It would be comforting (a little) to think that ignorance is responsible for the anti-abortion comments and political stances, as though these legislators are some sort of Neanderthal sex-ed dropouts with a primitive fear of the womb (well, they are, but that’s not the issue).

Former U.S. Representative from Georgia (R) Phil Gingrey made the following defense of Akin’s claim that a woman couldn’t get pregnant from rape:

“We tell infertile couples all the time that are having trouble conceiving because of the woman not ovulating, ‘Just relax. Drink a glass of wine. And don’t be so tense and uptight because all that adrenaline can cause you not to ovulate.’ So he was partially right wasn’t he? But the fact that a woman may have already ovulated 12 hours before she is raped, you’re not going to prevent a pregnancy there by a woman’s body shutting anything down because the horse has already left the barn, so to speak. And yet the media took that and tore it apart.”

Gingrey is a gynecologist.

(Source: https://www.ajc.com/news/gingrey-remarks-rape-draw-fire/2WjEk4KF70mIrV4R8qcAYL/ )

Ignorance isn’t the cause, it’s the enabler. Like theocrats who scoff at science, these men CHOOSE to be ignorant because their real objective is power and control. Ignorance allows them to feel no empathy with those whom they wish to dominate or destroy.

This is just the beginning of a very long war.