Listening to women who have been sexually assaulted.
"I,having lived through rape, and also having raised a child 'conceived in rape,' feel personally assualted and insulted every time I hear that abortion should be legal because of rape and incest. I feel that we're being used by pro-abortionists to further the abortion issue, even though we've not been asked to tell our side of the story." From D. Reardon's Victims and Victors
How opportune that I came across Reardon's book so soon after my most recent post on abortion's 'hard cases'. I'll let him speak for himself from the foreword to the book mentioned above:
"Opinion polls show that the vast majority of people accept the 'necessity' of abortion in cases of rape and incest. People who oppose abortion in such cases are generally dismissed as heartless extremists.
"After all, it is very true that women who become pregnant as a result of rape or incest face extremely difficult circumstances that should invite our compassion and support. To many people, the argument that a woman should not have to spend nine months carrying her attacker's child seems like a natural extension of that compassion.
"Sincere empathy for the victims of sexual assault, combined with the widespread confusion, fear, and revulsion associated with rape and incest, made this issue a natural 'hard case' for the proponents of legalized abortion. [....] What began as social acceptance of abortion in a few rare cases necessarily led to social acceptance of abortion in virtually any circumstance. [....]
"All of this is extremely unfortunate because literally all of the evidence regarding this issue is on our [ie. the pro-life] side. It is a little known fact that the vast majority of sexual assault victims do not want abortions. In addition, when sexual assault victims do have abortions, the long term, and even short term, psychological effects are devastating. Most of these women describe the negative effects of abortion on their lives as even more devastating than the sexual assault.
"Sexual assault is actually a contraindication for abortion. A doctor treating a pregnant sexual assault victim should advise against abortion precisely because of the traumatic nature of the pregnancy."
To borrow from an another blogger, compared to these, my voice is irrelevant.
posted by Cyrano at 6:38 p.m.
2 Comments:
To allow an abortion does not make any given individual have one. They can, and most would opt out.
On the otherhand, denying the right to one - will not stop some individuals from having one.
Gary
PS< I am pro life AND pro choice. I believe in preserving life under most conditions. I truly believe in free will.
How about this, Gary:
To outlaw murder doesn't stop people from committing murder. Since it's still going to happen, why should we have laws against it?
It is an incontrovertible fact that the abortion rate increased markedly everywhere in the world which decriminalized it. This fact alone suggests that criminalizing it will lessen its occurrence.
When the choice is abortion, it's inconsistent to say you're both pro-life and -choice. It doesn't deny free will to make laws against certain actions - in fact, it highlights the fact that we have free will to suggest that laws might help curtail certain behaviours.
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