Akin Called Abortion Providers “Terrorists”

Lindsay Beyerstein October 2, 2012

Guess what? Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin has even more weird ideas about women’s health and the medical profession.

Amanda Marcotte delved into the C-SPAN archives to uncover more of Akin’s bizarre comments about women, sex, and reproduction. In 2008, he called abortion providers “terrorists” and accused them of performing abortions on women who aren’t even pregnant.

Akin also waxed poetic about embryos: “Now an embryo may seem like some scientific or laboratory term, but in fact the embryo contains the unique information that defines a person. All you add is food and climate control, and some time, and the embryo becomes you or me.”

So, a woman is just “climate control” for an embryo. What’s a Cesearean section, a sun roof?

The scary part is that Akin has clawed his way back to a one point lead over Claire McCaskill in the Missouri senate race.

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Lindsay Beyerstein is an award-winning investigative journalist and In These Times staff writer who writes the blog Duly Noted. Her stories have appeared in Newsweek, Salon, Slate, The Nation, Ms. Magazine, and other publications. Her photographs have been published in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times’ City Room. She also blogs at The Hillman Blog (http://www.hillmanfoundation.org/hillmanblog), a publication of the Sidney Hillman Foundation, a non-profit that honors journalism in the public interest.