Todd Akin takes back apology for ‘legitimate rape’ comment
|
Version 0 of 1. Former congressman Todd Akin (R-Mo.) regrets apologizing for his 2012 remark that "legitimate rape" rarely causes pregnancy. Akin explains himself in a soon-to-be-released book, “Firing Back: Taking on the Party Bosses and Media Elite to Protect Our Faith and Freedom." Politico obtained a copy early and reported on a passage in which Akin suggests that he shouldn't have apologized in a TV ad. “By asking the public at large for forgiveness,” Akin writes, "I was validating the willful misinterpretation of what I had said.” Akin ran for the U.S. Senate in 2012. He stoked widespread controversy that derailed his campaign when he remarked in a local interview: “First of all, from what I understand from doctors, [pregnancy from rape] is really rare.” He added that “if it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” He later apologized in a television commercial, saying, "I used the wrong words in the wrong way, and for that I apologize." Akin went on to lose to Sen. Claire McCaskill (D). The book will be released next week. |