Mad world
Here's a scenario.
A 15 year old girl gets rapped at a party. Her parents don't believe her rape story and throw her out on the street. They tell her they want nothing to do with her. The only option she is given is to go live with her abusive uncle in Oklahoma and work to pay her rent. She is also diabetic and will likely suffer medical consequences from the pregnancy. Oh, and she's 4'8'' and weighs 95 pounds so her body will likely suffer greatly from the birth.
I think we've just established as close to the perfect prochoice anti-parental notification case we will ever find.
So examining this we have a seemingly hopeless situation that could be avoided if only the girl was allowed to obtain an abortion without having to tell her family. The girl did nothing wrong, so why should she suffer this horrid fate? If only she could kill her child she would be ok.
Second scenario.
A woman is at home lovingly pregnant. Her husband meanwhile has been sleeping around with various people and has knowingly infected his wife with HIV. She finds this out at a routine office visit. She is now so angry at her husband(and rightfully so) that she is disgusted by the presence of his child and feels as though she is being raped by the child she used to adore. Her turmoil can be greatly lessened (though,like the rape victim far from erased) if the child is taken and she has no ties to her adulterous husband.
We hear these types of arguments all the time. We are considered monsters if we state that the child is not to blame and can not be punished for the father's crime. This is true. But it's not so easy.
The woman is traumatized, the child is adding to her emotional turmoil. The father is free living it up in Las Vegas, not caring about the lives he destroyed. This situation goes far beyond the realm of "unwanted" to a new category of desperation.
It is perhaps akin to shooting the man who stepped on your foot and shooting the man who you find on top of your wife in your bed.(not in terms of fetal liability obviously, but in terms of perceived desperation) Neither are justifiable, and neither should be legally sanctioned. But there is certainly an element of understandable horror on the part of the betrayed man that equates well with the raped mother.
I know that rape is a divisive issue amongst even the prolife community. I really feel that murder can not be ordained no matter the circumstances. However, I think we often glaze over the issues. I know I have been guilty of that offense on more than one occasion.
For the pro-life movement to succeed we must see past simply the goal of ending abortions, to the hope of alleviating the horror that some pregnancies do inflict. Ignoring the problem will not make it go away. And though we know that all pregnancies are blessings, we can not let that fact stand on its own. In our perverse world, we must show hope not simply explain why killing is wrong.
A 15 year old girl gets rapped at a party. Her parents don't believe her rape story and throw her out on the street. They tell her they want nothing to do with her. The only option she is given is to go live with her abusive uncle in Oklahoma and work to pay her rent. She is also diabetic and will likely suffer medical consequences from the pregnancy. Oh, and she's 4'8'' and weighs 95 pounds so her body will likely suffer greatly from the birth.
I think we've just established as close to the perfect prochoice anti-parental notification case we will ever find.
So examining this we have a seemingly hopeless situation that could be avoided if only the girl was allowed to obtain an abortion without having to tell her family. The girl did nothing wrong, so why should she suffer this horrid fate? If only she could kill her child she would be ok.
Second scenario.
A woman is at home lovingly pregnant. Her husband meanwhile has been sleeping around with various people and has knowingly infected his wife with HIV. She finds this out at a routine office visit. She is now so angry at her husband(and rightfully so) that she is disgusted by the presence of his child and feels as though she is being raped by the child she used to adore. Her turmoil can be greatly lessened (though,like the rape victim far from erased) if the child is taken and she has no ties to her adulterous husband.
We hear these types of arguments all the time. We are considered monsters if we state that the child is not to blame and can not be punished for the father's crime. This is true. But it's not so easy.
The woman is traumatized, the child is adding to her emotional turmoil. The father is free living it up in Las Vegas, not caring about the lives he destroyed. This situation goes far beyond the realm of "unwanted" to a new category of desperation.
It is perhaps akin to shooting the man who stepped on your foot and shooting the man who you find on top of your wife in your bed.(not in terms of fetal liability obviously, but in terms of perceived desperation) Neither are justifiable, and neither should be legally sanctioned. But there is certainly an element of understandable horror on the part of the betrayed man that equates well with the raped mother.
I know that rape is a divisive issue amongst even the prolife community. I really feel that murder can not be ordained no matter the circumstances. However, I think we often glaze over the issues. I know I have been guilty of that offense on more than one occasion.
For the pro-life movement to succeed we must see past simply the goal of ending abortions, to the hope of alleviating the horror that some pregnancies do inflict. Ignoring the problem will not make it go away. And though we know that all pregnancies are blessings, we can not let that fact stand on its own. In our perverse world, we must show hope not simply explain why killing is wrong.
Posted by Lauren at
10:27 AM
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