Push for patriarchy: Missouri Republicans push legislation that would force a woman who wants an abortion to obtain written permission from the father first, unless, of course, the woman is the victim of “legitimate rape.”

Rick Brattin, a state representative from outside Kansas City, and a self-described “devout Christian,” filed the bill earlier this month for next year’s legislative session. The proposed measure reads:

“No abortion shall be performed or induced unless and until the father of the unborn child provides written, notarized consent to the abortion.”

Brattin, speaking with Mother Jones, explained (mansplained) about exceptions for women who become pregnant as the result of rape or incest:

“Just like any rape, you have to report it, and you have to prove it. So you couldn’t just go and say, ‘Oh yeah, I was raped,’ and get an abortion. It has to be a legitimate rape.”

That’s right, Brattin said “legitimate rape.”

However, Brattin tried to distance his use of the phrase “legitimate rape” from former Missouri representative Todd Akin, who claimed that women cannot become pregnant from a “legitimate rape” because the woman’s body will “shut that whole thing down.”

Brattin, trying to mansplain rape, said:

“I’m just saying if there was a legitimate rape, you’re going to make a police report, just as if you were robbed. That’s just common sense.”

Being robbed is just like being raped?

The Stupid. It burns. Being raped is not like being robbed, and to make such a claim is to fail as a human being.

Brattin, a self-described “devout Christian,” is no stranger to stupidity. In 2013 he sponsored a bill to give intelligent design (creationism) the same amount of attention in Missouri textbooks as evolution.

Previously, Brattin co-sponsored numerous anti-abortion bills, including several measures restricting medication abortions that passed the Missouri legislature in recent years.

M’Evie Mead, the director of statewide organizing for Missouri’s Planned Parenthood, said:

“This bill is insulting and a danger to women in abusive relationships. That’s very much our concern. But when it comes to abortion, Missouri legislators are always trying to outdo each other.”

The proposed legislation is obvious political grandstanding for the anti-woman, anti-choice, conservative Christian base of the Republican party. It serves as a reminder of the mean and ugly ignorance that continues to permeate our society, and the religious conservatives who would be happy to make women property of men once again. All in the name of Jesus.

(H/T Mother Jones)