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Pressure mounts on US Senate candidate Todd Akin to withdraw after controversial rape comments

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Tuesday, August 21, 2012

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Congressman Todd Akin represents Missouri's 2nd congressional district.
Image: United States Congress.

Congressman Todd Akin is facing pressure from fellow Republicans to drop out of the United States Senate election in Missouri after he made controversial comments about abortion in cases of rape. If he withdraws by 5 p.m. central time (1100 UTC) today, the Missouri state Republican party would have 28 days until it would require a court order to replace his name on the ballot.

In an interview with the St. Louis television station KTVI-TV on Sunday, Akin said: "Well you know, people always want to try to make that as one of those things, well how do you, how do you slice this particularly tough sort of ethical question. First of all, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child."

Akin's comments soon gained national notoriety, with numerous politicians condemning his comments. Senators Scott Brown of Massachusetts and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin have both called for him to drop out of the race. Presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Akin's comments were "inexcusable". President Barack Obama said in a press conference on Monday, "...We shouldn't have a bunch of politicians, a majority of whom are men, making health care decisions on behalf of women."

The National Republican Senatorial committee has said it will no longer fund Akin's campaign, regardless if he drops out or not. Other groups who support Akin are considering stopping all campaigning in Missouri.


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This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License
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