The Mathematics of 'Legitimate Rape' and Pregnancy

Hugh Pickens writes "James Hamblin, MD writes in the Atlantic that it's unclear how common the misconception that women rarely become pregnant after rape may be, but remarks by Missouri Senatorial nominee Todd Akin that 'if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try and shut that whole thing down' (video) may provide some benefit as a learning opportunity. 'From a holistic perspective, one might hypothesize that a woman's body could respond to the extreme stress and trauma of enduring rape in such a way that she would be physiologically more likely to miscarry (or not to conceive at all),' writes Hamblin. After all there is a multi-million dollar alternative reproductive health market aimed at optimizing an environment for conception so there could be something to a theory that the other, much darker end of that spectrum functions analogously. But that hypothesis doesn't hold, to any relevant degree. A widely-cited 1996 study from the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology sampled over 4,000 women and found that the rape-related pregnancy rate was 5.0 percent and studies from other countries have reported the percentage to be even greater."

Comments

Re:I got accused of rape once

[Anonymous Coward]

Had consensual sex with an ex girlfriend and she stayed in bed with me for about 5 hours. The next day I was accused of rape. Ruined my life.

Charges were dropped after a year and she apologized 6 years later.

Women lie about rape. Most rape accusations are lies from a slutty woman who regrets her decision after the fact.

Women are like so many other things: you just can't skimp on quality and then complain when you get burned.

I hope you have learned to stop feeling attracted to sluts. Yes the easy gratification can seem appealing when you're weak, but I'm telling you, it's not worth it. You'd know that if you have ever known a quality lady who respects herself. A lady who respects herself would never have done this to you. No, you went for the troubled one who looked so vulnerable and accessible. As I have heard it said: beware the wounded dove - she'll wound you.

That's true even when they don't exploit our female-centric legal system (the one assuming all men are evil, nasty, brutish, predatory abusers unless proven otherwise, and it sure is hard to prove a negative, to prove you didn't do something, course they know that...). Women are magical beings. They are highly skilled in the art of mindfuck. They don't actually need the legal system to fuck up your entire world, if you get a rotten woman that is. The one you describe, she was just lazy.

Guys, stop thinking with your dicks and dating these sluts and whores who don't give a fuck about you. They're using you, usually for attention, sometimes to fuck you over real good like the guy above describes. Just like you're using them to get your rocks off. Stop this shit. For everyone's sake. No it doesn't make you a man to think with the wrong head. It makes you an impulsive undisciplined boy who can't say no to the slightest temptation. If you actually ARE a pig, don't expect any real lady to ever respect you.

Put this Fking thing to rest!

[na1led]

If it had been anyone else who made this remark, even Obama, no one would care! The media is on the attack and will use any lame stupid excuse to attack someone they don't like. I'm sick of hearing it, I don't care, it doesn't concern me, just shut up already!

Re:It's okay

[CAIMLAS]

I don't know what you're talking about, but I'd wager a guess there are more men in prison for rapes they did not commit than there are actual rapes which are "under-prosecuted".

Look up the statistics for yourself, as I did recently. Study after study shows that from 10-50%, which a shocking number at the higher end, of rape claims are intentionally fraudulent. That's not even counting "Assange rape" type accusations, but where the "victim" knowingly lied to fuck someone over. I've known people who have been accused of rape where I know they did nothing due to available timeframe and their claims - and they were later exonerated - while out on dates because the woman felt 'uncomfortable' or 'led' by the male. It happens all the fucking time; whether it's a symptom of a high rape rate and the women being predisposed to feeling sexually threatened by anyone male or they're socially conditioned to think all advances from men are rape, I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if both are a factor.

Do you really think that male contempt for women is so high in the West that they'd dismiss rape claims out of hand? I'm sorry, but in almost every scenario I'm aware of, the instant male response to rape of an acquaintance is "let's get the torches and pitchforks". I am fairly certain predispositional response is fairly socially broad within the US, and it's universal amongst the police officers I know.

The big issue with rape reporting is that not enough is done. Victims don't report the legitimate rapes; that's how it works, psychologically, as I understand it. Fix that problem and the dismissal of rape reports 'out of hand' is likely to diminish due to the fact that the proportion of reported rapes isn't so heavily skewed in favor of false reports.