Seriously? One More GOP Politician Calls Pregnancy From Rape Rare Because Of ‘Trauma’
Did you think that after the 2012 elections and the defeat of guys like Todd Aiken and Richard Mourdock that we would be done with politicians making ignorant comments about rape and pregnancy? Me too. And apparently, we were oh so wrong. Let’s listen to the latest nonsense, brought to you by the President of the California Republican Assembly, Celeste Greig.
Amazingly, the comments were made as Greig was attempting to criticize Aiken’s comments from last summer when he said that women’s bodies have a way to “shut that whole thing down,” after a “legitimate rape.” The GOP leader said that Aiken’s remark was “insensitive” and that he should have apologized for it. By the way, he attempted to apologize, it was just equally ignorant and offensive. Just for the record.
Then, Greig went on to basically agree with Aiken’s statements.
”The percentage of pregnancies due to rape is small because it’s an act of violence, because the body is traumatized,” she said. Greig continued, ”because of the trauma the body goes through, I don’t know what percentage of pregnancy results from the act.”
By the way, since Mrs. Greig didn’t feel the need to look into actual facts before making her statement, let’s remind everyone of the real percentages. We went over all this before, but we seem to need a refresher.
According to Planned Parenthood, roughly five percent of rapes result in pregnancy. A medical study from the 90s puts the average yearly total of pregnancies from rape at 32,101. I think for those thousands of women every year, their situation doesn’t feel small.
Even worse, there’s the implicit insinuation that if you did get pregnant, your rape was not “traumatizing” enough to count as rape. Rape with no pregnancy is an act of violence. But if you conceived a child during that sexual act in which you had no choice, the act is considered… what?
If you notice, even though Greig criticizes Aiken’s comment as insensitive, she doesn’t call it wrong. She goes on to reiterate it in her own way. And honestly, I think she just proves that even if conservatives stop speaking about rape and pregnancy, they’re stance won’t be changing anytime soon. This misguided and ignorant belief that pregnancy from rape never happens, and therefore shouldn’t be a concern or subject to a “rape exemption” clause in anti-abortion legislature, continues on.
I suppose we should thank the Aikens and Greigs of the world for reminding us that this offensive viewpoint persists, so that we all know what we’re fighting against. We all know why it’s so important to elect politicians who believe in a woman’s right to choose, no matter how, when, or why she got pregnant.
(Photo: shutswis/Shutterstock)