Republicans cold shoulder Akin after abortion comments

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senior Republicans scrambled to distance themselves on Monday from Missouri U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin's comments about rape, which put an unwelcome focus on divisive social issues a week before the party holds its election-year convention.

Akin said in a television interview on Sunday that women have biological defenses to prevent pregnancy in cases of "legitimate rape," making legal abortion rights unnecessary.

The remarks caused an uproar that energized Democrats and cast doubt on what had seemed a likely victory for the Missouri congressman over Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill. Republicans need to capture just four Democratic seats on November 6 to win a majority in the Senate.

President Barack Obama called the remarks offensive during a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room on Monday. "Rape is rape," said the president, whose re-election campaign has featured his contention that Republicans are waging a "war on women."

"And the idea that we should be parsing and qualifying and slicing what types of rape we're talking about doesn't make sense to the American people -- and certainly does not make sense to me," he said.

Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney, who polls show trails Obama with women voters, denounced Akin's comments, and some of Akin's fellow Republicans called on him to resign.

The furor put the party's focus squarely on social issues, where Romney, who supported abortion rights when he was governor of Massachusetts, has had to tread carefully with religious conservatives.

Romney's campaign has tried to keep its focus on the sputtering U.S. economy, seen as Obama's greatest weakness.

Akin said he misspoke. He apologized but had no plans to resign from the Senate race.

"The good people of Missouri nominated me and I'm not a quitter. My belief is we're going to take this one forward, and by the grace of God, we're going to win this race," he told The Mike Huckabee Show, a syndicated talk show hosted by the former Arkansas governor, a favorite of religious conservatives and Akin supporter.

Akin said he was talking about "forcible rape," adding, "Rape is never legitimate." He said he had received no phone calls from the Republican National Committee or Romney's campaign asking him to step aside.

But U.S. Senator John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee said Akin's comments were "indefensible."

"I recognize that 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," Cornyn said in a statement.

Romney called Akin's comments "insulting, inexcusable, and, frankly wrong" in an interview with the National Review online.

SWITCHING POSITIONS ON ABORTION?

Romney's campaign said a Romney administration would not oppose abortion in case of rape, which would be a departure from the position of his vice presidential pick, Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan, who has proposed legislation that would outlaw abortion with no exception for rape.

Ryan co-sponsored a bill with Akin in the House of Representatives that would have changed the legal definition of rape to "forcible rape" to narrow access to federal funding for abortions. Critics said the measure could exempt victims of statutory rape.

Massachusetts Republican Senator Scott Brown, a moderate who faces his own tight re-election fight this year against a woman Democrat, Elizabeth Warren, demanded that Akin step aside.

"There is no place in our public discourse for this type of offensive thinking. Not only should he apologize, but I believe Rep. Akin's statement was so far out of bounds that he should resign the nomination for U.S. Senate in Missouri," Brown said in a statement.

Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, like Akin a favorite of conservative Tea Party groups, also called on him to resign the nomination. Johnson supported one of Akin's opponents, businessman John Brunner, during his Missouri primary battle.

And American Crossroads, a pro-Republican outside funding group linked to strategist Karl Rove, said it was pulling its advertising from the Missouri race. The group said it has already spent $5.4 million in Missouri.

McCaskill, one of the most vulnerable Senate Democrats in a state that has shifted to the right since she was elected in 2006, fired off a rebuke. Noting she dealt with rape cases when she was a prosecutor, the first-term senator said she was "stunned" by Akin's comments.

Akin, a six-term congressman from the St. Louis suburbs, won the Republican nomination to oppose McCaskill just two weeks ago after a hard-fought three-way primary race. McCaskill's campaign spent heavily to help him, viewing him as a far-right conservative who would be easier to defeat in November than a more moderate opponent.

(Addditional reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Alistair Bell and Cynthia Osterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/missouri-republican-congressman-says-misspoke-raped-women-055245355.html

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