Rape Incest And Abortion — The irony in the attack on the Catholic abortion view being applied universally is the accusation that it is the imposition of religion.
Well, OK, thou shalt not murder is a religious matter. It’s a revelation that comes directly from God. Any objections to imposing that?
The Church’s condemnation of abortion, though, — and here is the irony — is a matter of science. Life starts somewhere. Strip away the dissembling and the semantic arguments, and apply the most rigorous logic and objective evidence, that somewhere would be conception.
Nobody is taking about condemning menses or ejaculation or clipping fingernails. It’s when sperm and egg unite to create, well, a new being with unique DNA is when the Thou Shalt Not takes affect.
With the science established, the political questions appear. Would a law be enforceable? Are there times when abortion should be allowed? Can you gather the support of a majority of voters?
Pro life politicians generally cite rape and incest and life of the mother as exceptions to abortion bans.
Protecting the mother’s life is not a controversy, but we’ve never understood the argument for the incest exception. How is letting the abortion occur with the girl returning to the environment where she is abused — which is almost always the case as the abuser is usually the one paying for the abortion — somehow kinder than carrying the child to term?
Rape is the hard question. Most of us just can’t subject another human being to a nine-month daily reminder of a horrific moment with daily pain and discomfort included.
We’ve become a fan of heartbeat laws that ban abortions when a heartbeat is detected in the womb. This is about three weeks after conception or five weeks gestational age.
A rape victim reports the crime and is given a morning-after pill and the pregnancy ends.
Or maybe she just goes to the drug store and gets it on her own.
If she waits too long it does become her choice to carry, and we feel no hesitation about imposing this on her.
A society that fails to recognize the obligation to protect innocent life is going to be a cruel and unpleasant place.
Heart beat laws have a moral consistency. If you can’t bury someone with a beating heart you shouldn’t be allowed to abort someone with a beating heart.
Starting a ban at conception is unenforceable, leaving aside that it would be politically impossible to achieve.
It doesn’t mean that morning after pills are something to be praised. We have a sick society and our attitude towards abortion is a big part of that sickness.
If our society should start holding pregnancy as something sacred a whole lot of healing would start, but this is far more a cultural thing than a legal one.
Kudos to people like Abby Johnson and Carla D’Addesi, who started the pro-life fashion line COL1972 who are doing just that.
Rape Incest And Abortion