Rep. Steve King Joins Rape Fray, Says He’s ‘Never Heard’ Of A Woman Getting Pregnant From Statutory Rape Or Incest

Rep. Steve King has weighed in on the “legitimate rape” controversy, and it seems that he too has outed himself as a person who believes that coerced sex does not lead to pregnancy — a concept that has zero basis in science or evidence.

Rep. Steve King, of course, did not begin the debate or even make the first controversial remarks in regards to it. King, a Republican running for re-election in Iowa, simply followed on from controversial remarks made by fellow Republican Todd Akin, who asserted that women’s bodies have a magical biological process to shut down conception when they are being raped.

Remarks like those from Rep. King and Rep. Akin may seem harmless enough — individuals expressing an opinion “off the cuff,” as Akin later qualified his remarks as being. But the danger lurking behind them is as innocuous as it is harmful — beliefs such as those of King and Akin are not only insulting for women who have been raped and women who have suffered the horror of learning they’ve become pregnant as a result of their rape, comments such as theirs also chip away at the narrow and fragile gains made in rape awareness in recent decades.

What King said was the same sort of rhetoric that issued forth from Akin’s mouth and platform earlier this week, and he surmised on the subject of a very young girl or woman seeking an abortion due to getting pregnant after statutory rape or incest:

“Well I just haven’t heard of that being a circumstance that’s been brought to me in any personal way, and I’d be open to discussion about that subject matter.”

One might point out to Rep. King that rape is a subject fraught with shame and secrecy, and few women are comfortable discussing such matters with their older male congressmen, particularly if such a trauma resulted in an abortion.

King also said that it’s not fair for people to judge Akin’s record based on his dismissal of the horror of rape, and King explains:

“I think this election should be about, how did Todd Akin vote and what did he vote for and what did he stand for and in this case, I’m seeing the same thing, petty personal attacks substituting for strong policy.”

Do you think that policy regarding rape is an important issue, one that potential elected officials should be judged upon? Were Rep. King’s rape remarks offensive to you?