of very important issues, starting with the economy and the type of country we will be leaving our children and grandchildren. We’ve had 42 straight months of unacceptably high unemployment, trillion dollar deficits, and Democratic leaders in Washington who are focused on growing government, instead of jobs. That is my primary focus in this campaign and while there are those who want to distract from that, knowing they cannot defend the Democrats’ failed economic record of the last four years, that will continue to be my focus in the months ahead.”
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13 Comments!
Dori Monson made an excellent point yesterday….it’s frustrating how we’ve allowed 10 second soundbytes become the definition of one’s who life’s work and philosophy……
Akin believes this to be true and is sincere. But there’s a whole life behind his conclusions as well as the rest of what he may have accomplished and to negate all of that is a bit twisted.
We all say stupid things and more than once, I’ve been wrong myself.
Even “Jane Roe”…
Apparently [I'm too
lazylate to track it down] that “woman’s body shuts down” stuff came from a study that was popularly quoted some time ago. [since debunked. see also: History]^ The Blaze has an article on where that erroneous bit of twaddle came from.
Re: disinformation
Yes. It’s a basic tactic of leftist revolutionaries, tyrants, dictators, and totalitarians.
To them, victory and power trump truth, fairness, logic, justice, or any other form of civilized thinking. There is only The Ends™ (to some, a Workers’ Paradise), that ultimate morality which makes all Means™ used to achieve it moral as a result.
(What? Oh, just go read my previous screeds on the topic.)
When will the pro-life politicians smarten up and just answer: personally, I find most abortions to be morally wrong but the Supreme Court has rule that they are legal and I will uphold the law of the land.
What Freddie said.
Akins, having served in the House, should be aware that journalists*spit* lay snares with single issue questioning, and be suitably on guard. Then, in the case of abortion, say what Freddie recommended.
Akins is not ready for prime time, however much a good man he may be. We’re in a war for our country, and America no longer sends amateurs to the front in war. See Democrat tactics.
Let’s get the Duke Lacrosse team’s opinion of the phrase “legitimate rape”. Sorry but the moment a gender uses its position as being protected by society to attack the innocent those allegations will be questioned. Shame on the Republicans for turning on one of their own. Let’s hope the TEA party performs better when they replace them on the national stage.
Just my opinion. Since he has a conservative record, I think he deserves more loyalty than he is being given. I do think he should retract his erroneous remark and pass it off as pulling a momentary Biden. Everyone makes errors, and this one didn’t cause anyone to lose his job or his life or his freedom. How is this any worse than Biden’s remark about putting black people in chains?
Akin is not very good at damage control, apparently, and that’s where the party should step up and offer help – rather than throw him under the bus. Surely, there is someone who can assess the damage and take steps to minimize it.
I to said that– what’s the big deal– it’s legal no matter what they think. I know I’m a bit off the mark but I get what he was trying to say. He screwed it up– I do that a lot– but I’m not on a T.V. show in an interview that is trying to make me look like a fool.
Mountains, molehills and media magnifying glasses with a specific agenda.
We have some real ninnys in the
rinorepublican party who are all too ready to knuckle under to the statists at the slightest hint of a pc violation.Whose approval are they really seeking when they leap to sacrifice one of their own?
That’s what I’ve hated about the Republicans they never have the balls to defend their own. Memories of how they sat back when President Bush was getting torn apart.
” Memories of how they sat back when President Bush was getting torn apart.”….
Thurmond
Gingrich
Lott
Stevens
Delay
None of them were all that angelic but they all were savaged by their own party. Republicans can hold a grudge longer than anyone against a primary opponent and can knife one of their own in the back as quick as Brutus got old Julius.
I noticed that the Gaylympian removed the one truthful post about Akin from the comment section of their hysterical narrative article today.
PeggyU — Brilliant!
PHRASE OF TEH YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!