Another GOP Genius on Rape and Women's Bodies

[Content Note: Rape culture. NB: Not only women can be raped and/or be impregnated via rape.]

Lest we have a moment of peace from Republican physiology experts publicly opining on what happens to people with uteri when they are raped, Celeste Greig, president of the conservative California Republican Assembly, gave a supercool interview to the Daily Democrat in which she attempted to rebuke as "insensitive" the infamous commentary of disgraced misogynist bozo Todd Akin, but ended up essentially repeating exactly what he'd said:

Before arriving at the state GOP's spring convention here, Celeste Greig told this newspaper that pregnancies by rape are rare "because it's an act of violence, because the body is traumatized."

Grieg is the president of the conservative California Republican Assembly, the state's oldest and largest GOP volunteer organization. Ronald Reagan once called it "the conscience of the Republican Party."

Ironically, Greig was in the midst of criticizing former Missouri U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin for saying that victims of "legitimate rape" rarely get pregnant because "the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." It was a remark that many believe led not only to his defeat in November but also helped tarnish the Republican brand around the country.

"That was an insensitive remark," Greig said. "I'm sure he regretted it. He should have come back and apologized."

Greig, however, went on to say: "Granted, the percentage of pregnancies due to rape is small because it's an act of violence, because the body is traumatized. I don't know what percentage of pregnancies are due to the violence of rape. Because of the trauma the body goes through, I don't know what percentage of pregnancy results from the act."

"Granted, I am a no-nothing dipshit, but here are some unsubstantiated claims that I can't defend but I'm sure they're true, don't worry."

Santorum. Akin. Walsh. Mourdock. Koster. Gingrey. And now Greig. What a cool club full of cool people!

Trauma does not prevent conception. As Steven Harmon notes at the Daily Democrat: "Most research on rape and pregnancy has shown roughly the same rates of pregnancy than pregnancies resulting from consensual sex. But one 2003 study showed the rate at which women get pregnant after rape to be more than double than that of a single act of consensual sex, presumably because women who are raped are less likely to use contraception. The study used data from the United States National Violence Against Women survey."

There is a lot of privilege—and a lot of different kinds of privilege—that acts in service to the profoundly ignorant belief that trauma prevents conception. If, for example, any of these Republicans had even a passing familiarity with the widespread use of rape as a weapon of war in other parts of the world, and the plentiful pregnancies that result, they would not be making such absurd claims.

[H/T to Andrea at Think Progress.]