If you are affected by issues raised in this article, you can contact the following organisations:

• Dublin Rape Crisis Centre & Rape Crisis Network Ireland: 1 800 77 88 88
• Samaritans: 1850 60 90 90

Have you ever read a quote or heard an interview and it just stayed with you? Usually that’s a good thing: a person’s words inspire you to think or rethink an issue and you have the chance to be challenged and grow, we all enjoy being challenged after all.

However, there are those times when someone says something so outrageous that you write it off as lunacy or deep ignorance and try to go about your business.

The other day I read a quote that got me so mad I couldn’t get it out of my mind at all, and every time I thought about it I found another layer, something else to be mad about, or just got even more annoyed about the whole thing. I hate it when I empower someone to upset me like that, I want to be able to walk away from it, see it for what it is and rise above. However, those of you who heard or read Missouri Representative Todd Akin’s statement when asked about a woman choosing to have an abortion after rape will know what I mean:

It seems to me, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something, I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist, and not attacking the child.

Yes you heard that, you actually did. He used the term “legitimate rape”. How dangerous is that and what does it imply? That there is such a thing as a none legitimate rape? That some rapes aren’t as legitimate as others? Holy cow! As for the pseudo science, don’t get me started!

This guy is running for Senate. He’s ahead in the polls. This is serious. He’s not just an ignorant, insulting neanderthal. He’s a man of influence and there are people out there set to vote for him.

Of course, he has since come now saying he used the wrong words but I think we can all see where he’s coming from and it’s nowhere I want to visit. Reports have emerged now saying that Mitt Romney has joined the legion of politicians trying desperately to distance themselves from this. Romney has said he should stand down from the Senate race but Akin is refusing to do so – for now at least.

The Republicans have had so much negative publicity with what is being called their “war on women” that this is just another piece added to an ever increasing pile of steaming doo-dah they can dodge no longer.

I still get so mad when I think about it, but lets call a spade a shovel here. He may have said it aloud but he is saying what many people think and that’s the real issue. When will people realise that rape is a violent act that needs to be punished in all its forms?

Obama was quick to make a statement:

Rape is rape, and the idea that we should be parsing and qualifying and slicing what types of rape we are talking about doesn’t make sense to the American people and certainly doesn’t make sense to me

I really hope there is no way back for Akin. I’m all about forgiving but what he said shows what he really believes to be true and is utterly indefensible.

When you look “akin” up in the dictionary you see words like “kindred” and “ally”. Rep Akin it seems is an ally of false and hurtful retoric and will hopefully lose any hope of a Senate seat for his trouble.