Todd Akin's other belief on abortion

It's arguably even more controversial

Published August 20, 2012 4:17PM (EDT)

Missouri Rep. Todd Akin endangered his Senate campaign this weekend after expressing doubt that "legitimate rape" leads to pregnancy. Earlier this month, in comments that received less attention, Akin told a talk radio host his position on abortion when the mother's life is in danger:

“What you want to do is optimize life. You try to save the mother’s life. You try to save the child. There's certain things like you get a tubal pregnancy where the child has absolutely no chance of surviving and then you do the best you can to save the mother's life. I think you optimize life is the way I would probably describe it.”


By Alex Halperin

Alex Halperin is news editor at Salon. You can follow him on Twitter @alexhalperin.

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Abortion Feminism Todd Akin