U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin, R-Mo., may have cost his party a Senate seat over the weekend. Fresh off his narrow win in the GOP primary against two serious candidates, he was asked whether abortion should be allowed in cases of rape. “If it’s a legitimate rape,” he answered, “the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

Akin’s statement, shocking for its outspoken ignorance of basic science, reminds us of previous candidates who believed wrongly that their conservatism could serve as a substitute for study, thought and reason. It was even more reprehensible for its crass insensitivity to rape victims. Conservative commentators have almost unanimously condemned it, as has presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senate Committee and a host of Republican senators, Senate candidates and even candidates for lower offices.