You would think that Republicans would just stop talking about rape. You really would. But they don't, and they don't because so much of their party agenda continues to revolve around ladyparts and what should or should not be done with those ladyparts, and so we get people like Rep. Trent Franks dismissing rape and incest exceptions for the latest Republican bill to further restrict abortions
because:
"The incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low."
This caused some stir, as Republicans dismissing rape usually does, with lots of mean people suggesting the Republican Party is no closer than ever to getting their post-Todd-Akin act together. Reasonable people want you to at least remember, though, that Franks is no wommens-are-majick Todd Akin.
He means something entirely different:
But Franks didn't say the "rate" of pregnancy from rape is low. He said the "incidence" is low. He didn't say it's hard to get pregnant when you're raped. He said rape-induced pregnancy doesn't happen very often.
That's absolutely right, and some of you people owe Trent Franks a very Franks apology. He's not saying that women don't get pregnant from rape—he's just saying he doesn't give a shit if they do, because in the grand scheme of things we're only talking about a few tens of thousands of women each year. Frank's argument is that that's just not enough rape pregnancies to bother with making an legal exception for them in his anti-abortion law. It doesn't even need to be considered.
The same could be said, of course, for life-of-the-mother exceptions, and we've had recent reminders that even otherwise first-world nations like Ireland are content enough to let a woman or two die in their hospital beds so that the religious folks feel better about themselves and don't have to think too hard about the details. That's what the hardliners advocate in this country too, but they're usually quieter about it. Rape, though, rape they have all sorts of opinions on.
In the end this bill would have to make it past the Senate. It's not going to, so this is yet another in a long line of show bills being paraded through the House in an effort to make the base feel good while doing nothing of actual substance on unemployment, or infrastructure, or any other actual work. It's just another meaningless chance for Trent Franks to self-importantly announce to the world that he really, really doesn't give a shit about pregnancies from rape and incest, something that you would think you would keep to yourself about but which the Republican Party seems determined to broadcast to the world.