What if she was raped? What if there was incest involved?
Absent from the rape and incest exception conversation is how to actually help a woman who has been horrifically victimized and assaulted, how to love and serve her in the wake of her tragedy, and how to prosecute the vile and reprehensible criminal to the fullest extent of the law.
Considerable research shows that women who are pregnant as a result of rape are not only further victimized by obtaining an abortion, but that giving birth can be the most beneficial thing psychologically for them.
Additionally, churches and mental healthcare providers are left out of the equation due to the politicization of a woman’s tragic assault, despite them being among the most well-equipped to serve her. A woman who has suffered this terrible crime should be cared for, loved, served, tended to, ministered to, and protected – especially from an abortion. If the intent is to care for women who have been raped, then we should seek to resolve her trauma and prosecute her rapist, not assault her further and cover up her rapist’s crime.
Culturally speaking, the rape and incest exception communicates publicly that babies are disposable based on their method of conception – which is horrifyingly similar to eugenic philosophies.
Practically speaking, there is no way to know whether a child targeted for abortion was conceived in rape or incest. This creates a slippery slope for allowing the abortion industry, which has been repeatedly shown to falsify information to patients and reporting agencies, to evade the regulatory laws imposed on them. The rape exception only causes harm and does nothing to protect women or their babies.
It is absolutely indisputable that the life within the womb is a unique human being. To say that this irreplaceable life can be destroyed for a crime its father committed is to deny the intrinsic humanity of the unborn. Civilized societies don’t stoop to routine violence in an effort to conceal their social problems.
Abortion doesn’t stop rape! Abortion stops the life of the unborn child!
Additional Resources:
- Stand to Reason – Rape & Abortion: Greg Koukl wonders why pro-life candidates seem unable to articulate these clear responses when challenged on abortion in the case of rape.
- After Abortion: Rape and Incest Victims Reject and Regret Abortions
- Rape and Incest… Is Abortion Ever Okay? Download PDF
Georgia Right to Life Committee (GRTL) is a faith-based, non-profit, non-partisan, non-sectarian organization whose fundamental purpose is to engage in actions that will restore respect and effective legal protection for all human beings from the moment of fertilization until natural death.