Controversial Medical Opinion Restated by Todd Akin Is Not a Disqualification for Senate, Doctors Say

TUCSON, Ariz., Aug 21, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) opposes censorship of medical and scientific discussion. It deplores the attempt by the media and politicians to punish a candidate for quoting a scientific opinion that some find disagreeable.

We applaud Todd Akin for standing up against bullying by the media and by entrenched incumbents of his own Republican Party, as they try to censor and force him out of the race for the U.S. Senate in Missouri. No decent person, and certainly not Todd Akin, defends the heinous crime of rape, and the substance of Akin's remarks rise nowhere near the level of disqualifying him as a future U.S. Senator.

The pregnancy rate from rape is estimated to be 1 out of 50, according to Human Sex and Sexuality, second revised and enlarged edition, by Edwin B. Steen, James H. Price, p. 190. http://books.google.com/books?id=tskaUI5KYLoC&pg=PA190&lpg=PA190&dq=%22pregnancy+rate+from+rape%22&source=bl&ots=34rz8u_QbG&sig=G905CgkRUHJhRgCxSzizTVfNHA0&sa=X&ei=mO4yULToAumh6wH5qYFg&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=%22pregnancy%20rate%20from%20rape%22&f=false

Akin's characterization of this rate as "really rare" is debatable but not unreasonable. Physiological responses by the female body to reject sperm from a rapist have been described by reputable physicians, notes Jane Orient, M.D., executive director of AAPS.

The context of Akin's remarks concerned the important issue of whether there should be abortions for babies conceived in a rape, as well as abortion in general.

The President who seeks to demonize Akin is trying to force all Americans to pay for abortion, an action that is the subject of some 23 lawsuits.

Voltaire famously stood up for the right of free speech by his opponents. But President Obama and other politicians have chosen the way of demagoguery to suppress dissent from their agenda.

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is a national organization representing physicians in all specialties, (www.aapsonline.org) which was founded in 1943 to defend the sanctity of the patient-physician relationship.

SOURCE Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS)

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