Enough Already: You Can Get Pregnant From Rape
Attention politicians: Stop making stupid comments about rape and pregnancy. In fact, if you want to stay in office, stop talking period. A politician who clearly did not learn from his fellow GOP’ers (or learn from a school either, apparently) like former Rep. Todd Akin, spoke today at a committee meeting regarding his measure banning all abortions after 20 weeks without exception. He said that the rate of pregnancies resulting from rape is “very low”.
“The incidents of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low,” Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., said during a Judiciary committee meeting regarding his legislation expressing his opposition to a Democratic amendment allowing exceptions for rape and incest.
This is basic science, people. Basic sex education. And basic human decency to at least learn the facts, especially when you are speaking at a meeting attended by press that will publish every word you say. This story has been covered by everyone, including the Washington Post, The Atlantic, and ABC News. But rather than just share this news with you, we want to put this issue to bed once and for all.
We asked Dr. Hope Ricciotti, OBGYN at Beth Isreal Deaconess Medical Center and associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School, if pregnancy rates are any lower when the conception is from rape or consensual. “The facts are simple. Rape can result in pregnancy. I cannot comment on why anyone would say it cannot, and there are no facts or science behind such statements,” Ricciotti says. “The act of intercourse that ends in ejaculation has the same conception rate whether it is through force or it’s consensual.”
Ricciotti says that those now infamous comments made by former Rep. Todd Akin last year about the body having a way to “shut that down” is completely inaccurate. “The body has no way of ‘shutting it down’,” she says. “The conception rate is the same. It has nothing to do with whether or not it is desired.”
So there you have it. Is it so hard for these supposedly smart men to ask a doctor?
Some people are saying that he meant (meant!) that most people will get an abortion after rape well before the 20 week mark. Does it really matter? No matter what your politics are, at this point, the fact that our politicians spend our tax dollars and all of this time debating women’s reproductive rights instead of the real problems that our country is facing is laughable. We are so far behind. France has gone so far as to stop debating the issue and make all abortions free, paid for by the government. And you know how much conservatives in America love France.
The GOP should hold a mandatory sex education clinic for all members. Elementary school children know more about reproduction and the female body than our politicians.
