Religion and Politics

The Nazi Anatomists

At Slate, Emily Bazelon discusses how the Nazi origin of the claim that rape cannot cause pregnancy still haunts modern science and American abortion politics. Hermann Stieve, a Nazi researcher, used bodies from concentration camps to study the female reproductive system, concluding that the chance of pregnancy is significantly lowered in the instance of rape. “[A] few other Republicans have followed along, arguing that rape rarely results in pregnancy, Bazelon writes. “Whether they know it or not, Stieve’s work is the source for their discredited claim.”

Read at Slate

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