Akin Was Mistaken, But Right, Too

I discovered Mother in the Vale blog a while back; author Cindy doesn’t seem to post often, but when she does, it’s well worth reading. She says of her family:

You see, we are something of a freak show with my Protestant extended family… What's so freakish about us?  Well, we are real Catholics.  We are poor. We have 7 children.  We obviously do not use birth control.  I do not work outside the home.  Our family is devoted to Our Blessed Mother.  We have icons all over our house.  We pray the Rosary and make the sign of the Cross often.  We go to confession and we believe that it's possible to control one's sinful behavior. For my Southern Protestant family, we are not to be taken seriously.  We are out of touch with reality.  We are silly.  We are wicked and we need to be saved.

I like her already.

Anyway, she has a great post about Missouri congressman Todd Akin who put his foot in his mouth the other day when he mentioned victims of “legitimate rape”.  Please follow the link and read the whole thing; I'll just give you some tidbits. Cindy says:

Even though he was confused about the biology of how pregnancy works, I understood exactly what Congressman Akin was saying.  He was saying that it is very, very rare for a rape victim to fall pregnant.  And, in the case, that she did, it is morally unjust to murder the child for the crime of his father.  Mr. Akin is right, of course, and the media is using him to hammer into everyone's head the radical feminist agenda. 

That’s what I understood, too. But there’s more, and while I was fumbling around in my mind trying to articulate it, Cindy put her finger right on it, and produced a few links to go along with her point. She says:

Mr. Akin used the term "legitimate rape."  Now any reasonable person knows perfectly well what that means.  In spite of what the media is telling you or what the law defines, there ARE different kinds of rape…

There is rape by force, rape by coercion, marital rape, acquaintance rape, drug induced rape, etc.  They are all crimes, yes, but they carry with them different penalties regarding the circumstances.  Yes, all rape is horrible, but some rapes are worse than others.  

She develops this line of thought a bit, and then tells us what we all really know anyway, but are afraid to say it because it sounds so “uncaring” and “judgmental”. Cindy dares to say:

Women fake rape all the time.  In 2002, a young 17 year-old football player had a bright future.  A class-mate charged him with kidnapping and rape.  He plead non-contest at the advice of his lawyer, served 6 years in jail, and the school system paid the girl $1.5 million.  10 years later, she admitted she lied.  In the spring of this year, a woman in California claimed she had been attacked from behind and sexually assaulted.  She later came forth to tell the police that she had lied about the assault.  Two women in Fort Collins, Colorado accused three men of drugging and raping them in January of this year.  Those two women have since been arrested for lying and extortion.   There is also the story of the young teenager who was charged with raping a friend.  He pleaded guilty on the advice of his lawyer.  After the young man went to prison, his accuser recanted.  It took the Virginia Supreme Court to finally determine that he was falsely accused and improperly counseled, allowing his name to be removed from the sex offender registry. 

These are just a few cases that I could find easily with a Google search.  Who knows how many cases of fake rape women report each year?  The point is, it is not unheard of.  

…So in Mr. Akin's defense, his term "legitimate rape" makes a whole lotta sense to me. 

Me too. Akin apologized, too, in what I thought was a sincere way (see below). Obama should be so forthcoming...

I agree with Cindy’s conclusion:

I applaud Mr. Akin.  He may have missed biology class when the professor was talking about how the female reproductive system works, but at least he has back-bone.  He is right.  Rape is not as clear cut as people would like you to believe.  Some rapes are not "legitimate."  Induced abortion is always morally reprehensible.  There is never an excuse to murder an innocent child, particularly in the case where its execution is for a crime committed by its father. 

Read Cindy's post here.