I Disagree with Todd Akin

"If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."

In my post of two days ago I tried to construct a brief and clever response to Todd Akin’s gaff about rape that has created such a well-deserved firestorm. I was pretty much universally misunderstood in my effort at irony. So let me say directly what I intended to say by inference.

There are two things that are implied by this statement by Congressman Akin that are true, though they are not the truth he is focusing on.

“Legitimate rape:” The first is his use of a modifier for the word “rape.” While this choice is a thinly veiled alternative to “forcible,” its use does acknowledge that rape is a social reality that is hugely traumatic for victims and for society as a whole and we do not respond to it well. In its most basic form rape is unwanted sexual contact. This contact can be violent or subtle or come from strangers or from close acquaintances and even family members but no matter who is creating the contact, if she says “no,” it is rape.

“the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down:” The second is that one can easily understand that the trauma of rape might cause such hormonal distress that a woman could spontaneously abort. If this were to happen it would be understood as natural and in harmony with God’s will. But in fact this rarely happens. When rape results in pregnancy the chances that the pregnancy will be carried to term are the same as a pregnancy that results from a loving union. But the pregnancy, the fetus, the birth, and the child are all emotionally fused with the trauma of the rape. And that traumatic bond can not only bring great harm to the woman, it can also be a huge burden to a child who is seen as a product of a violent assault. So God has created the means by which the female body can shut that whole thing down. In a just society it is available over-the-counter.

I Agree with Todd Akin

 "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."

Congressman Akin has few friends these days and having decided to defy the Republican establishment by refusing to step down in his race against Claire McCaskill for the Missouri Senate seat he will face even more opposition. So I want to raise my voice in support of at least a portion of what he is saying that is so unpopular.
I agree with him first of all that his statement was poorly worded. And since he didn’t actually say what he meant to say, I have to interpret a bit what I think he actually intended. But two things, important things, jump out at me from this statement. One is that rape is not all of the same type. The second is that women must have a way shut down “that whole thing.”
President Obama has said that “rape is rape.” I don’t think that is true. A man coming in the window in the middle of the night is not the same as a couple of teenagers having sex when one is too young to give legal consent. I use as a basic standard that it is rape if one partner says, “no,” but sometimes the “no” is said too softly for the other to hear. I worked with many men convicted of rape in my psychotherapy practice and most of them deny that she said “no.” I have worked with a number of women who were ambivalent the night before but with the cold light of dawn found a part of them shouting, “No!” If she says, “no,” it is rape.
Still, it doesn’t seem right to punish him when she didn’t say the “no” out loud or at least loud enough for him to hear it. And I do think that justice requires (though is not limited to) punishment. So maybe her pregnancy is the punishment she gets for allowing herself to be raped. It was her choice, after all, to not say the “no” loudly enough.
The problem with that is that she is not the only one who is affected here. What about the unborn child. Why should the child have to suffer with a parent who sees him or her as a punishment? We know how critical healthy attachment to parents is to human development. What is the justice in saddling a child with a parent for whom they are a symbol of a disastrous mistake? No child should be unwanted.
This is why I agree with Congressman Akin that a just God will give “the female body” a way to “shut that whole thing down.” Under the stress of the rape the woman will naturally react though a process of introducing hormones into her system which will protect her and any potential child. This hormone is marketed under trade names Mifegyne and Mifeprex and commonly known as RU-486.

Entitlement

Entitlement is a term used to describe a circumstance in which one has earned a right because of a way in which one has fulfilled a responsibility. For example, I am entitled to drive a car because I have earned a license, purchased a car, maintained it, and have shown a record of driving it safely. If I stop doing those things I will no longer be able to drive a car.

But the term entitlement has also come to mean a circumstance in which someone demands a right even though they have not fulfilled the necessary responsibilities. This phenomenon is common in teenagers but is, from my perspective, more and more common in the general populace.

One place we see this is in those persons who are happy to complain about the quality of government services but aren’t willing to pay the taxes to support those services. Some people are quick to complain about high taxes on gasoline and to complain about the poor quality of the roads on which they drive and fail to see the connection between those two. We have mostly agreed that there are certain services the government will provide as for the common defense of the nation. We all benefit from those services so we are all required to pay for them through our taxes.

Another agreement we have (as created by law) is that all are entitled to healthcare. If my youngest son and I are riding in the car together and suffer a major accident an observer will not be able to tell that I have health insurance and he does not based on the quality of care we each receive. We have collectively chosen to be sure that we do not live in a society in which those needing care are denied it because they are unable to pay.

The provision of universal healthcare is simplified in those nations with a single payer system. But problems like those in New Zealand have so alarmed Americans that healthcare debate in the last 20 years has almost excluded the single payer option. Instead we are keeping insurance companies in the system but tweaking the system so that everyone has to pay for the services they receive.

But the sense of entitlement in the nation is so strong that we are facing the high likelihood at this point that the Supreme Court will rule that the “individual mandate” is unconstitutional. The legislature cannot require that persons pay for services that it has mandated will be available to them unless it levies the cost as a tax, not as a fee paid to an insurance company.

If we are willing to deny health care to those who refuse to pay for it then we can keep the system from going bankrupt. But we collectively show signs that we will continue to care for the flightless birds in our midst. We will only have justice by maintaining a balance between rights and responsibilities. If we want a world in which everyone gets care we will have to figure out a way to pay for it.