Saturday, January 12, 2013

I Hope Rep. Phil Gingrey Isn't Your Doctor

If you thought that, along with Mitt Romney and Allen West, the GOP rape comments made during the 2012 election cycle would slip into obscurity, never to return, you were so very wrong.

Enter congressman Phil Gingrey. Truthfully, I hadn't heard of this guy until I read about his attempt to "explain" away Todd Akin's comments about rape. You remember the whole "legitimate rape, women's bodies can shut that whole thing down" thing. Congressman Gingrey went before the Smyrna Area Council of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce this week to discuss a plethora of topics, but somehow ended up at Akin and Murdock's rape comments. Here's the ironic kicker about Gingrey - he has Dr. in front of his name. Yes, someone though it was smart to give this man a medical degree and license. And worst than that, he's an obstetrician/gynecologist. No, this isn't from The Onion.

To the women of Georgia who might have this guy as their doctor, I highly suggest you seek out someone else who doesn't put politics and ideology above your safety and well being.

Ready for this? Says Dr. Gingrey:

“And in Missouri, Todd Akin … was asked by a local news source about rape and he said, ‘Look, in a legitimate rape situation’ — and what he meant by legitimate rape was just look, someone can say I was raped: a scared-to-death 15-year-old that becomes impregnated by her boyfriend and then has to tell her parents, that’s pretty tough and might on some occasion say, ‘Hey, I was raped.’ That’s what he meant when he said legitimate rape versus non-legitimate rape. I don’t find anything so horrible about that. But then he went on and said that in a situation of rape, of a legitimate rape, a woman’s body has a way of shutting down so the pregnancy would not occur. He’s partly right on that.”

Really? A young girl who claims to have been raped probably was just messing around with her boyfriend, and is now scared and pregnant? THIS MAN IS A DOCTOR! Plus, there's nothing more detrimental to curbing violence against women then to suggest we're always making it up. No wonder congress can't pass the Violence Against Women Act. And no, there is no "partly right" because Akin was fully wrong.

Gingrey goes on to say:

"And I’ve delivered lots of babies, and I know about these things. It is true. 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."

A medical doctor considers getting women tipsy on wine, medical advice. Remember ladies, this doctor's advice is to just try to ovulate before you're sexually assaulted, so you won't have any rape babies! Makes perfect sense! The fact that Gingrey is even trying to bring these comments back to the forefront is disturbing to say the least. But on the flip side of the coin, it's a great chance to once again remind American's how far behind the times the right-wing is on women's issues. We can't even get congress to pass the Violence Against Women Act, and really how can they? They have congressman running around trying to re-define sexual violence, deny rights to some (remember, Eric Cantor does NOT believe Native American women deserve protection from violence) suggesting that scared teenagers are lying about their assaults, and want to use their medical degree to try and save their side from never winning an election again. Here's some advice from me:

Dear GOP,
It's 2013. Feel free to evolve and join the rest of the sane, free thinking world at any time.

If I were a member of the The Georgia Composite Medical Board, I would be asking some serious questions regarding Dr. Gingrey and whether or not he's able to practice medicine in a safe and productive manner.

2 comments:

  1. About a year or so ago this guy had to kowtow to Limbaugh after making disparaging comments about the bucket of blubber.

    ReplyDelete