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.