There’s “Dumb”. And then there’s “Dumber”. And then there is “That Comment Republican Congressman Todd Akin Made About Women’s Bodies Having A Built In Resistance To Becoming Pregnant When Raped”.

William Todd Akin, the current U.S. Representative for Missouri’s 2nd congressional district, is challenging

William Todd Akin is the U.S. Representative for Missouri’s 2nd congressional district, serving since 2001. He is a running against Democrat Claire McCaskill to claim a seat in the Senate in the fall election. While on the campaign trail, Akin appeared on the Fox 2 television program “The Jaco Report” where the interviewer asked him about allowing abortion in circumstances where the women is raped and becomes pregnant. Akin said that, “The female body has ways to try and shut that whole thing down”–thus explaining his belief that an exception to any abortion for women who had been raped was therefore unnecessary.

Akin later said that he misspoke and indicated that his comments have been misconstrued.

Or maybe Akin was confusing the human female reproductive system with that bees, rats, and a melange of other animals. Hens, after copulating with numerous partners, are able to selectively eject the sperm of unsuitable males. In some species the males can build a mating plug in the females’ genital tract to keep sperm from being ejected; but, females can eject the plug. So yes, it’s true that the female body has developed ingenious ways to prevent pregnancy, but the human female body has yet to develop the abilities of other, lower animals.

When a woman gets pregnant by her rapist, abortion may be the only way that she can prevent giving birth to an unwanted child. Other animals, such as bears, have ways to prevent giving birth too, such as reabsorbing the embryo if conditions are not hospital to undergoing a full-term pregnancy.

Maybe William Todd Akin would make a much better biologist than he would a Congressman.
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