Rape is rape, period end of story: Paul Ryan

Todd Akin recently sparked outrage by saying it was ‘really rare’ that women who were raped became pregnant.

Washington: Presumptive US Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan became the latest politician to weigh in on the ongoing controversy surrounding lawmaker Todd Akin’s offensive definition of ‘legitimate rape’, by declaring that ‘rape is rape, period end of story’.

Ryan tried to distance himself from Akin, a Missouri Congressman, who recently sparked outrage by saying it was ‘really rare’ that women who were raped became pregnant. “If it`s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,” Akin said during a television interview. According to The Telegraph, the row has focused attention on Ryan`s views on abortion and raised questions about his decision to co-sponsor a 2011 anti-abortion bill that in early drafts talked of allowing federal funding only for pregnancies caused by "forcible rape or, if a minor, an act of incest". When asked why he had sponsored legislation that referred to "forcible rape", and whether he could define other kinds of rape, Ryan said twice that ‘rape is rape and there’s no splitting hairs over rape.’ Meanwhile, the Obama campaign had said that Ryan, a staunch Catholic, had done a "great disservice to women in America" in trying to narrow the definition of rape. “He may hope that American women never learn about this record, but they deserve an answer to why he wanted to redefine rape and remove protections for rape victims,” Lis Smith, an Obama campaign spokeswoman said. ANI