The Republican Senate candidate from Missouri who recently said that women could not get pregnant from “legitimate rape” may have lost any chance of winning back female voters on Thursday when he accused his opponent of not being “ladylike.”

Speaking to reporters in Jefferson City, Rep. Todd Akin again dismissed concerned over his “legitimate rape” comments and insisted that he would defeat Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill in November because voters would punish her for not appearing “ladylike” during their latest debate.

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“I think we have a very clear path to victory, and apparently Claire McCaskill thinks we do, too, because she was very aggressive at the debate, which was quite different than it was when she ran against Jim Talent,” Akin explained, according to the Kansas City Star. “She had a confidence and was much more ladylike [in 2006], but in the debate on Friday she came out swinging, and I think that’s because she feels threatened.

In her opening remarks at the debate last Friday, McCaskill had explained that she and Akin were at “opposite ends.”

“I’m right in the middle, it’s just he’s so far out on the fringe, and that’s where the contrast comes in,” she said.