NASHVILLE — U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn., a physician, is rejecting controversial assertions made by a House colleague that “legitimate rape” doesn’t result in pregnancy.
“As a physician there is no medical basis that could or should have led anyone to make such insensitive statements,” said the Jasper lawmaker, who considers himself pro-life, in a brief statement to the Times Free Press today.
Last week, Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., who is running against U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, ignited a national firestorm over abortion when he told a local television station that doctors have told him that pregnancy arising from rape “is really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”
Akin has since apologized even as a number of fellow Republican senators and other Republicans continue pressuring to drop out of the Senate race.
Andy Sher is a Nashville-based staff writer covering Tennessee state government and politics for the Times Free Press. A Washington correspondent from 1999-2005 for the Times Free Press, Andy previously headed up state Capitol coverage for The Chattanooga Times, worked as a state Capitol reporter for The Nashville Banner and was a contributor to The Tennessee Journal, among other publications. Andy worked for 17 years at The Chattanooga Times covering police, health care, county government, ...
