GOP At It Again: California Assembly Leader Calls Rape Pregnancy Rare, ‘Body Is Traumatized’

Following in the footsteps of Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock, a new Republican leader made controversial rape comments this week, this time coming from Celeste Greig, who is President of the California Republican Assembly. Greig told the Daily Democrat that pregnancies from rape are “rare” since it’s an act of violence and the “body is traumatized.”

Ironically, Greig made the comments while criticizing Todd Akin’s infamous “legitimate rape” comments, which created a political firestorm by suggesting pregnancies from rape are rare because the “female body has ways of shutting that whole thing down.”

“That was an insensitive remark,” Greig said. She added, “He should have come back and apologized.”

After knocking Akin, Greig strangely decided to agree with him.

“The percentage of pregnancies due to rape is small because it’s an act of violence, because the body is traumatized,” she said. Greig continued, “because of the trauma the body goes through, I don’t know what percentage of pregnancy results from the act.”

California Democrats quickly slammed her, calling the comments an “insult” and suggesting she is basically saying if you hate rape enough you won’t get pregnant.

Greig’s comments are a continuation of a pattern of offensive and scientifically incorrect claims about rape from Republican lawmakers. It will be interesting to see whether they straighten their messaging  (and science) out in time for the 2014 midterms.

h/t: HuffPo

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!