Akin reiterates plan to go on with Mo. Senate bid despite rape comment

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Rep. Todd Akin says his fellow Republicans have overreacted to his comments that women's bodies can prevent pregnancies in case of "legitimate rape."

Akin told former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee on Huckabee's radio show Tuesday that he hasn't done anything morally or ethically wrong, but got a "word in the wrong place."

He says his party's growing pleas for him to abandon his bid against incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill seem like "a little bit of an overreaction."

Akin's trying to salvage his once-promising bid against McCaskill in a race long targeted by the GOP as crucial to regaining Senate control.

But the six-term legislator from suburban St. Louis has faced growing calls to leave the race and the apparent loss of millions of dollars in campaign advertising money.