Photo by Courtesy Thomas Wells

Mississippi's U.S. Rep. Alan Nunnelee is reviving the specter of former Rep. Todd Akin, a fellow Republican from Missouri.

Readers may remember Akin and the now-infamous comment he made last year when a reporter asked if abortion could be justified if pregnancy resulted from rape. "It seems to be, first of all, from what I understand from doctors, it's really rare," he said. "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down."

That comment began a furor that may well have cost Akin his bid for Sen. Claire McCaskill's seat in November.

On Jan. 22, Nunnelee's office sent out a press release announcing that the Mississippi congressman had introduced pro-life legislation in the U.S. House. His bill, H.R. 346, Stop Abortion Funding in Multi-State Exchange Plans Act, aka the SAFE Act, is identical to a bill Akin proposed last year, H.R. 4971.

On the premise that the federal government is prohibited from funding abortions, the bills propose that multi-state health-insurance plans sold on state exchanges under the Affordable Care Act, aka Obama-care, cannot cover abortions except for cases of rape or incest, or where pregnancy threatens the life of 
the mother.

H.R. 4971 died in committee.