“Legitimate” Rape: AAUW Picks Up the Ball after the Media Drops It

By now, everyone who is paying attention to the November general election has heard that U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) made an abhorrent — and medically incorrect — statement about pregnancy and “legitimate” rape. Recently, I watched the full FOX interview because I wanted to see the reporter’s reaction and follow-up questions to Akin’s claim.

What a disappointment.

The interviewer, Charles Jaco, just moved on to the next question. In later comments, Jaco explained his poor response by claiming that he was not “fully engaged” and had a “brain fart.” He also explained that his producer notified him that they were running out of time and needed to move onto questions about the economy.

This leads me to wonder, if the interviewer had been a woman, would the follow-up response have been different? I imagine that the conversation might have gone something like this: “Commercials be damned, dear producer! Excuse me, congressman, since when has rape been categorized as ‘legitimate’ versus … what? Illegitimate rape? And how is it that a six-term U.S. congressman who serves on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology doesn’t understand the basic biology of conception?”

A journalist’s objective is not only to ask pertinent questions about important issues but also to follow up on those questions when the responses she or he receives are incomplete, misleading, or just plain wrong. When journalists and media institutions fail in this objective, they fail to educate the public, they fail voters, and ultimately, they fail our democracy.

When our media falls down on the job, it’s important that we have organizations and volunteers who can pick up the slack and provide nonpartisan education about their elected representatives’ positions and voting records. This is why AAUW of Missouri is participating in It’s My Vote: I Will be Heard, AAUW’s national campaign to educate millennial women, ages 18–31, on issues such as birth control, equal pay, and student loans.

Across Missouri, we are working to register at least 800 young women by the general election registration deadline, October 10. We will help register women to vote at colleges and universities, day care and healthcare centers, festivals, and public events — wherever young women gather. Because peers are so influential, we will identify millennial women volunteers to join AAUW of Missouri members in this effort. Finally, to ensure that these women turn out to vote and understand the candidates’ positions on important issues, we will make contact with the newly registered voters 2,400 times, or three times per voter, by Election Day. Ultimately, by engaging these new voters, we will strengthen women’s voices at the ballot box and strengthen our democracy.

This post was written by It’s My Vote Missouri campaign organizer Maude Bauschard. To join Missouri’s effort, e-mail VoterEd@aauw.org. You can also “like” the It’s My Vote Missouri campaign on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.