[Warning: NSFW]

This is your Moment of Clarity #184: Obama, Akin, Warren, legitimate rape, marriage equality, marijuana, and more. By the end of this four minutes, you will know everything you need to about what happened last night in election 2012.

Keep fighting,

-Lee

A few days after the 1993 assassination of Dr. David Gunn, a Florida abortion provider, Todd Akin's longtime anti-abortion and militia pal, Tim Dreste, stood in front of the health care clinic of abortion provider Dr. Yogrenda Shah with a sign that read: “Dr. Shah, are you feeling under the Gunn?” (See the video above.) Shortly afterwards, Akin contributed $200 to Dreste's dark horse race for state representative.

A new report has revealed that Missouri Republican Senate candidate Rep. Todd Akin was arrested at least eight times in the 1980s at anti-abortion protests, according to newly obtained records.

That is four arrests in addition to four the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported last month based on a review of its archives. The arrests were missed in previous searches because the news stories had listed Akin by his given first name, William.The four additional arrests each occurred at a reproductive health clinic in Ballwin, Missouri in St. Louis County between 1985 and 1987.

The arrests reported by the Post-Dispatch came in the same period, between March 1985 and May 1987, but occurred at other clinics. Three were in St. Louis and one in Granite City, Illinois.

On one of those occasions, police had to physically carry Akin into an elevator when he refused to leave the premises, according to an article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

"Right Wing Watch," a project of People For the American Way, a nonprofit group critical of Akin's ties to radical elements of the pro-life movement, obtained incident reports on the arrests Friday from the St. Louis Country Police Department under Missouri's sunshine law, and provided them to news media.

Akin's views opposing abortion are well-known. In August of this year, he infamously said that women who are victims of "legitimate rape" are physically able to stop themselves from becoming pregnant, a remark that was ridiculed and rejected by medical professionals, women's advocates, and politicians on both sides of the aisle. Akin teamed up with Paul Ryan in 2011 to try to narrow the definition of rape, voted in 1991 for an anti-marital-rape law, called for an end to the school-lunch program and a total ban on the morning-after pill. In 1992, Akin even fought for a narrower definition of child abuse.

Most polls are showing Missouri's incumbent Senator Claire McCaskill with a strong lead over Akin, even though she missed a week worth of campaigning due to the recent passing of her mother, Betty Anne Ward McCaskill, 84.

If you missed Josh Glasstetter's recent post detailing Akin's extremist and militia ties, be sure to read it here.

A Republican congressional candidate says abortion should not be legal, even when it involves "the rape thing," according to audio obtained by activist working on behalf of the liberal group FUSE Washington.

John Koster was questioned about his views on abortion during a fundraiser Sunday, and said he does not oppose abortion when the life of the mother is in danger, but then explains he would oppose it when it involves rape or incest:

“Incest is so rare, I mean it’s so rare. But the rape thing, you know, I know a woman who was raped and kept the child, gave it up for adoption and doesn’t regret it. In fact, she’s a big pro-life proponent. But, on the rape thing it’s like, how does putting more violence onto a woman’s body and taking the life of an innocent child that’s a consequence of this crime, how does that make it better?”

Let me get this out of the way first, no incest is not rare. Does it actually have to be "reported" on Fox News for Republicans to know it's happening?

I suppose "the rape thing" is just a trifling matter when you already don't have enough respect for women to allow them to make their own decisions about their health and bodies. But Republican politicians used to be much more subtle with their attitude towards women. First there was mandatory counseling, and waiting periods, then in 2011 Republican lawmakers went full tilt with a record number of abortion-related legislation including forced transvaginal ultrasounds. Now they seem pathological, and intent on essentially legalizing rape.

We've had to endure Todd Akin and his "legitimate rape," and come to discover his frightening militant anti-abortion background, and Richard Mourdock saying that pregnancy resulting from rape is God's will.

Rape is violence, and rape is a crime. Anyone who uses a woman's body against her will for any reason is a criminal, and that should include forcing a woman to jump through hoops to obtain an abortion, efforts to prevent a woman's access to birth control, or using an elected office to criminalize abortion.