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I just watched this 60 Minutes segment on women and girls in Congo who are viciously raped. In some areas, 90% of women/girls are raped and many become pregnant. I can't help but think about if that were me or my daughter, sister or anyone I knew. I can't imagine that I would force my teenage daughter to have the baby after being gang raped several times over and emotionally/mentally distaught. Some of these girls are so badly raped, they can no longer control their bodily functions but pro life advocates would force them to have the baby? I'm not an advocate of using abortion like birth control but I can't get past situations that involve rape or incest and I want to know why you (as a pro life advocate) whould force me to carry a child to term and relive that horrendous part of my life over and over again. For men who are pro life, if this is your wife, and they were brutally raped, you would focus on her having the child? Would this change if she were raped by someone different from your race (and you couldn't hide the secret) ? Don't give me the pan speech but imagine if this happened tomorrow. Be honest in your very soul. I really believe some of you would struggle yet you seem unsympathetic to the actual victim. What about the child who may learn they were the child of rape. I can't imagine how that knowledge would affect me even if I learned it as an adult. As a kid, I'd probably be suicidal. What if as a child you feel you are treated differently by your parent(s) but don't know why or why you even look different and the kids tease you. How about the ones who grow up in foster care or an orphanage. This is what a pro life advocate wishes for the victim and child?
Whether to continue to carry a child that was conceived as the result of a rape would be a totally personal decision. That is why even though I am personally opposed to abortion, I would not want to see that right taken away. I have a 16 year old daughter. If she was raped and found herself pregnant, I would support her decision to abort if that is what she wanted to do. If she wanted to have the child and put it up for adoption, I would support that also. The only decision I would probably try to dissuade her from is to keep the child. Not because of the rape, but because 16 is way too young to be a mother.
So -- that's why I'm pro choice. You never know what life is going to throw your way.
It's not the baby's fault that he/she was the product of rape. How could the murder of an innocent preborn child make up for the horrific act of rape?
Have you ever been raped? If not, how can you surmise how someone should feel? 33% of rape victims have thoughts of suicide and several of these attempt suicide because for them, they would have preferred to die. We have too many people not equipped emotionally or financially to have kids which is why we see a Caylee Anthony story everyday along with other stories of abuse, neglect, and murder of children (not embryos). Putting a child up for adoption after going through delivery has it's own separate trauma which some would rather not go through after already being traumatized. The right to choose does not infringe on your personal belief system but your pro life belief infringes on others.
P.S. Did you actually see the clip? Some of these girls were cripled and would probably struggle even bringing a child to term without risking their life. You sound real sympathetic.
It's not the baby's fault that he/she was the product of rape. How could the murder of an innocent preborn child make up for the horrific act of rape?
Amen. I know a woman who is the product of a rape. Her teenage mother (whom she's never met) was raped, and decided to carry the baby to term and place the child for adoption. This child grew up in a loving adoptive family and has since shared her story with millions of teens. She is a remarkable woman who says, "my life is not worth any less than yours because of the crime of my father." I don't deny that it would probably be one of a woman's biggest life's trials to bring the baby to term if she became pregnant as a result of rape, but aborting the baby doesn't erase the history from which the baby came.
Amen. I know a woman who is the product of a rape. Her teenage mother (whom she's never met) was raped, and decided to carry the baby to term and place the child for adoption. This child grew up in a loving adoptive family and has since shared her story with millions of teens. She is a remarkable woman who says, "my life is not worth any less than yours because of the crime of my father." I don't deny that it would probably be one of a woman's biggest life's trials to bring the baby to term if she became pregnant as a result of rape, but aborting the baby doesn't erase the history from which the baby came.
"""and decided""
Yes, that's the key ...the woman DECIDES what to do with her OWN body.
If anti-choice people had their way every rape victim would be forced to have the baby.
Just a note: Less than 3% of abortions in the U.S. take place for reasons of rape, incest, and life of the mother. The other 97% are for reasons of inconvenience (education, career, money, etc.) I'm not diminishing the seriousness of these women who fall in this 3%, but abortion doesn't erase the past. There is a significant number of women who have attempted suicide following their abortions too.
Have you ever been raped? If not, how can you surmise how someone should feel? 33% of rape victims have thoughts of suicide and several of these attempt suicide because for them, they would have preferred to die. We have too many people not equipped emotionally or financially to have kids which is why we see a Caylee Anthony story everyday along with other stories of abuse, neglect, and murder of children (not embryos). Putting a child up for adoption after going through delivery has it's own separate trauma which some would rather not go through after already being traumatized. The right to choose does not infringe on your personal belief system but your pro life belief infringes on others.
P.S. Did you actually see the clip? Some of these girls were cripled and would probably struggle even bringing a child to term without risking their life. You sound real sympathetic.
Don't expect an obviously anti-choice male to feel empathy for those poor women and girls. Zygotes are infinitely more important than the vessels that bear them. After all, they might give birth to a boy!
It's funny how all the pro lifers always know someone that was a product of rape (of course, they have never had to face the tough decision). This person always got adopted by a wonderful family and had a wonderful life, the end. The rest of us hear far too many horror stories of troubled lives and troubled kids (and later troubled adults) under that same scenario but never the pro life advocate.
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