Romney's denouncing Akin while Ryan has aligned with his anti-abortion positions in the past. | AP Photos Mitt's run from Akin at odds with Ryan

Mitt Romney is racing to escape the taint of Todd Akin's comments on rape and abortion, which aired on local television in St. Louis on Sunday night.

One problem: His running mate, and his party’s platform, have aligned with Akin’s anti-abortion positions in the past.


"If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down," the Missouri GOP Senate nominee said in explaining why he believes that it is rare for pregnancy to result from rape and that abortion should be banned even in cases in which the woman was raped. Akin quickly backtracked, saying he misspoke.

Romney and his vice presidential pick, Paul Ryan, sought a little bit of distance immediately.

"Gov. Romney and Congressman Ryan disagree with Mr. Akin’s statement, and a Romney-Ryan administration would not oppose abortion in instances of rape,” his campaign said in a statement Sunday.

By Monday, Romney was in full sprint.

"Congressman’s Akin comments on rape are insulting, inexcusable and, frankly, wrong,” Romney told The National Review's Robert Costa. “Like millions of other Americans, we found them to be offensive.”

The fear among Republicans is that Akin's remarks not only could cost them the Missouri Senate race — and the battle for the Senate — but that it could also hurt Romney and down-ballot Republicans in other states. If nothing else, the episode is an unwanted distraction on a touchy social issue at a time when the party should be uniting for the an economics-focused stretch-run argument against President Barack Obama.

The Romney campaign statement on Sunday keeps with the presumptive nominee’s current position on abortion, which is in support of a ban with exemptions. But it is in clear contrast to Ryan's past embrace of a view that no pregnancy should be terminated after fertilization.

Like Akin, Ryan is a co-sponsor of the “Sanctity of Human Life Act,” a so-called personhood measure that defines life as beginning at “fertilization, cloning or its functional equivalent” and empowers the federal and state governments to pass laws to protect life from that point on. The bill makes no exception for rape.

Ryan has voted in favor of a restriction on federal funding for abortions — known as the Hyde Amendment — that includes exceptions when a pregnancy results from rape or incest, or endangers the life of the mother. The amendment, which has changed over the years, has maintained broad enough support in part because hard-line abortion foes have been willing to accept the exemptions to ensure that the basic ban stays in place.

Ryan also was a co-sponsor of legislation banning taxpayer funding for abortions that included exemptions for “forcible rape,” incest and the endangerment of the mother’s life. Before the House passed that bill, known as the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, the word “forcible” was removed because it offended some Republicans.

Akin's words reverberated around Twitter on Sunday night and the morning talk shows on Monday, accelerated by gleeful Democrats trying to tie Romney-Ryan and the whole GOP to a fringe position that rarely surfaces in public policy discourse: that women’s bodies have a mechanism that overrides pregnancy when they are raped.

Akin managed to divert attention from Obama's record on the economy to an old social-policy fight that still divides Republicans. And he did it the week before the Republican National Convention, where his remarks are sure to be hot topic for delegates and the reporters interviewing them on the convention floor.

Democrats had already begun attacking Ryan's record on reproductive issues as part of a larger campaign to portray Republicans as hostile to women.

The stance taken by Romney and Ryan — that they wouldn’t seek to stop a rape victim from having an abortion — may also be at odds with a long-standing plan of the Republican Party platform. The platform is due for renewal next week.

The GOP platform in recent years has called for legislation that would "make clear that the 14th Amendment's protections apply to unborn children." That Civil War-era amendment to the Constitution prohibits states from depriving "any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law" as well as denying "any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." An additional line in the platform calls for the adoption of a human life amendment, some versions of which include language regarding rape, incest and the life of the mother.

But the platform has been silent on exceptions, suggesting that the Romney-Ryan position is at odds with the party doctrine. To other readers, the platform leaves room for exceptions by not discussing them.

In his remarks Monday, Romney appeared to be responding more to Akin's scientific assessment of the female body's response to rape than his policy preference.

"What he said is entirely without merit and he should correct it,” Romney told Costa.

While Akin's view is hardly mainstream, even within the Republican Party, this is not the first time a politician has raised the notion that pregnancies don't result from rape.

In a failed 1998 Senate campaign, Fay Boozman, the now-deceased brother of Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), said he believed pregnancies from rape were rare but denied a local news report that he had attributed the phenomenon to "God's little protective shield."

In a statement released after the interview aired, Akin reiterated his opposition to abortion but backed away from the idea of "legitimate rape."

"In reviewing my off-the-cuff remarks, it’s clear that I misspoke in this interview and it does not reflect the deep empathy I hold for the thousands of women who are raped and abused every year."

Democrats are trying to stop Akin in his tracks.

“Republicans are already desperately trying to condemn Akin. Meanwhile, we will continue to point out that this is not some isolated incident. Akin has a long and deep record of offensive views and votes that are way out of the mainstream,” DSCC spokesman Matt Canter said. “We will also emphasize that Todd Akin has not refuted any of his idiotic and dangerous comments. Did a doctor tell him that or not?”

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 11:41 a.m. on August 20, 2012.