Congressman Tod Akins has been asked by the GOP party to withdraw from the State senate race after his comments that "legitimate rape" seldom leads to pregnancy. The Republicans have given him until 5.00pm Tuesday to withdraw from the race as a number of top GOP leaders have pulled out financial support for the Missouri representative.
His comments on "legitimate rape" which soon became a point of uproar and derision across the nation have made the GOP anxious about its ability to win the Senate house. Many Republican leaders have urged the 65-year-old to quit for the sake of the party. Senior Republican officials, including presumed GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney who called the comments "insulting, inexcusable, and frankly wrong," as reported by the Washington Post.
The head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Senator John Cornyn, has also suspended all political support for the congressman and trying best, to distance his party from the unpopular figure.
In a statement, Cornyn said, "I recognise this is a difficult time for him, but over the next 24 hours, congressman Akin should carefully consider what is best for him, his family, the Republican party, and the values that he cares about and has fought for throughout his career in public service," as reported by the Guardian.
Akins however remains defiant, saying he has no intentions of quitting. On Tuesday he released a "forgiveness" ad campaign, in which he says, "Rape is an evil act...I used the wrong words in the wrong way, and for that I apologize," as reported by the Washington Post.
In a Sunday interview Akins said "It seems to me, from what I understand from doctors, that is really rare...If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down," as reported on BBC News.
But naturally were the comments to cause raucous: not only were they inaccurate but came across as incredibly insensitive. Almost immediately, prominent republican leaders began ostracizing the 65-year-old from the group.
President Obama announced in an interview on Monday, "Rape is rape, and the idea that we should be parsing and qualifying and slicing what types of rape we are talking about doesn't make sense to the American people and certainly doesn't make sense to me... So what I think these comments do underscore is why we shouldn't have a bunch of politicians, a majority of whom are men, making health-care decisions on behalf of women," according to the Washington Post.
Akins' "forgiveness ad" can be seen here.
