Willke, president of the Life Issues Institute, wrote a book with a chapter on rape from which Akin could have easily pulled his facts: "Her body is upset," Willke writes, referring to the rape victim. "Every woman is aware that stress and emotional factors can alter her menstrual cycle ... Hormone production is controlled by a part of the brain which is easily influenced by emotions. There’s no greater emotional trauma that can be experienced by a woman than an assault rape. This can radically upset her possibility of ovulation, fertilization, implantation and even nurturing of a pregnancy."

Once again: Todd Akin's position that there is no such thing as pregnancy from "legitimate" rape is not very far from the so-called "mainstream" Republican position on the matter. Here's one of the people Akin gets his garbage fake-science from, the radical anti-abortion activist Dr. John Willke, who asserts despite actual statistical evidence to the contrary that pregnancies from rape are "very rare." From HuffPo Oh, and just in case an entire chapter dismissing the likelihood of rape-caused pregnancies isn't enough, he also reiterated the same thing in an interview yesterday . Note, in that link, that the responses by actual professionals include such choice words as "absurd," "nuts" and "nonsense."

All right, so there's the mindset that thinks women don't get pregnant from rape because of emotions and magical transforming womenparts and whatnot. Is he just some backwoods crackpot, or is he a member of good standing in modern Republicanism? RH Reality Check notes a 2007 press release from the Romney campaign happily accepting Willke's endorsement:



Today, Dr. John Willke, a founder of the Pro Life Movement, endorsed Governor Mitt Romney and his campaign for our nation's highest office. Dr. Willke is a leading voice within the pro-life community and will be an important surrogate for Governor Romney's pro-life and pro-family agenda. [...] Welcoming Dr. Willke's announcement, Governor Romney said, "I am proud to have the support of a man who has meant so much to the pro-life movement in our country. He knows how important it is to have someone in Washington who will actively promote pro-life policies. Policies that include more than appointing judges who will follow the law but also opposing taxpayer funded abortion and partial birth abortion. I look forward to working with Dr. Willke and welcome him to Romney for President."

An important surrogate in deciding Romney policy? Well, perhaps Mitt Romney has already flip-flopped on that, since we're talking about way back in the before-times of 2007. Or, considering who he picked as his running mate, perhaps he hasn't. All we know is that Willke had the decency to sound authoritative when making up junk figures, while Todd Akin botched the whole thing by saying "legitimate" instead of the Ryan-endorsed phrase, "forcible."