Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Why abortion of children conceived in violence should not be permitted

I wrote out a long thing as a comment on someone else's status about how they wished Ryan had stood up for children conceived in violence.

I wanted to put it somewhere, but don't feel like dealing with a facebook comment war right now, so I'm posting it here.

This is, in my opinion, how to approach the issue of being against abortion in cases of rape and incest without it being "political suicide":

Well, I myself cannot say how I would feel if I were pregnant as a result of sexual assault and I think a lot of those commenting on both sides of the issue cannot. But I have looked at what those who have been in this position say and do. The majority of them don't feel abortion solves or solved their problem--both those who chose life and those who show abortion feel this way. In fact, many feel like they were pressured to choose abortion, and many feel like the abortion itself was violating--the process is more invasive and painful than any ultrasound, and what it does is kill a developing child. The abortion rate among women pregnant as a result of assault is not any higher than among those who are unintentionally pregnant due to consensual sex, and the decision is often based on the same factors--am I ready to be a parent, do I have the financial and emotional resources I would need. I think that these are the needs we as a society need to help pregnant women with--and I feel the best way to do this is through private charity, and I myself give to support this cause. I think for abortion to be legal actually leads to more abuse for more women, to less women getting to make a choice, because statistics reveal that over 60% of those women who end up with abortions feel coerced, and an even greater percentage eventually regrets that decision. I think that the best way to protect the most women is not to present the option of abortion if she is pregnant, regardless of how the pregnancy occurs--listen to her actual needs and fears and meet her needs so that she can do what is best for her baby. Because I believe women instinctively know what science has shown us in the past 40 years--that the start of life can be no other place than conception, that before she even realizes she is pregnant the new life has started to grow inside her. I know women who have chosen adoption--because not every woman is at a place where she can parent--and I think that it is important that we uphold their rights and help them to have the relationship with their children that is comfortable and helpful to both them and their children. I think that as a society we have done terribly by women--to tell them that their fertility is an unwelcome burden, to tell them that they can't be pregnant or be a parent and still follow their dreams, to tell them that their children are better off dead than with them. I believe a woman is strong enough to make a choice to have a child and a career, to have a child and go to school, to choose a relationship where she is not the one raising her child if that is what's best for their family--that is, to make an adoption plan. And I believe women are strong enough to make choices and succeed without sacrificing their children. I believe it is never okay for anyone--a corporation, a health care plan, a family, a society--to make a choice which can come only at the expense of the innocent. And I don't believe those choices have to be made.