This has always been a tough issue for Pro-Lifers, and, I dare say, many have not fared well explaining why God is still opposed to abortion in this case. Definitely a horrible situation for the pregnant female, but too many people jump to the abortion alternative. Here are major points to consider:

  1. A fertilized egg is a human life. Individual DNA is determined at fertilization. Now only food and oxygen are supplied until the human being dies. By the time it attaches to the uterine lining, pregnancy usually is still unknown to the female. Within 18 days of fertilization, a heart is beating and brain waves are formed soon after.
  2. Killing that human life is emotionally traumatic for the mother.
  3. That human life is innocent of the crime of rape.
  4. People whose existence has been the result of a rape have spoken against abortion publicly.
  5. Surgical abortion is more traumatic on the body than childbirth.
  6. For her own emotional welfare, the female must forgive the rapist (with God’s help) whether or not an abortion is performed. Abortion just adds more emotional trauma.
  7. Forgiveness may come more easily if she gives a life rather than takes a life.
  8. God can work wonders through giving birth to this life if only people would include Him and trust Him.
  9. What about all the trauma the female experiences during the 9-month pregnancy period? But what is the alternative? Well, it’s having on her conscience the rest of her life that she took a life. I think all people (especially in hindsight) would rather live with the 9-month period, and then perhaps give the child up for adoption so she would not have to endure further hardship by raising a child that she may not have the means to do so. When humans give rather than take, they are blessed of God.
  10. I am not saying all this is easy on the female, but it is definitely the “higher road.” There are excellent
    organizations such as CompassCare that can offer much emotional, physical, financial, and spiritual support for females going through this.

I realize that many women have “spontaneous abortions.” This means that her body, for whatever reason, rejects or cannot support the life that has been started within her. These are more common that many realize. These cases, however, do not come about from the hand of man. Abortions do. There is a big difference.

One pro-abortion argument is that the “tissue” inside the pregnant female is “her own body” and she has a right over her body, not the government. On the surface, this sounds right. When the fertilized egg first attaches itself to the uterine wall, however, the woman’s body treats it like foreign tissue and tries to sluff it off (kill it). If this tissue is really her own body, this would not happen. The truth is that it is its own body, not even close to being a mere extension of her body such as her appendix. The unborn’s rights must be protected by someone because it cannot fend for itself.

Is there any case where God would OK an abortion? In rare cases, the mother’s life can be threatened by pregnancy. In all cases, however, C-sections can preserve both lives. With ectopic (tubal) pregnancies, however, the fertilized egg must be removed. In this case, for some reason, such as scar tissue from a sexually transmitted infection, can block the egg from traveling down the fallopian tube toward the uterus. The sperm is small enough to get by the partially blocked tube and fertilize the egg that can never reach the uterus. Now the egg will attach to the wall of the tube and grow bigger, eventually rupturing the tube and cause internal bleeding that is fatal for the mom. In this case only, I can justify taking out the fertilized egg. Unfortunately, technology has not figured a way to preserve its life after removal. So, either we allow “nature to take its course” and have two deaths, or we can save the only one we can save.

The bottom line point on this whole abortion issue is: Does a Creator exist? If so, what does this Creator say? If there is no supreme creator with laws and expectations, and this is what evolution asserts, then man is the ultimate authority. If man is the authority, then anything can be justified, and we are on the proverbial “slippery slope” (bridge to nowhere).

Further input from Mike Warren (a Pro-Life leader in NY State): 

Randy Alcorn gives some great answers in his excellent book, “Pro Life Answers to Pro Choice Arguments.” You touched on many of them. Life does begin at conception or as some in the “personhood movement” define it, “at its biological beginning.” So is it fair to punish the innocent child for the sin and act of its father? Transference of the anger felt over the rape onto herself or onto her innocent child solves nothing and delays the healing the woman needs.

We did encounter this recently. A woman threw coffee from a moving vehicle at us while we were at an abortionist’s clinic. The police were able to track her down and we actually spoke. As it turned out, she was date raped at a frat party while at college and became pregnant. She felt pressured to rid herself of the problem. Every time she drove past that clinic, the anger and emotional wound surfaced. That was the abortion mill she was taken to. Now a Christian, she was still dealing with the anger and wound. We pointed her to CompassCare and to her pastor for healing.

One woman says, “When one woman exercises her right to control her body in total disregard of another human being, it is called abortion. When a man acts out the same philosophy, it is called rape.”

The child produced by rape can become the tool or source of healing for that woman. Instead of reminding the woman of the horrible act, that innocent life points to redemption and something good coming from evil. Children conceived by rape can bless another family if that life is allowed to live, then placed in an adopted home. This is an example of redemption and turning an evil act on its head by purposely doing good. Pro abortion advocates seek to justify 97% of convenience abortions using the 3% hard cases of rape and incest.

Good job on the points you made you covered it well….

Mike

Feedback:

GR: Regarding abortion in rape cases: Clearly, the criminal act of rape is one of the most reprehensible crimes there is, attacking a helpless or weaker woman and then violating her body and FOREVER, taking away her privacy and security. The date rape crime is also cowardly and vile. Who raises men like this?! With that said, you cannot go to that very slippery slope and start making exceptions to a crime worse than rape, but the murder of an unborn child. While the rape is horrible, compounding that sin by having an abortion is almost like going to jail again. First, the poor woman is raped, then she has to live with the fact that she has had an abortion and murdered a child. I am completely opposed to killing a child for ANY reason, even for the safety of the mother. That’s man AGAIN altering what God intended. Just my opinion.

CL: Glad the 97% vs 3% was made at the end of this. I have often said …(politically speaking) let’s start by saying —go ahead keep those legal (abortions performed on pregnant rape or incest victims) and make the rest illegal. We’d have a wonderful reduction in the number of abortions making them safe and “rare”- oh yes. Think of how many would start claiming they were raped…..:(What I would love to come over the people who care about women (supposedly) is the rage about unsafe conditions at these horrifying abortion “mills.” An approach I’ve yearned for at the onset of this issue – start getting the State legal systems involved in the Health Care Aspects and these “institutions” would go bankrupt like our hospital systems are, eh? And how in the world can business people have blind eyes to the lucrative ownership of Planned Parenthood and not see the “conflict of interests”, etc – beyond belief it is…thank God some of our politically involved people are trying to get the word out in DC…18 days – its own heart beat….40 days its own brainwaves………….”If a person has no brainwaves and no heartbeat then they are dead” —- any good math professor will say if the conditional statement that was just said is true then its contrapositive has to be true (standard logic) the contra-positive is, “If they are NOT dead, then a person has brainwaves and a heartbeat”…guess they must NOT BE DEAD (which is alive…a life)…really at conception! Such easy logic to the genuine thought process – honestly! Love you guys!

PT – One of the sweetest girls (age 10) I have ever met was the product of a violent rape of a single young woman. Despite opposition she fearlessly defended her daughter’s right to live and has had the added support and respect of nearly everyone who has met this young girl, Christian and non-Christian alike. I have had the privilege to be a part of their life since the birth of this child and have witnessed and admired the love between them in spite of the many difficulties they have faced.

KM – Just a quick addition, from my work at the Pregnancy Care Center…a woman who has been raped is
traumatized. A woman who has had an abortion has been traumatized. Both are invasions of their body in a violent manner. To try to ‘solve’ or ‘heal’ one trauma by use of another makes no logical or emotional sense. By giving birth and possibly making an adoption plan for her baby, the woman is able to have something good come of the trauma she suffered, which actually helps with healing–ask anyone who has donated a loved one’s organs at their death. It takes some of the sting out, knowing that this difficult situation was able to be a blessing to someone else, that it didn’t end with the hurt.

AR: Since I too volunteer in the same capacity, KM said it best that healing from the trauma can come, although it does take time and counseling. No one who has ever been raped, whether a child comes from it or not, will ever forget it. From personal experience I know that, but you can heal with the Lord’s help.

RE – Years ago while volunteering at Project Life, I read a small book of testimonies by women who had become pregnant by rape. It was not a Christian book, and I use the word “testimonies” in the sense of “this is what happened,” not necessarily “this is what the Lord did” – although some were of that nature.

I noticed a pattern in these real-life stories of women who had lived through the crisis we’re talking about: pregnant via rape. Those who had abortions, ALL regretted it. They found it harder to forgive themselves for choosing abortion, than to forgive the rapist for choosing rape – because abortion was a choice they had made for themselves, whereas the rape was not their fault. On the other hand, none of those who gave birth regretted doing so, whether they surrendered the child for adoption or raised it themselves.

I find this pattern very convincing because these were the women actually living out the situation in real life! Someone might say, “Testimonies that fit that pattern were chosen for the book; any that didn’t must have been disregarded.” But if that were true, the book’s preface would have pointed out this pattern. It didn’t. I noticed it on my own. It was not a Christian book and did not seem to have an agenda. And yet, it made a powerful pro-life, pro-woman statement!