#eguren

Lawmakers who oppose women's health tend to make some of the same tired arguments, no matter where they're from.

For example: remember this guy?

That’s former U.S. Congressman Todd Akin stating, back in 2012, that women can’t get pregnant from rape, because “if it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” With this statement, he became part of a long list of politicians that just don’t quite understand sexual assault, women, or their health.

This week, Peruvian politician and president of the Peruvian Congressional Human Rights and Justice Committee Juan Carlos Eguren is the latest to join this unprestigious club of politicians. Speaking in Peru’s Congress against decriminalizing abortion, he claimed:

Translation: “It is almost impossible that a pregnancy results after a rape, from the streets, because a state of stress happens where there is no lubrication in a woman.”

As if that weren’t enough, another Peruvian politician, Raúl Castro, has come out in support of Eguren, stating that what he said has “scientific proof.”

Members of the #DejalaDecidir campaign, or “let her decide” in Spanish, condemned the comments. “Even if only one woman, among many who are abused, ended up pregnant, that victim alone has the right to decide if or not they will continue their pregnancy, resulting from a rape,” said Romy García Orbegoso, a representative of the group.

Peruvian Minister for Women and Vulnerable Populations, Marcela Huaita, responded to Eguren’s comment, saying "I believe all women feel affected when such a painful subject is talked about with so little feeling and with a prevailing ignorance of reality.”