{"id":43949,"date":"2013-06-21T08:27:28","date_gmt":"2013-06-21T07:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/7-jaw-droppingly-dumb-things-republicans-think-about-science\/43949\/"},"modified":"2013-06-21T08:27:28","modified_gmt":"2013-06-21T07:27:28","slug":"7-jaw-droppingly-dumb-things-republicans-think-about-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/7-jaw-droppingly-dumb-things-republicans-think-about-science\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Jaw-Droppingly Dumb Things Republicans Think About Science"},"content":{"rendered":"

June 20, 2013<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
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It was Texas Representative Michael Burgess\u2019 turn on the GOP\u2019s Bullhorn of Crazy this week. \u201cYou watch a sonogram of a 15-week baby, and they have movements that are purposeful,\u201d Burgess said during a congressional debate<\/a>\u00a0on the House Republican\u2019s absolutely pointless bill outlawing abortions past 20 weeks. \u201cThey stroke their face. If they\u2019re a male baby, they may have their hand between their legs. I mean, they feel pleasure, why is it so hard to think that they could feel pain?\u201d <\/p>\n

Burgess\u2019 prenatal masturbation musing is only the tip of the melting iceberg of Republican science denial. Here are seven battier things they believe, from trees causing global warming to fetuses in your Pepsi. <\/p>\n

1. Abortion Leads To Cancer, Birth Defects, And Everything Else<\/strong><\/p>\n

Burgess\u2019 absurdity actually masked a very serious GOP belief. The \u201cfetus pain\u201d theory, which holds that fetuses begin to feel pain around 20 weeks, has been the primary logic<\/a>\u00a0behind a slew of recent abortion bills in state legislatures. As no reputable science<\/a>\u00a0backs the theory up, the GOP has been forced to find anything wearing a lab coat to make stuff up<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Abortions are rare after 21 weeks, and usually occur when a woman develops serious complications with her pregnancy. But some Republicans go so far as to think the health exemption is a cover for the abortion industry. \u201cThere\u2019s no such exception as life of the mother, and as far as health of the mother, same thing,\u201d Joe Walsh said in 2012<\/a>\u00a0on his way to losing his House seat. \u201cWith advances in science and technology, health of the mother has become a tool for abortions for any time under any reason.\u201d (Republicans have no problem invoking science when it suits their needs.) <\/p>\n

Burgess is hardly alone in digging up scientific-sounding nonsense to back up his abortion views. Rick Santorum was the most recent peddler of the long-discounted theory that abortions lead to breast cancer<\/a>, while out in Virginia, which has a nasty strain of abortion-based delusion, a state delegate advanced the notion that abortions lead to handicaps.<\/a>\u00a0\u201cThe number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps have increased dramatically,\u201d Bob Marshall said. \u201cWhy?\u00a0Because when you abort the firstborn of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children.\u201d <\/p>\n

2. Everything They Say About Rape<\/strong><\/p>\n

Burgess\u2019 comment was notable for not featuring the word \u201crape,\u201d the hook on which many right-wing legislators hang their crazy coats, to the point that Stephen Colbert has instituted a \u201c Days Without a Rape Reference<\/a>\u201d segment. <\/p>\n

This started with Todd Akin\u2019s famous \u201clegitimate rape\u201d\u00a0comment last fall, though the theory is still being repeated<\/a>. Akin\u2019s comment was so bad that even lawmakers who didn\u2019t entirely agree with it were caught in its net: Richard Mourdock blew a gimme election in Indiana when he tripped himself trying to get\u00a0away\u00a0from Akin\u2019s remark. <\/p>\n

Like Burgess, Akin\u2019s comment was important not because it was an aberration, but because it reflected a real belief on the right, one that\u2019s beginning to infect policy. Arguing against a rape exemption in his anti-abortion bill last week, Trent Franks stated that the incidences of pregnancy from rape are \u201c very low<\/a>.\u201d Some see daylight<\/a>\u00a0between Franks\u2019 iteration of the rape\/pregnancy connection and Akin\u2019s, but it\u2019s minor. And while Akin\u2019s view was rooted in medieval medicine<\/a>, Franks\u2019 theory traces its lineage right back to Nazi experiments<\/a>. Whether dealing with centuries-old pseudo-science or its bleak modern mutations, the GOP\u2019s rape\/pregnancy link is bad science at its most savage. <\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on: AlterNet<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

June 20, 2013 \u00a0| Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. It was Texas Representative Michael Burgess\u2019 turn on the GOP\u2019s Bullhorn of Crazy this week. \u201cYou watch a sonogram of a 15-week baby, and they have movements that are purposeful,\u201d Burgess said during a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-43949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43949\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}