As we all know, there has been a great deal of unfriendly conversation happening lately regarding rape and abortion. From a scientifically unfounded comment on behalf of Rep. Todd Akin to the more recent comment from Senate candidate Richard Murdock on the beauty of life even after rape, rape and abortion are obviously sensitive subjects. But there’s a reason for that: rape is a horrible offense, and abortion is a horrible offense. If either one were acceptable, there’d be no controversy.
Rape
Socially speaking, rape is a serious crime, yet in the courtroom and in the media, it isn’t taken seriously enough. Punishments for rapists and sex abusers are practically nonexistent. In fact, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN), only three out of every 100 rapists ever spends a single day in jail.
Cases in point:
Just last month, a low bail set a convicted rapist free in Minnesota.
Earlier this month, another convicted rapist had his conviction overturned because his victim has cerebral palsy with limited mobility and the inability to speak. Since she didn’t fight back, the court decided she wasn’t a victim.
In May, a child’s rapist was allowed to walk free because the judge claimed that society and pornography were to blame, not the rapist.
Between loopholes and misguided judges trying to prove a point, it’s no wonder that 97% of rapists go free to rape again, knowing that they will, in all likelihood, get away with it again. Add that to the sad fact that some Americans hold the heartless belief that rape victims deserved to be raped, and we have a human rights crisis on our hands. We live in a society in which excuses are made for rapists while the rights of the victims are ignored. And because of that, anyone who claims rape is often faced with accusations of lying or implications that he or she is a slut.
Example:
MTV producers watched a rape happen and did nothing about it while implying that the victim had it coming.
This is pathetic. This is un-American. And until rape is seen by everyone as the violent, oppressive attack and sin that it is, it will remain a sort of semi-crime in America.
We need to:
Stop glorifying rape in advertisements, music, and the media.
Make the punishments for rape harsher.
Support rape victims instead of shaming them.
Abortion
Just like rape, abortion is horrific. Unlike rape, abortion is not currently a crime. Yet abortion actually rips a human being apart limb by limb. Still, the media seems shocked by any politician who is against abortion in cases of rape. “The rape exception,” as it’s called, is unacceptable to any true pro-lifer. Here’s why:
That fetus is still a child. It does not matter how she was conceived. She still has a heartbeat, brain waves, and separate DNA from her parents. Therefore, aborting her is still the murder of an innocent person. Killing her through abortion creates a second victim, one who is put to death for her father’s crime.
Some might say, “How can you force a woman to have her rapist’s baby?” Well, if a woman is raped by her husband, and they already have a child, does that child deserve to die because her father raped her mother? That baby is also the mother’s child, and pro-lifers simply want that child to be loved despite how she came into existence. Her rights should not be ignored in the same way that her mother’s rights were when she was raped, and then when her rapist was set free. The child is not a mistake, but a person, like Rebecca Kiessling, deserving of the life that was given to her.
And until that unborn child is seen as a human, a person worthy of life, she will remain the silent victim. Her voice will not be heard, and abortion will continue to be seen as an act of compassion instead of the largest, most violent act of discrimination in our history.
We must:
Stop making excuses as to why unborn children, even if conceived in rape, don’t deserve to live.
Stop discriminating against specific unborn children based on who their biological parents are.
Recognize and accept the scientific proof that life begins at conception.
Support rape victims and any women facing unplanned pregnancies instead of shaming them and telling them their own children don’t deserve to live.
Open our hearts to the unborn children, instead of labeling them unwanted or unworthy.
Quite simply, Americans need to lose their cold-hearted ways – both those who have no sympathy for the rape victim and those who have no sympathy for the child conceived in rape. Americans must choose to love mother and child and support them both in the true spirit of American values.
“Abortion is not some magical surgery which turns back time to make a woman ‘un-pregnant’ — or, for that matter, ‘un-raped.’ When tragedy happens, real compassion means being there for both her and her child, every step of the way. Tragedy can’t be repealed, but it can be dealt with. And indeed, as so many women have found from personal experience, good can come from evil.” -Rape survivor who became pregnant by her rapist
