in the blogosphere. My post about the hot mike elicited this comment from some faceless pro-abort on another site. (Yes, the second part was all caps and in red, no less.)
"Pro-life for the unborn, pro-death for the living (in some faraway land for bonus points!).
WERE IT UP TO SARAH PALIN,
A THIRTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL,
PREGNANT BECAUSE HER DADDY RAPED HER,
MUST BEAR THE CHILD OF HER FATHER."
This was my reply:
Yes, I believe that there are thugs in this world who would slaughter me and my family just for my difference in religion. I also feel that the lives of the majority of Iraqis are worth protecting from those thugs -- you see, I don't discriminate just because I can't see someone or haven't met them.
The same is true of the child of that 13-year-old rape victim. Why should that young woman be shamed into believing that there is something wrong with her child? She and her child are innocent victims of a horrendous act.
Why should she have her child ripped from her just because of the circumstances of how that innocent one entered this world? It is the rapist who should be ashamed and scorned and held accountable.
The young woman and her child should be embraced, told that they have done nothing wrong and that they both can hold their heads high.
A member of FFL, who was the product of a rape, once said: I have a right to be here.
And her mother said: She was the only good thing that came out of that horrible experience.
Why do we assume that young women are too weak to stand up for themselves and their children? When will society stop acting as though they couldn't possibly get through even the most difficult of times? If they need our love and support, we should be there for them -- not just make them feel that "of course, it's what you're expected to do."
Rape victims who abort have said they feel like they were violated twice. First by their rapist, and then by an abortionist. Both times being forced to do something they never would have chosen to do.
There are two other maddening aspects: First is that it is often the abuser who forces the abortion. Victims of incest are dragged to clinics by their abusers to destroy the "evidence."
Second, the workers at the clinics stand by and don't report what is obviously child abuse. Letting these youngest victims fall through the cracks -- rationalizing that they are merely young women who made the "mature decision" to have sex -- as if *any* 13-year-old should be having sex -- all because the sacred rite of abortion should never be questioned...
Yeah, that Sarah Palin. She believes in the value of all young women and their children. How dare she.
Oh yes, it is so much kinder to force a rape victim to spend the rest of her life looking at a child who resembles her rapist. I know of no one who would legally force a rape victim to have an abortion. If I personally knew a woman who made the informed decision to bear & raise a baby who is the result of a rape, I would do my utmost to support her. On the other hand, you, Sarah Palin & others of your ilk would force a rape victim to bear the child resulting from the rape. If you personally knew a woman in such a situation who opted to have an abortion, you would legally prevent it if possible & certainly not support her in her decision (even if it differed from what you would do). That is the difference between us - I believe that each woman should make an informed decision about what she wishes to do with each pregnancy & I will support her decision even if it is not the decision that I would make in her situation. You & your fellow travelers, on the other hand, feel it is YOUR right to decide what each woman should do when faced with a pregnancy no matter what her feelings are. I am also old enough to remember when the daily newspapers had at least one or two stories each week about women dying from botched illegal abortions. Do their lives mean nothing? How can you call yourselves Right to Life advocates if the lives of women mean so little to you?
The reason why abortion is wrong does not depend upon the perception of "kindness" or the incidence of "botched" abortion. It does not depend upon whether the baby is wanted or not or whether you call pro-lifers "ilk". The immorality of abortion is based upon the fact that a child is killed.
A rape victim has suffered a horrendous crime but that doesn't make her baby a non-person. The anguish is not caused by her child but by criminal and killing her child does not diminish the magnitude of the wrong done.
We have too much respect for victims to delude them into thinking the murder of their child will somehow erase the crime they suffered.