Illegitimate Rape Theories

In pushing through a bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy nationwide, the all-male Republican majority on the House Judiciary Committee pushed aside the bi-gender Democratic minority's effort to add an amendment making exceptions for rape and incest, and Republican congressman Trent Franks of Arizona was dismissive of the effort, saying that the rape exception offered by "my friends on the left side of the aisle" didn't include a requirement of a woman to report the rape within 48 hours. Besides, he said, the number of pregnancies caused by rape is very low.

Wow, what an astonishing piece of data! I never would have thought that such a thing is true . . . except that it isn't.  Franks simply made it up.  As for requiring women to report a rape within 48 hours, not too many women are able to do that because they usually know the men who raped them and live in fear of retribution. And in some cases women are so fearful of retribution that they may not report it at all. 

Oh yeah, Speaker John Boehner - who isn't guaranteed his job despite the fact that the GOP is guaranteed House control through 2022 thanks to gerrymandering - thinks the bill is "legitimate" because of the case involving the Philadelphia obstetrician who murdered babies after they were born, even though that was an extreme case that has nothing to do with the current bill.  So, he's become the second Republican lawmaker to use the word "legitimate" in referring to abortion and/or rape.  Here's another thing Boehner has said; he's sick and tired of Democrats trying to insist there's a "war on women."

You know, I once thought the Republicans had an antiquated mindset because of their opposition to spending money on bullet trains and faster Internet connections ("a series of tubes" - the late U.S. Senator Ted Stevens explaining the Internet), but they're more behind the times than I thought.  Oh, I knew there were misogynists in the Republican party, but I thought they were part of the party's reactionary fringe.  Now it can be told: "Republican reactionary fringe" is a redundancy. 

Keep calm and carry on, ladies, this bill has less than zero chance of becoming law.