Rep. Gingrey: Akin "partly right" about "legitimate rape"

Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA. / Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Updated: 1:30 p.m. ET

The 2012 election is over, but the debate over "legitimate rape" lives on: Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., yesterday waded into the debate that may well have cost two Republican Senate candidates their elections, according to the Marietta Daily Journal.

Speaking Thursday at the Smyrna Area Council of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce breakfast, Gingrey argued that former Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo. -- whose bid for Missouri Senate was effectively derailed after he suggested that only some rapes are "legitimate" and that the female body is capable of preventing pregnancy among those that are -- was "partly right" in his assessment.

He also defended Akin's use of the term "legitimate" rape, arguing that the alternative is when "a scared-to-death" teenage woman lies to her parents about being raped because she's afraid to tell her parents she had sex with her boyfriend.

"In Missouri, Todd Akin ... was asked by a local news source about rape and he said, 'Look, in a legitimate rape situation' -- and what he meant by legitimate rape was just look, someone can say I was raped: A scared-to-death 15-year-old that becomes impregnated by her boyfriend and then has to tell her parents, that's pretty tough and might on some occasion say, 'Hey, I was raped.' That's what he meant when he said legitimate rape versus non-legitimate rape," Gingrey said. "I don't find anything so horrible about that."

In his original remarks last August, Akin was widely rebuked by both Republicans and Democrats after he suggested that if a "legitimate rape" occurs, "the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." Akin ultimately apologized, and after his comments were roundly debunked, acknowledged that rapes can in fact cause pregnancy.

Gingrey, who formerly had his own pro-life OB-GYN practice, continues to argue that Akin was at least "partly right."

"He went on and said that in a situation of rape, of a legitimate rape, a woman's body has a way of shutting down so the pregnancy would not occur. He's partly right on that," Gingrey said. "I've delivered lots of babies, and I know about these things. It is true. We tell infertile couples all the time that are having trouble conceiving because of the woman not ovulating, 'Just relax. Drink a glass of wine. And don't be so tense and uptight because all that adrenaline can cause you not to ovulate.' So he was partially right wasn't he? But the fact that a woman may have already ovulated 12 hours before she is raped, you're not going to prevent a pregnancy there by a woman's body shutting anything down because the horse has already left the barn, so to speak. And yet the media took that and tore it apart."

Gingrey also defended Richard Mourdock, a Republican who also lost a Senate bid in Indiana after arguing during the campaign that pregnancies resulting from rape are "something that God intended to happen," despite the "horrible situation" from which they derived.

"Part of the reason the Dems still control the Senate is because of comments made in Missouri by Todd Akin and Indiana by Mourdock were considered a little bit over the top," Gingrey said. "Mourdock basically said 'Look, if there is conception in the aftermath of a rape, that's still a child, and it's a child of God, essentially.' Now, in Indiana, that cost him the election."

In a statement, Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Cecile Richards criticized Gingrey's comments as "ignorant and offensive," and "yet another reminder that some politicians would rather demean and dismiss women than focus on what they were elected to do - fix the economy and create jobs."

"Americans sent a clear message in November that they want legislators to protect women's health and ensure that women can make their own personal medical decisions," she said. "Women don't turn to politicians for advice about mammograms, prenatal care, or cancer treatments, and they don't want politicians involved in their personal health care decisions."

[Life-Liberty]

It's absolutely ridiculous the way the media jumps on one or two sentences as a sound byte opportunity to stir the public into a frenzy over what the media portrays was meant by those sentences.

I do not at all like or trust Phil Gingrey, because he is a fraud to the core, but in this case, I would have to agree with him.

The media twisted what the two candidates said to make it appear that they have no compassion for women and girls who are victims of rape.

If you publicly acknowledge that it has become fairly common for rape to be falsely claimed in order to avoid punishment from parents and/or to obtain an abortion at stages of the baby's development where certain states restrict aborting that baby to instances of rape ---- that doesn't mean you have no compassion for women & girls who are truly (is that a better word than "legitimately"?) raped.

Similarly, to point out that in most cases, unless ovulation has recently occurred, a woman's body has built-in safeguards to becoming pregnant under duress, does not mean that you are a cold-hearted creep.

This is similar to we Liberty folks pointing out that Mayor Kassim Reed or Al Sharpton are promoting Marxist-socialist ideas, and then being called racist for saying that. It's the media's fun & joy to twist things for the predicted public frenzy and agenda they want to push.

Since we're on this topic, and the article quotes Planned Parenthood talking about women's right to safe healthcare, I'd like to share with my fellow Liberty folks in Cobb that an abortionist in Cobb County on Powers Ferry Rd. is going before the Medical Board today & tomorrow for horrible allegations by former staff and patients of extremely unsafe practices and disrespect of women's privacy (Dr. Daniel McBrayer).

Planned Parenthood is under Congressional investigation for covering up for pimps who run prostitution rings using underage girls.

Gingrey - pro-life? Not so much. Defender of limited govt? Not so much.

[Astrophil]

"If you publicly acknowledge that it has become fairly common for rape to be falsely claimed" etc, then you have publicly demonstrated profound ignorance.

If you make the judgment that she claimed rape to avoid some other consequence then you have no idea of how much MORE horrible it is to make the accusation in the face of people like you who will not believe her and will try every possible thing to discredit a woman.

No, false claims-- not so much. Unreported? SO much. You don't have to believe me, of course, men... tend not to want to. Wonder why.

[Calvinius]

The media didn't "twist" anything. It's just that Akin and Mourdock said twisted things that revealed their misogyny.

[cnoel64]

Personally, I think all birth control should be available over-the-counter and get the insurance companies out of the equation all together. I don't know why people think Obamacare, which allows women to access birth control pills with no co-pay is costing the TAXPAYERS money. How's that? It's costing the insurance companies money. And women weren't asking for that, although with more women ON birth control, there will be less unwanted pregnancies. I would think that the pro-life forces would be all for that.

I do not know of any woman, who has had an abortion, who did not agonize over the decision. Whether it be financial, social status, or marital status that helped the decision, it is an agonizing decision. To force a woman to have a child she cannot financially care for, because of someone else's religious belief, is not fair. There are other reasons, also, aborting a baby that may be affected with a severe disorder that would require medical intervention and care for the rest of the life, when that woman has other children to care for, is also unfair.

What I'm saying, is the decision on whether to have a child or not, is nobody's business but that woman's. Certainly, the party of "smaller government" should see that.

[kansas1946]

Well, well, another white Republican male, telling women what is rape and what is not. Typical of a man trying to control a woman's thinking. When are folks going to understand that the Republican party has been taken over by idiots. Fiscal restraint is one thing. Trying to force a far-right wing, narrow, bigoted, agenda, is quite another.

[167irishboy]

This guy needs to be in a mental hospital. There is no such thing as legitimate rape and females can't avoid pregnancy with some magic legitimate rape birth control system.

The Republican Party is done with weirdos like this in it.

[Void-Master]

Considering how readily available contraceptive methods and techniques are, I think it reprehensible that the U. S. has as many abortions performed as it does. It suggests an indefensible degree of negligent laziness. Certainly, it's your body and you *should* have final say about it. But seriously, if you don't want to become a parent, get a vasectomy or a tubal, take the pill. There are countless, effective ways to prevent pregnancy beyond abstinence. There simply is no excuse for an unwanted pregnancy.

That said, there would always be circumstances in which an abortion might still prove the best option -- even if it's merely the lesser of a list of evils. I suspect that most of us know people who should never be parents. And it is not within my purview nor yours to tell them to not have sex. But again, there are far to many effective contraceptive options to excuse an unwanted pregnancy.

I am always hesitant to suggest a legislative solution as they so rarely work. But I have a suggestion.

People make mistakes and they need options. So all right, you find that you are pregnant and simply not ready or able to take on that responsibility. Terminate the pregnancy, but *learn* from the experience. And if you allow the situation to occur again, you get another abortion -- only as long as you consent to a tubal ligation as well.

That does not seem unreasonable to me.

[Void-Master]

This will undoubtedly cause a "rock fight," but I simply find that I must. . .

Read the Justices' opinions on the Dred Scott ruling (c.1857) -- wherein the U. S Supreme Court tried to legitimize slavery. Compare it to the wording of Roe v. Wade.

[Void-Master]

I'm curious: is anyone here opposed to abortion for reasons other than religious?

[tmittelstaed]

This is absolutely the most rediculous thing I've ever read. No wonder he stopped being an OB-GYN and became a politician, he's a failure as an OB-GYN.

Here is the facts. Sperm CANNOT live very long in a woman's body. The vagina is a hostile place for them, it's acidic in there, (it has to be or women would have all kinds of yeasts and nasty stuff) and after a few hours in there sperm start to break down. If a woman is raped before she ovulates then even if the trauma prevents ovulation it wouldn't have made any difference because the rapist's sperm would be dead anyway by the time she ovulates. It's not like the vagina is some kind of sperm hotel.

And if a woman is raped a 3-4 days after ovulation than she's not likely to get pregnant either, since the egg by then is stale.

She has to be raped at the right time for pregnancy - but if she IS, then she's likley gonna get pregnant. There's nothing her body can do to "shut it down"

The reason a lot of rapes don't result in pregnancy is because most sex doesen't result in pregnancy.

The truth is that people really don't understand just how difficult it is to get pregnant.

You have to have sex at the right time.

For many woman the right time is maybe 24-48 hours out of the entire month.

You have to have a high enough sperm level.

If you have sex every day well guess what - the man's body hasn't fully recharged the sperm levels in 24 hours.

Basically if you want to get pregnant, you have to chart the woman's cycle, use a thermometer every couple of hours during the likeliest time for ovulation, and 3 days before ovulation is likely to happen, hold off having sex. For normal fertility couples that works most of the time. For low fertility couples that maybe works 10% of the time. This is how hard it is to get pregnant.

So much of sex education is focused on scaring the kids to not having sex because it's abstinence-based, so they make it seem in High School like if the guy comes within 20 feet of the woman Bang she's preggers.

[marychgo]

Gingrey (and Akin and pro-lifers here) have grabbed hold of a teeny, tiny fact about the reproductive cycle and given it MUCH more weight than it can bear.
In effect, they're ignoring all the "lucky" rape victims who are raped during their periods or within a week or two of the end of their periods (who are likely to avoid pregnancy), as well the "unlucky" rape victims who are raped after ovulation has started (who have a pretty good chance of being impregnated by their rapist). The ONLY rape victims they're talking about are those who are raped during the tiny window each month between a few days before ovulation begins and the day ovulation starts. In that narrow window, it IS remotely conceivable that the trauma caused by the rape could be severe enough to prevent ovulation that month, which would protect the rape victim from pregnancy.
So we're basically talking about 4 or 5 days each month (roughly 15% of the time) when a "woman's body has ways of shutting that down." And it has NOTHING to do with what a woman DOES; it's simply a matter of what a woman IS (i.e., about to ovulate or not about to ovulate).
Of course, the vast majority of women don't actually KNOW when they're about to ovulate. Based on decades of experience (my own and friends'), I know of just three categories of women who DO know when they're about to ovulate: (a) women trying very hard to get pregnant, (b) Roman Catholics trying to avoid pregnancy using the ancient rhythm method, and (c) women who have exceedingly painful (like, emergency room painful) pre-menstrual and menstrual symptoms. So even if we were disposed to dress in a particularly modest fashion (to avoid being seen as a potential object for rape) in the days leading up to each month's ovulation, most of us wouldn't know when to do that.
On the other hand, we could simply dress like nuns (or wear burkhas) all the time...which may be what Gingrey and Akin and friends actually want!

[barkndog]

Wow more rapey republicans. I feel sorry for them. How many more political careers ruined by their own mouths. I wonder if they are aware half of all voters are women?

[FormerUSMCSergeant]

One can only wonder how many repubs secretely believe this TOTAL BS....
Incredible.