Dealing with the Ugly subject of Rape-Pregnancy from a Pro-life viewpoint

I really want to write about the Federal courts, and their usurpation of power. However, given the flack caused by Rep. Todd Akin and his comment concerning “legitimate rape” I am compelled against my will to deal with rape and pregnancy and how to apply a pro-life viewpoint to such tragic situations.   

First off, I have no desire to be critical of a Republican who takes a principled stand. As a matter of fact if anyone wants to accuse me of not standing on principle I’ll choose dueling pistols. However if we are to take principled stands on ugly complex issues should we not get our facts right? False arguments in support of the truth are damning to that truth.

Is rape-pregnancy rare? Yes, but not because a woman involved in “legitimate rape” has some biological safeguard that her “illegitimately” raped sister does not. I do not think a rapist should be able to plead a lesser charge if his victim gets pregnant. Rape is defined as the unlawful compelling of a person through physical force or duress to have sexual intercourse. The possibility of pregnancy is related to the amount of control the aggressor has over the victim, I.E duress, as opposed to force.

Pointing out a legitimate number of such pregnancies is important only because the left uses this argument as key reason that unrestricted abortion must remain available and must even be tax payer funded. A number of factors restrict rape-pregnancy;  there is only a 1 in 5 probability that the women will be ovulating at the time of a random assault,  many woman are on birth control medication, some are already pregnant, physical resistance may lessen the possibility of fertilization, loving committed couples average 5-10 months of regular intercourse before conceiving, so the likelihood of a single event resulting in pregnancy is limited, further stress limits a woman’s ability to conceive and carry so all these  factors considered how many such pregnancies occur annually. According to my research (horrible disquieting research that I hope never to do again) a legitimate estimate is 200-300 per year. Only half of which are terminated ( http://www.christianliferesources.com/article/rape-pregnancies-are-rare-461)  There are @ 1.21 million abortions per year (http://www.lifematterstv.org/abortioncounters.html) so do the math as few as a 12.5 percent of abortions involve rape pregnancy. Even if you use the grossly inflated numbers of 25,000 rape pregnancies some radical feminists claim (that a quarter of rape victims get pregnant) it would still mean ¾ of murdered babies are not rape-babies.

Still for the woman in this situation, these stats are small comfort, so let me attempt to do what Rep. Akin failed so miserably to do, explain why “it’s not the babies fault”.

I offer an analogy; some lousy SOB is caught and charged with a 2 decade long string of rapes and murders. Fortunately he’s is arrested in a “death penalty state”. He is tried and convicted and there is no doubt that he will receive the death penalty. However the night before his sentencing he dies of a cerebral hemorrhage, or else takes the cowards way out and hangs himself. Either way he will never answer for his crimes. The DA in our death penalty state realizes that this is an injustice to his victims but upon researching the case learns that not only had one of his early victims survived but she had borne a child and placed a baby girl up for adoption. Doggedly this agent of justice finds this now twenty year old woman. She of course knows nothing of her biological father’s crimes and her own criminality is limited to a speeding ticket or two, but by God she looks like that rapist SOB!  So our devoted DA does the only just thing. He has this twenty year old woman arrested, extradited and executed in her father’s place.

Preposterous? Of course! But follow the logic of the left; the same liberals who would vehemently oppose the death sentence for the rapist SOB are entirely in support of it for the child so long as that same twenty year old woman is killed when she is a twenty week old fetus. Same DNA, same hair and eye color, same unique spirit breathed with life by God Almighty, same potential to contribute to society, the one thing of beauty that may come from the mother's suffering and sacrifice, snuffed out because rather then residing in her adoptive parent's home or a college dorm some where she still resides in the womb, and that is not even her choice. The only difference from our woman in example one and example two is that our twenty week old fetus is not even guilty of  speeding.

How distressing that we live in a world where the murder of an innocent bystander due to his or her genetic relation to a criminal is not only allowed, but those who oppose it are called mean-spirited and heartless.

Todd Akin may have done far more harm then good to the pro-life argument, but his basic stand is the right one. Life is an inalienable right, or nothing is. However uncomfortable the subject we as pro-life Christians and Pro-life Americans cannot afford to allow the left to dictate the debate on this subject.  

Maybe next time we can address the federal courts, until then keep on the Firing Line!