Embattled Rep. Todd Akin reaffirmed his intention to stay in the Missouri Senate race Friday evening after a week of fellow Republicans calling on him to step aside and be replaced because of his damaging comments about rape.

"I may not be the favorite candidate of some people within the Republican establishment," Akin said in a press conference in Chesterfield, a suburb of St. Louis. "But the voters made the decision, and this is an election not a selection."

Akin's campaign has raised $150,000 in thousands of small donations since he came under fire for suggesting that women rarely become pregnant from rape and thus don't need access to abortions. "From what I understand from doctors, that's really rare," Akin said Sunday. "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."

Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, every living current or former GOP senator from Missouri, and several other prominent Republicans have asked Akin to step down and let the party appoint a replacement to run against Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill in November. Akin has received several threats against his life, which the FBI is currently investigating.