John Danforth – who spent 18 years as a US senator who has been a partner at St Louis-based international law firm Bryan Cave since 1995 – and Christopher Bond, a Washington-based public law partner at fellow St Louis firm Thompson Coburn, have both called on their fellow Republican, Todd Akin, to stand down from the race.

'Legitimate rape’

Mr Akin recently made campaign trail remarks effectively saying that ‘legitimate rape’ rarely resulted in women victims becoming pregnant because ‘the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down’.
The two lawyers joined two other former US Senators from the state in calling for the candidate to stand down, despite having apologised for the remarks. According to the AmLaw Daily web site, in a joint statement, they said: 'We do not believe it serves the national interest for Congressman Todd Akin to stay in this race. The issue at stake are too big, and this election is simply too important.'