The media is all a-flutter with Todd Akin's faux pas. There is much commentary, though intersperesed among some genuine nuggets of clarity. (An excellent nugget is Ramesh Ponnuru's "Why His Remarks Were So Offensive.")  The opinionated on both the right and the left have been tangling his remarks into a stew of ideas, focusing on the various individual trees that obscure the forest. Yet without continuing to flog Mr. Akin's clumsy wording and medical inaccuracy about women's bodies "shutting down" during a rape, one can nevertheless tease out of his remarks, and the reactions to them, the following legitimate questions: A. Is it inconsistent for pro-life advocates to approve an exception for rape? B. Is opposition to the rape exception inhumane and extreme, tantamount to "requiring victimized women to raise the child of their rapist"? C. Is it possible to pass pro-life legislation that does not have the rape-or-incest exception? To answer question A, many...(Read Full Post)