If there is something everyone can agree on, it would seem that the idea that rape can result in unwanted pregnancy would be right up there at the top of the list.
Not so in Missouri, where the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, Rep. Todd Akin, a tea party candidate, on Sunday advanced the theory that the female reproductive system shuts down when a woman is being raped, thus preventing conception.
"It seems to me, from what I understand from doctors, that's really rare,” Akin said, referring to conception following a rape. "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let's assume that maybe that didn't work or something, I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist, and not attacking the child."