Two Words That Ne'er Go Together: the Unpreparedness of Rep. Todd Akin

And the two words are "legitimate" and "rape".

The comments of Representative Todd Akin, candidate for US Senate in Missouri, are by now well known. Social media has been all over the self-immolating Congressman all day, and I certainly joined the fray:

Never ceases to amaze & disgust me how folks make a pig's breakfast of defending an unalienable right to life. #Akin #mosen #tcot #prolife
— Allan Bourdius (@allanbourdius) August 20, 2012

MT @mattklewis: Akin says nobody has personally called him & asked him to quit. // BREAKING: Akin discovered "Airplane Mode" on cell phone
— Allan Bourdius (@allanbourdius) August 20, 2012

What is so completely mind boggling to me - and why I think Mr. Akin should drop out of this Senate race post-haste - is how this six-term Congressman could have been so completely unprepared as to botch answering what every pro-life politician should be ready to answer.

How can any politician who positions themselves as pro-life be unprepared to field questions on the issue? How can it be a surprise that a predominately liberal statist media will hold pro-life politicians to the fire on the issue of abortion?

Depressingly, Mr. Akin is hardly the only one to have been completely unprepared to handle this completely predictable assault on their principles: Herman Cain got unbelievably blindsided too. As I tweeted at 12:59 PM today:

How any #prolife pol can be anything but fully prepared to answer the "in case of rape" question is simply mindboggling. #Akin #epicfail
— Allan Bourdius (@allanbourdius) August 20, 2012

Whether one believes in a rape/incest/life of mother exception(s) or not is irrelevant here. How can anybody conceive of attaching the word "legitimate" to "rape", on top of Mr. Akin's rather absurd "I have heard..." explanation of human reproductive biology?

Were I running for a national office - House, Senate, or President - I'd have just one answer committed to memory to address this issue:

I am pro-life; I believe that our Nation's founding document clearly lays out that there is an unalieable right to life. However, until such time as a Constitutional amendment that enumerates the power to the Congress to act in the area of abortion is ratified, this is an issue that is properly left to the states which the Federal Government should stay away from.

Would I support a "human life amendment"? Well, I'd have to see the text of it first. I believe that there are no children unwanted by God, but I can understand exceptions made for cases of rape, incest, and the life of the mother (physical health; exceptions for mental duress are bogus in my opinion).

What would I and my family do in the case of my wife or daughter becoming pregnant as the result of a rape? On principle I'd say we'd choose life, but realistically I'll say it would require a whole lot of prayer and consideration of all the circumstances. For now, I'll just pray we're never in that situation.

So, defenders of life, be sure you're ready to answer the inevitable questions on abortion, unequivocally, and without making the entire pro-life movement look like psychopaths.

Stephen Green did a great job of summing up the unpreparedness argument too.