Unbelievable GOP reactions to Akin's rape comments

By Jo Piazza / @current.com / @jopiazza

To their credit, and putting their political motivations aside, many conservatives have decried Rep. Todd Akin's remarks that women's bodies can prevent pregnancy in cases of "legitimate rape."

Of course some members of the GOP establishment have tried to justify Akin's much-maligned commentary by digging themselves deeper into an unsound ideological hole. 

Here are some of the more outlandish responses from members of the GOP in the past 24 hours.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) has never heard of someone getting pregnant from rape or incest

The super conservative member of the House is one of the few party members not only to stand by Akin, but to take his logic even further down the primrose pathology. 

King told a local reporter that he had never heard of a child getting pregnant from statutory rape or incest. 

"Well, I just haven't heard of that being a circumstance that's been brought to me in any personal way," King told KMEG-TV. "I'd be open to discussion about that subject matter."

King went further in his defense of Akin by saying that the attacks on his fellow congressman have been simply "petty, personal attacks substituting for strong policy."

The congressman bit back later in the day on Tuesday, claiming that his quotes were taken out of context and that he meant he didn't know anyone personally who had become pregnant from rape or incest. 

Read the full transcript (h/t TPM) to decide for yourself:

REPORTER: You support the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act that would provide federal funding for abortions to a person that has been forcefully raped. But what if someone isn't forcibly raped and, for example, a 12-year-old who gets pregnant? Should she have to bring this baby to term?

KING: Well, I just haven't heard of that being a circumstance that’s been brought to me in any personal way and I'd be open to hearing discussion about that subject matter. Generally speaking it’s this: that there [are] millions of abortions in this country every year. Millions of them are paid for at least in part by taxpayers. I think it’s immoral for us to compel conscientious objecting taxpayers to fund abortion through the federal government or any other government for that matter. So that’s my stand. And if there are exceptions there, then bring me those exceptions, let’s talk about it. In the meantime, it’s wrong for us to compel pro-life people to pay taxes to fund abortion.

Mike Huckabee thinks a lot of "extraordinary" people have been the result of rapes

The former Republican presidential candidate and governor of Arkansas took to his syndicated radio show on Monday to defend Akin's comments, arguing that although rape is a horrible thing, some good people have been born of the cursed attacks.

"Ethel Waters, for example, was the result of a forcible rape," Huckabee said in reference to the American gospel singer. Huckabee added: "I used to work for James Robison back in the 1970s, he leads a large Christian organization. He, himself, was the result of a forcible rape. And so I know it happens, and yet even from those horrible, horrible tragedies of rape, which are inexcusable and indefensible, life has come and sometimes, you know, those people are able to do extraordinary things."

More from "Viewpoint" host Eliot Spitzer:
Akin’s ‘legitimate rape’ comment another example of GOP ‘know-nothingism'

Missouri GOP official Sharon Barnes thinks children born from rape are a blessing

Sharon Barnes, a GOP district committeewoman from the Fourth Senate District in Missouri, told The New York Times that abortion is never acceptable.

"At that point, if God has chosen to bless this person with a life, you don’t kill it," Barnes said. She added that she thinks that is closer to what Akin was trying to say. “That’s more what I believe he was trying to state. He just phrased it badly.”