Romney slams US lawmaker's rape comments

US presidential challenger Mitt Romney scrambled to distance his campaign Monday from a fellow Republican's shock claim that women rarely become pregnant in cases of "legitimate rape." Romney was joined by several more high-ranking Republicans in condemning Congressman's Todd Akin's comments, which hurt the party's plan to woo women and independent voters away from President Barack Obama, a Democrat. Akin, a representative from Missouri and his party's nominee for the Senate, triggered outrage on Sunday when he asserted in a television interview that a woman's body can spontaneously block an unwanted pregnancy. This claim, which is unsupported by science, has been used in the past by some US Christian conservatives to justify their opposition to all abortions, even those sought by women who have been raped. But the remark embarrassed Romney, who faces Obama in November's election and has been trying to broaden his party's appeal. "Congressman's Akin comments on rape are insulting, inexcusable, and, frankly, wrong," Romney told the conservative website National Review Online. "Like millions of other Americans, we found them to be offensive." In his comments, Akin had appeared to suggest that some women falsely allege rape in order to justify abortions, saying: "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." Romney dismissed this, saying: "I have an entirely different view. What he said is entirely without merit and he should correct it." Several Republicans urged Akin to pull out of the Senate race, including Scott Brown, a US senator from Romney's home state of Massachusetts. "As a husband and father of two young women, I found Todd Akin's comments about women and rape outrageous, inappropriate and wrong," Brown said. "There is no place in our public discourse for this type of offensive thinking. "Not only should he apologize, but I believe Representative Akin's statement was so far out of bounds that he should resign the nomination for US Senate in Missouri." Akin's remarks also have been seized upon by leading Democrats, including Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill, whom the congressman is trying unseat. "For most Missourians I hope this is one of those gut check moments when they realize this is not somebody we want speaking for us and for our values on the floor of the United States Senate," she told MSNBC news. Despite his angry condemnation of Akin's outburst -- and his pro-choice position during his time as Massachusetts governor notwithstanding -- Romney is campaigning for the White House on an anti-abortion ticket. His campaign calls on the US Supreme Court, whose members are appointed by the president, to overturn the 1973 "Roe versus Wade" ruling that women seeking abortions have a right to privacy. The effect of overturning the ruling would allow individual US states to determine their own abortion laws, and many of them would be expected to ban or to restrict the practice.