Embattled Senate candidate Todd Akin has agreed to skip next week's Republican National Convention rather than face the members of the party that wants him out.
Akin, the GOP's pick to run against Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill in Missouri, told ABC's George Stephanopolous he is respecting his party's wishes by pulling out of the Tampa get-together.
But he made it clear he still intended to stay in the Senate race in the wake of his controversial comments that suggested that women who were "legitimately" raped do not normally get pregnant. He won a close primary on August 7.
He told Stephanopolous that he now accepted his comments were "medically wrong" and once again apologized for them, during an interview aired on Wednesday's Good Morning America.
"I understand that rape is a terrible and a tragic and a violent crime and that's why I have apologized for using that word 'legitimate,' because it doesn't belong here," he said.
But he said he would not apologize for his pro-life position in opposing abortion even for rape victims.
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