Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) has had trouble with facts about reproduction. He said in August that women cannot get pregnant from “legitimate rape” because “the female body has ways to shut that whole thing down.” And in 2008, Akin claimed that it is “common practice” for women “who are not actually pregnant” to get abortions.
Now, the GOP Senate candidate who’s running against Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) said Thursday at a Tea Party meeting in Jefferson City, Missouri, that there’s no science behind evolution:
AKIN: I don’t see it as even a matter of science because I don’t know that you can prove one or the other. That’s one of those things. We can talk about theology and all of those other things but I’m basically concerned about, you’ve got a choice between Claire McCaskill and myself. My job is to make the thing there. If we want to do theoretical stuff, we can do that, but I think I better stay on topic.
SoundCloud WidgetEdit descriptionw.soundcloud.comAkin is far from the first member of his party to doubt the scientific evidence behind evolution. Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA), a physician who sits on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, last week said that “evolution, embryology, Big Bang theory” are “lies straight from the pit of hell.” During the GOP presidential primary, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) similarly argued that schools should teach students the creationist theory of intelligent design.