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Surviving sexual assault: Your testimonies
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Todd Akin Claims Real Rape Doesn't Lead to Pregnancy
U.S. Rep. Todd Akin said Sunday that he misspoke when he claimed "legitimate rape" rarely resulted in pregnancy.
Answering a question about whether or not he thought abortion should be legal in the case of rape, Akin explained his opposition by citing unnamed bodily responses he said prevented pregnancy.
"First of all, from what I understand from doctors, that's really rare," Akin said of rape-induced pregnancy in an interview with KTVI. A clip of the interview was posted online by the liberal super PAC American Bridge.
"If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down," Akin continued. He did not provide an explanation for what constituted "legitimate rape."
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- dsashin, CNN iReport producer
Todd Akin claims that legitimate rape does not lead to pregnancy because the women's body has the special power to "shut all that down." This level of ignorance from anyone but particularly a government official in 2012 is unacceptable. It continues attempts to devalue the experiences of sexual assault survivors and it promotes the blaming of victims. This is one of many examples of attempts to redefine rape.
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