Thread by @Hegemommy

Sooooo…. did you hear the news? Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told reporters this week that there’s no reason to worry about the lack of a rape exception in Texas’ #SB8 because Texas was going to “eliminate rape.”

I have some thoughts here.

First of all, as others have pointed out, there’s no way to “eliminate rape.” Rapes go unreported. There are no pre-cogs available to enable Minority Report-style reporting for first-time rapists. It’s all bad faith nonsense.

And because it is bad-faith nonsense I totally get the impulse to dunk on Gov. Abbott here. HE. IS. SO. DUNKABLE. But because this is not my first rodeo I want to talk about a couple of red flags here for me.

First, do y’all remember “legitimate rape”? Because I do.

Back in 2012, then-Missouri Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin told reporters that women shouldn’t worry about getting pregnant from rape because if that rape is “legitimate,” the body has the way to “shut that whole thing down.”

rewirenewsgroup.com/reality-cast/2…

Akin was one of the first conservative lawmakers to say the quiet part out loud: that Republicans didn’t believe in the need for rape exceptions to abortion bans because they think patients lie about being raped to access abortion services.

Also they just think people lie about being raped for funsies, but that’s a different thread for another day.

So when Abbott made his comments about “eliminating” rape, my mind immediately went to Akin. Because at the time Akin made the comments conservative lawmakers were *actually trying to narrow the definition of rape*

Yup! It's true!

Conservatives were trying to redefine rape to only “forcible” rape in accessing abortion services

washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2…

Gov. Abbott may be a tool, but he’s also got conservative political chops. This is not his first rodeo either! So if he’s promising to “eliminate” rape … that just might not be the misspeak folks think it is.

Remember: Conservatives project ALL THEIR PLANS—even the half-baked ones! So while dunking on Abbott, let’s keep our old buddy Todd Akin in mind, because honestly who knows what evils conservative lawmakers are scheming up right now.