I oppose abortion “even” in cases of rape and incest.

This is one of the things that pro-abortion people like to say as though it’s terribly shocking: a pro-life person opposes abortion “even in cases of rape and incest.” This makes you an anti-choice zealot. (Actually, you can’t really be pro-life without being an anti-choice zealot. The only way to make pro-abortionists happy is to say you’re personally opposed to abortion but have no problem with Roe v. Wade. Which makes you a pretty sorry pro-lifer.)

What pro-abortionists don’t understand is that for us, “choice” is not the issue. Indeed, we don’t stand for a woman’s right to choose to have or kill her child, because we don’t believe that right exists. We are against abortion because it is the killing of a human being. If they understood this (and I’m not even asking that they agree– just understand what they’re disagreeing with!), it should not shock pro-abortionists to see that we (most of us) oppose abortion “even” in the case of rape and incest. Because the circumstances under which the child was conceived have no bearing on the humanity of the child.

Rape and incest are terrible, ghastly things. Those who commit those crimes should be punished severely, and the mothers should be surrounded with loving care (as they frequently are at crisis pregnancy centers, most of which are run by Christians). But the unborn child hasn’t committed any crime. And as horrific as the ordeal is, to add the trauma (and moral evil) of abortion will not, in the long run, make it better. It will punish an innocent party, and in most cases haunt the mother the rest of her life.

So yeah, I guess you would say I’m an antichoice zealot. Especially when it comes to “choices” that I don’t think are legitimate in the first place.

Advertisement

5 thoughts on “I oppose abortion “even” in cases of rape and incest.

  1. Good question. The death penalty for murder is regulated by God as part of the Noahic covenant (Gen 9:6), which was a very broad covenant made with Noah’s family as representative of all of humanity which would descend from them– and thus more broadly applicable even than the Abrahamic covenant. It’s rooted (like the prohibition of abortion) in man’s bearing the image of God.

    Also, the fact that the death penalty was part of Israel’s legal code is significant. It doesn’t by itself mean it should be part of our legal code, but it does indicate that God is, so to speak, in favor of the death penalty as a punishment and deterrent for the most severe crimes.

    I could more specifically have said “We are against abortion because it is the murder of a human being.” The Bible distinguishes between killing and murder, so I think it’s a fair distinction.

  2. You don’t really mention that people are in favor of abortion in cases of incest because it creates a higher chance that the child will be born with physical/mental disabilities.

  3. hensmith: True. I’m opposed to that too, just like I’m opposed to the killing of Downs babies (or adults), people with other mental disabilities, and handicapped children (or adults).

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s