GOP Doctors Caucus-- A Roomful Of Crackpots

If you never heard of the GOP Doctors Caucus before, you probably did on Friday, thanks to the deranged ravings of it's crazy co-chairman, right-wing Georgia psychopath Phil Gingrey, an obstetrician.

Rep. Phil Gingrey, an ob-gyn and chairman of the GOP Doctors Caucus, explained to the audience at the Cobb Chamber of Commerce breakfast Thursday in Smyrna, Ga., that Akin wasn’t far off on the science when he said rape victims rarely get pregnant because their bodies have “ways of shutting that whole thing down.”

“I’ve delivered lots of babies, and I know about these things. It is true,” Gingrey said, according to the Marietta Daily Journal. “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,” Gingrey continued. “And yet the media took that and tore it apart.”

Gingrey also defended Akin’s theory that women who claim to be rape victims are often lying about it.

“‘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,” Gingrey said. “I don’t find anything so horrible about that.”

Gingrey also addressed the campaign season comments by GOP senate nominee Richard Mourdock in Indiana, who said that pregnancy from rape “is something that God intended.”

“Mourdock basically said ‘Look, if there is conception in the aftermath of a rape, that’s still a child, and it’s a child of God, essentially,” Gingrey is quoted as saying Thursday.

Gingrey noted that the comments by Akin and Mourdock were “part of the reason the Dems still control the Senate” after the 2012 elections. He defended Mourdock as well.

This particular front in the Republican War Against Women worked out really badly for them in the last cycle. Mourdock and Akin both lost their Senate bids-- and in pretty states that Obama lost badly-- and the Democrats won quite a few more seats than anyone expected. Among the Republicans who lost House seats were GOP Doctors Caucus members Nan Hayworth (R-NY) and Ann Marie Buerkle (R-NY). Some of the House Republicans' most colorful members belong to the Doctors Caucus, including drug addict John Bircher Paul Broun, the date rape doctor from Tennessee, Scott DesJarlais and Lord Boustany, the loony Louisiana thoracic surgeon with more malpractice suits pending against him than any Member of Congress in history. That isn't why he's generally considered a crackpot though. Lord Charles bought a title of English nobility online from a scam artist-- one for himself and one for Lady Boustany. You want him doing cardiothoracic vascular surgery on you?

All of the Members oppose Medicare, all voted to repeal Obamacare and none are even vaguely mainstream in their approach to public health policy (or any other policy). Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), a podiatrist who beat Mean Jean Schmidt in the Republican primary and Ted Yoho (R-FL), a veterinarian who beat Cliff Stearns in their primary battle, are the newest members. Many Republicans are mortified that Gingrey opened up this can of worms for them again and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists was only one of several medical groups which warned people to ignore Gingrey's insane rant.

The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said adrenaline wouldn't have any impact on ovulation and said rape is "never legitimate."

"Rape, defined as any genital, oral or anal penetration without consent, is never legitimate," ACOG said in a statement. "While chronic stress, for example from extreme exposure to famine or war, may decrease a woman's ability to conceive, there is no scientific evidence that adrenaline, experienced in an acute stress situation, has an impact on ovulation."

Less tone-deaf Republicans are pulling the hair out of their heads as the congressional yahoos like Gingrey just keep hurling bombs towards American women and further eroding their trust in the Republican Party. "This is actually pretty simple. If you're about to talk about rape as anything other than a brutal and horrible crime, stop," said Republican strategist Kevin Madden, who was a senior adviser in Mitt Romney's campaign.