NORTHWEST ARKANSAS — Arkansas doesn’t have a U.S. Senate race this year, but just to our north, we can observe a fascinating Senate race developing in Missouri.
That’s the one between incumbent Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, and Todd Akin, a Republican who has represented Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District since 2001.
Akin earned national and international notoriety last week when, in conversation with a St. Louis television interviewer, he said there is no need to make rape exceptions to anti-abortion laws because victims of “legitimate” rape rarely get pregnant.
“The female body has ways to try to shut thatwhole thing down,” he said.
And with those words, the Senate race was turned upside down.
Polls conducted prior to that interview showed Akin leading the race. A Rasmussenpoll conducted Wednesday, however, showed Akin trailing McCaskill 48 percent to 38 percent among 500 likely Missouri voters. A separate poll conducted last week showed similar results.
Akin, who sits on the House Science Committee, has apologized for his remarks and admitted he was “medically wrong” on the issue.
Akin is down, but not necessarily out of contention. He has defied his party’s calls for him to drop out of the race. The election is still 10 weeks away. A lot could happen between now and then.
Akin might not be in the mess he’s in now if only he had been paying attention to the race for U.S. Senate in Arkansas 14 years ago.
In 1998, Fay Boozman, a Republican who was running against Democrat Blanche Lincoln at the time, went public with his theory that the threat of rape sets off a hormonal shield which protects a woman from becoming pregnant - essentially the same thing Akin said last week.
The theory was just as wrong then as it is now.
By echoing Boozman’s remarks, Akin not only failed the test of science, he showed he’s not too good at history, either.
Abortion is a serious issue that long has played a part in politics. We don’t foresee that changing any time soon.
But for Americans to have a serious debate on this issue - or on any issue, for that matter - it’s important the myths be separated from the facts.
If any good came from Akin’s comments last week, it’s anyone else who thought the way he did has a slightly better understanding of the way a woman’s reproductive system works.
Let’s hope we don’t have to suffer listening to another politician spout that theory again.
Opinion, Pages 5 on 08/28/2012