Akin

Lots of work lately, so not much blogging, but I thought I'd better weigh in on the idiocy of the Republican candidate for Senator in Missouri, Todd Akin.   Put bluntly, his comments were nonsensical on many levels.   From a pro-Life perspective, it matters not at all that abortions ending pregnancies caused by rape comprise a relatively small percentage of the total number of abortions.   That word relatively is itself nonsensical when you are talking about something as big as abortion in America.  For instance, statistics I've seen suggest that there are roughly 16,000 such abortions after rapes a year in America.   Yes, from one perspective that's relatively "rare," as Akin says, perhaps only slighly more than 1 percent of all abortions per year; on the other hand, if you think of, oh, about 100 full passenger airlines filled with infants going down with all aboard... well, that doesn't seem so relatively small then, does it?   The immorality of abortion is what it is, regardless of whether it's 10 babies, or 10 millions.   Pope Benedict, like Pope John Paul II before him, like the Catholic Catechism from time immemorial, calls it "intrinsically evil."  

And his comment on "legitimate rape"... well, let's just say that, at best, that's extremely poorly phrased, at worst a very, very bizarre concept.

But the real problem is that we're in 2012.   Republicans have been being lambasted for their views on abortion for nearly my entire adult life.   Where has Akin been to think he can blithely wander into this thicket, saying whatever comes to mind, IN THE MIDDLE OF A SENATE RACE WHERE THE BALANCE OF POWER IN THE COUNTRY LIKELY IS AT STAKE?  WHERE THE 51ST VOTE IN THE SENATE MIGHT MEAN EITHER THE REPEAL OF OBAMACARE OR NOT?   WHERE THE 51ST VOTE IN THE SENATE MIGHT MEAN EITHER 2 OR 3 LIBERAL SUPREME COURT JUSTICES OR NOT?

Sheesh!  He's got to go.   We've got to get someone into this race who can win, and not make a fool of himself, and not drag Romney down in Missouri, a state we have to win.

Sheesh, again!   Why do we snatch defeat from the jaws of victory all the time?