Todd Akin controversy spills onto the national stage

At this point, when your party’s nominee is asking you to hand in the towel in your Senate race, it can’t be a comfortable place.

Report from the Washington Times:

Mitt Romney, who as the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee is his party’s de facto head, called on Tuesday for Rep. Todd Akin to drop out of the Missouri Senate race.

“Todd Akin’s comments were offensive and wrong and he should very seriously consider what course would be in the best interest of our country. Today, his fellow Missourians urged him to step aside, and I think he should accept their counsel and exit the Senate race,” Mr. Romney said in a statement from his campaign.

Mr. Akin this weekend questioned whether women get pregnant from “legitimate rape,” saying their bodies had ways to reject those pregnancies.

Those remarks have become a major political headache for the GOP, and most of its top leaders have called on Mr. Akin to withdraw as the party’s Senate nominee in Missouri so that the party can pick another person to run.

In a purely hypothetical sense, I have to ask, why are even the staunchest pro-life supporters unable to completely articulate reasons why they believe there should not be exceptions for rape? Even Ron Paul, an ardent pro-life politician, stumbled on this topic. I don’t think it is that hard to defend as simply that you don’t believe in ending an innocent human life, period. That is, it doesn’t matter how that life was created, we should not snuff it out in a second act of violence following the rape.

Is that so hard to say in these situations in which Akin found himself?

Not everyone will agree and reporters will press further, but do pro-life politicians not know these questions are coming? Come on! Akin is just the latest example of someone with a strong view on a particular topic yet he is unable to fully explain it in a coherent, reasonable manner. Not to mention the science doesn’t back him up.