The Rape Issue

This is a topic that we have heard a lot about recently within the pro-life community. Unfortunately, our side of the story isn't making the mainstream media - or even many of the grassroots media outlets, it would seem. I am fed up with our government leaders taking a backseat on this issue. I want them to take the wheel and drive it home!

Here is a statement that I made on the Facebook page a week or two ago that I would like to elaborate on in this entry:

There has been a lot of talk today online, in the news, and on the radio about abortion in cases of rape. I feel for men and women alike who have been raped. It is a terrible experience that haunts for a lifetime. It is a complete violation of your body and your rights as a human being. 

But let me make one thing perfectly clear: Killing your child will not make your pain go away. We need to stop
  making excuses for abortion! There is no difference between a baby who was conceived during rape and one who was conceived between two loving, married parents who longed to have a child.

Remember, abortion is also complete violation of a person's body and rights as a human being.

If I seem a bit fired up - it's because I am! I don't understand how a party that claims to be "pro-life" can then turn around and say "but we support abortion in cases of rape and incest." Do you support abortion or not? I want Republicans to stand up and say "We are pro-life!" Plain and simple! No exceptions! Otherwise, they will have to admit to believing the following:

1. Babies who are conceived in rape do not have rights.
2. Some people are naturally created with more rights than others.
3. It is okay to punish children for the crimes of their parents.

Can you imagine the chaos it would create if those three points were adapted into other areas of our lives? What if I owned a company and I chose not to hire any black people or men because I felt they deserved less rights than white women? What if my father robbed a bank at gun point, but it was me, not him, who spent decades behind bars for the crime?

Now, let's skip ahead a few years. Let's say that a woman who was raped and became pregnant decided to keep her baby. She didn't give the baby up for adoption because she had always wanted to be a mother. She thought she could handle it, but a few years down the road, the baby starts to look more and more like her attacker. Now, she feels emotionally overwhelmed by the memories that haunt her. She considered asking for help or even giving her child up to another loving family, but then she remembered something: Just a few years ago, it would have been perfectly legal for her to kill this child. So why not now?

If you think that I am taking this too far, then you need to do some homework. You see, it's already happening. Take the case in Canada, for example, where a mother chose to kill her newborn baby and received no jail time because it was considered nearly the same thing as abortion, which is very much legal in Canada. It's happening in Australia, too, where professors are arguing for "after-birth abortions." Here in the United States, a prominent Princeton University professor is okay with "after-birth abortions" up to a year, as long as they are taking the life of a disabled baby, who he considers no more relevant to the world than a "non-human animal." Back in Canada, a professor is arguing there is nothing "troubling" about abortion, and that a person isn't really a person until they are a year and a half post-birth. Where do we draw the line? One year? Three? Eighteen?

It's a scary, slippery slope we're headed down. Once you start making exceptions for rape and incest, you open up the discussion - disabled? Well, okay, that might be hard on the mother. Oh, she slept with someone of a race her parents might not approve of? Okay, I guess that might not go down well. She's only thirteen? Well, we can't have that, it might disrupt her life.

Have your heard these arguments? I have, and it makes me sick. Let us not forget that these are human lives we are playing with. Can you tell the difference in the babies below? Was one of them conceived in rape? How would you tell?

Photo Credit: Abolish Human Abortion

Again, I understand that rape is a terrible thing. I cannot imagine what a woman who finds herself pregnant by her rapist must go through. Whatever it is, it does not excuse or trump abortion in some way. Abortion is murder - and two wrongs don't make a right.

Please take a moment to consider these points:

1. Despite the fact that a majority of Americans are "personally pro-life," we keep hearing the argument that abortion should be legal because "What if someone is raped?" In fact, I had someone the other day, when I said that I believe abortion is murder tell me "Go and get raped." Putting aside the fact that such a statement is very disrespectful and crude, why is that always where people's minds go? Don't they know that abortions due to rape and incest count for less than 1% of all abortions?

2. Take a few minutes to read through some testimonies from some pro-life advocates who were conceived in rape. Are their lives any less valuable than ours?

3. The video below is hard to argue with. Every time I see it I get chills - because of this woman's pain, because of her bravery to speak out about what she did, and because of her incredible faith in God and the forgiveness she found in Him.

Note: This blog entry does not necessarily reflect the views of all pro-life and American women. The opinions in this entry belong solely to the Women Against Abortion administrator, Amber.