As Someone Born After Rape, I Say Todd Akin Shouldn’t Step Aside

Opinion   |   Ryan Bomberger   |   Aug 22, 2012   |   1:10PM   |   Washington, DC

‘Tis the season to be wearing tread marks. Congressman Todd Akins has crawled out from under the bus, brushed himself off and is standing firm.

A few ill-chosen words expressing a more-common-than-acknowledged misunderstanding of a woman’s biological response to rape have caused him and those harmed by such a violent act, without pause, to be thrown under the bus.

And, quite frankly, I’m glad such a pro-family, pro-life stalwart, despite a few bumps and lots of scrapes, is not quitting under pressure from hypocritical pro-abortion radicals and spineless Republicans.

Feigned outrage has a familiar sound: indignation, rhetorical distancing and repudiation. It’s come from nearly every corner. But where was this righteous indignation when Joe Biden lied in Flint, Michigan, using rape as a fear appeal, claiming it would increase if the American Jobs Act were not passed?

What about Letterman joking about a NYC visit by Palin and her 14 year old daughter ending in the statutory rape of Willow by MLB celebrity Alex Rodriguez? Where was the condemnation of Whoopi Goldberg who, on The View, defended film director Roman Polanski’s 1977 drugging and rape of a 13 year old as not “rape rape”?

ESPN’s “Gridlock” radio show hosts went unscathed as they laughed along with convicted rapist Mike Tyson’s racist, violent and misogynistic “Wombshifter” interview where he joked about Palin being hypothetically raped by Dennis Rodman (and other black men), “pushing her guts up in the back of her head.”

Or perhaps, it’s just funny when liberal comedians joke about rape: Rainn Wilson (Dwight from NBC’s “The Office”), Sarah Silverman (who also recently joked about getting a “quickie aborsh”, a real knee-slapper), or most recently Daniel Tosh. Last month, Tosh began telling rape jokes to a not-so-thrilled crowd.

He responded to a female heckler telling her how funny it would be if “she were raped by 5 guys right now.” There’s just something so hilarious about rape that these celebrities invoked no outrage from the “War on Women” crowd.

Or perhaps, Politico, the online news source that (laughingly) claims to bring balance to political news didn’t infuriate the same anti-Akin mob by inexplicably posting Playboy’s “Top 10 Conservative Women We Hate to Love” (warning: extremely graphic and vulgar screenshot of repulsive article). They didn’t fire former CNN/Washington Post/Politico Columnist Anne Schroeder Mullins for using Politico in a repugnant attack against conservative women with the porn giant’s rape fantasy. She left a year later to start a PR firm.  There’s just so much irony in this left-leaning news outlet’s present article entitled, “Akin’s Comments ‘Positively Medieval’?”.

As one born as a result of rape, I feel those who demanded that Congressman Akin step down allow the pro-abortion narrative to remain…that those born of rape aren’t deserving of life and that it’s somehow compassionate to push a woman, so horribly violated, toward abortion.

Despite the media’s predictable liberal advocacy of abortion (in all cases), what’s missing is the intriguing real outcome of the horrific act of rape and pregnancy that may result. Why do 50% of women who’ve been so violated choose to carry to term? Why do nearly 6% place their child (yes, not the “rapists’ child”) for adoption? Why do many choose to parent?

This is something worth better understanding from those who’ve experienced this trauma.  As always, mainstream media treats people groups as monolithic without ever bothering to discover what people actually believe or do. They instinctively and gleefully paint pro-life support of children born of rape as “extreme” thereby attempting to silence any discussion.

CLICK LIKE IF YOU’RE PRO-LIFE!

 

In our fast food, instantaneous, microwaved-solution prone society, it’s a promoted “given” that abortion is the only response to rape. But statistics and real life show that it isn’t, and many victims’ testimonies explain why it’s not. Abortion is like a second rape. The woman is violated, part of her dies (emotionally, physically, spiritually), human life is unjustly harmed, and she’s abandoned by the one inflicting the pain.

I’m not here to demand “no exceptions” laws. Legislation, as vitally needed to protect all human life, doesn’t speak to the heart. I hope my personal story simply shows that there is redemption beyond the pain, anger and confusion of the immediate moment. After years of speaking to hundreds of thousands across the country, I’ve heard many heart-wrenching personal stories of rape from actual victims.  Some chose abortion, some expressed tearful regret, others chose adoption and some chose to parent. I was surprised, myself, that many felt that their child brought them healing.

This Akin controversy is less about some poorly chosen words in an expression for support for both mother and child and more about the inexcusable, yet exalted, pro-abortion position that “abortion rights” cannot be threatened. So, while liberals continually use the less than 1% (rape and incest) to justify the other 99%, some are too eager to allow the left to define while the GOP (in this case, the Grand Ole Placaters) reveals it often has no spine.

LifeNews Note: Ryan Bomberger is a LifeNews blogger and the president of the Radiance Foundation. His opinions are his own and do not necessarily represent the views of LifeNews.