'Legitimate rape': Should Todd Akin bow out of his Senate race?

The Missouri Republican's preposterous claims about rape and abortion could hurt the GOP's chances at winning the Senate — and the presidency

Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) talks with reporters while attending the Missouri State Fair on Aug. 16, just days before putting his campaign in jeopardy with absurd claims about rape.
(Image credit: AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

The Republican Party was in full damage control on Monday, with seemingly every card-carrying member of the GOP distancing themselves from controversial comments made by Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), who hopes to unseat Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill in November. Akin has been widely pilloried for claiming that it's "really rare" for victims of "legitimate rape" to get pregnant, since "the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." Akin's astonishing ignorance of the biological process of pregnancy, as well as his indifference to the plight of rape victims, has led prominent Republicans, including Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.), to urge Akin to bow out of the race. Mitt Romney has called Akin's comments "inexcusable," while Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has not-so-subtly threatened to pull funding for Akin, who he cautions to "carefully consider what is best for him, his family, [and] the Republican Party." Akin, for his part, has apologized, but insists that he won't drop out. But is it time for Akin to step aside?

Yes. If Akin stays, he'll hand Democrats the Senate: "This isn't a gaffe," says Rick Moran at PJ Tatler. "It's a nuclear bomb." By issuing the "most ignorant and damaging statement I've ever heard a politician utter," Akin has made the "formerly very beatable incumbent" McCaskill a clear favorite. "While Akin may have locked up the anti-abortion vote with his outburst, he did himself no good with the vast majority of Missourians who believe that no woman or girl should have to bear the fruit of such a traumatic crime as rape." And without picking up Missouri, it will be near impossible for Republicans to achieve their goal of winning back the Senate.

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