Posted on 08/03/2006 4:20:05 PM PDT by wagglebee
ABERDEEN, North Dakota, August 3, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Dakota Voice yesterday told the story of South Dakotan mother Megan Barnett of Aberdeen whose son was conceived when she was raped at 19. Megan, a believing Catholic, says that after the attack she was offered "emergency contraception," an abortifacient drug, by emergency room attendants. She refused the drug saying that it would be wrong to kill her child even at the embryonic stage.
"When I felt the baby, it really became real for me," she told the Voice.
"I hadn’t given it [abortion] much thought before this happened," Megan said. "I grew up in a small community and didn't know anyone who had an abortion or anything like that, and I just didn't think about it much. But my religion classes taught me that it was the wrong decision."
Megan thanked her family for supporting her and telling her she had nothing to be ashamed of. Her daughter Maria is now two years old.
Megan conveyed a message to women who find they are pregnant following a rape: "The most important thing would be to not think about all the facts and legal rights, but think about how the child is no different than a child not conceived in rape."
The Voice reported on the issue in order to highlight what is considered the most common objection to the South Dakota abortion ban--that is, it doesn't include an exception for rape victims.
The extreme rape exception is most frequently used by abortion lobbyists to tug at the compassion of voters and politicians. The startling statistics, however, have long been pointed out by pro-life advocates as evidence enough that this tactic is largely a political ruse.
As an example, the Louisiana Department of Health statistics show that the justification for 99.12% of abortions in that state were "mother's mental health." Those women who had been raped or suffered incest made up only .04% of abortion cases, and yet the exception for incest or rape has been used successfully to legalize abortion without restrictions.
In most cases emotion and the fear of appearing anti-woman to feminist lobbyists have led those who are generally against abortion to express support for these extreme "exceptions". Last February, a spokesman for the Bush administration said the US president was not opposed to abortion for cases of pregnancy due to rape.
Asked at a press conference, "Does the President believe that rape and incest victims should be denied the right to an abortion?" a Bush spokesman responded saying, "The President has made very clear that he is pro-life with three exceptions." Those exceptions are widely assumed to be rape, incest and the life of the mother.
Read coverage in the Dakota Voice:
http://www.dakotavoice.com/200608/20060802_3.html
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Rape & Incest Victims Call for Congressional Hearings on Abortion
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/jun/04062409.html
What a wonderful young woman!
Pro-Life Ping.
Catholic Ping.
Freepmail wagglebee to subscribe or unsubscribe from the moral absolutes ping list.
FreeRepublic moral absolutes keyword search
This is a great story!
What about Post Birth abortions of Rapists?
The young lady refused the drug, but the writer must have taken something. There is no Aberdeen in North Dakota.
Aberdeen is not in ND it is in SD. Sounds like good old North or South Dakota values though.
Sorry - had a girlfriend in a similar situation. Gave that child her life and her faith. At 18, the girl is a sociopath like her father. Every advantage her mother could give her she did. Consider the genes, please. I am as pro life as a woman can be, but in the case of rape, sorry, I make exception.
According to this story, rape/incest account for 0.4% of abortions, so it is even lower than we thought.
Awesome young lady!
That said, I would have a problem with a woman being forced to bear her rapist's child..
That's kinda might thinking.
Genetics count. Not just environment.
Dear wagglebee,
Actually, it appears to be 0.04%.
sitetest
I stand corrected, 0.04%.
Then I suppose you would also counsel people against adopting a child from an unwed teenage mother, since she probably was genetically irresponsible.... (yes, that is sarcasm).
susie
The woman who was raped chose to have the baby. Would you have it otherwise?
This is one of the best things I have read in ages! God Bless this woman and her little girl! Wonderful article!
Better kill em ALL off in case some turn out to be sociopaths then. Better dead than fed.
She has earned a place in heaven....what a moral lesson from a very young person...God has blessed her with Wisdom and truth. God Speed mother and child.
Sounds like a great idea to me!
**************
Please correct me if I am wrong, but I'm not sure timsbella meant it that way.
No one seems to pause and think that their own lineage includes rape. It's been happening forever, and undoubtably many of our female ancestors were raped and had babies as a result. We wouldn't be here if they hadn't.
The truth is that everyone alive (including you) is the product of a rape somewhere down the line.
Here is something I posted last summer about the daughter of close friends of my family. Her baby is doing wonderfully.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1421597/posts
"The President has made very clear that he is pro-life with three exceptions." Those exceptions are widely assumed to be rape, incest and the life of the mother."
I agree totally.
This woman is a candidate for sainthood. But the point is SHE chose to carry a rape pregnancy to term. In that case, all the more power to her. But the option to terminate a rape pregnancy should ALWAYS be available.
I have a problem with a child being murdered because of his father's crimes.
This woman is a beautiful example of a mother's love. I am proud to know a young woman who loved her child enough to see past the sins of her father. She gave her child life and then gave her to a family who could raise her outside of the pain due to her conception. Although the woman does not take an active parenting role, she truly is a mother.
Birth date or anniversary?
You're right. One does not make a statistic, but this woman gave literally her life for a child she chose from an act of violence she did not choose.
thanks for the heads up.....
***************
You make a good point, one which I hadn't considered.
The sad thing here is that now everyone knows the little girl is the product of a rape. In a few years some a-hole will make sure the girl knows it too. Not sure how one deals with that. Well, I hope.
Now, isn't that a nice thought. Ugh Obviously, not all rapists are sociopaths.
Ronald Wilson Reagan's birthday.
My best friends girlfriend and his brother were murdered by just such a child his brother adopted and raised from birth.
(not sarcasm)
Back in college, I met some kind of guest speaker, she was that unique case where her mother was raped (though in this case, she was born in 1970 before roe) and her mother did try to abort her and failed.
She simply kept daring people to tell her to her face why she should not have been allowed to be born, why her mother would have a right to terminate her and explain to her how they wish her mother had had the right to terminate her as a product of abortion (i.e. wish she had never been born).
I changed my views from then on, and now oppose abortion even for rape.
People are also murdered by non adopted children. Goodness.
susie
Life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
I don't have the statistics at hand, but I can't imagine how this rapist only raped one woman.
Take a DNA sample from the child, compare it to the DNA database and throw the rapist into the Greybar Hilton for a few more decades. In a cell with a 300 pound Crip will who teach him that rape is not always fun.
Of course, the rapist probably won't have any assets; but it would be entertaining to stick him with a judgement for 18 years of child support.
Ah, yes. The sociopath gene. Documentation, please?
Non-adopted children kill people too, you know.
Ah, but the little girl will realize just how much she was loved because it would have been easy to abort her. She will have so much respect for her mother that other mother's will be jealous!!
A have a single, personal example. Readings? Perhaps Hare's 'Without Conscience'.
God has blessed her also with Wisdom and Truth....and a baby.
Now, you're talking!
This is lady of high substance and character.
I hope you are right.
Then how about this: she's not allowed to destroy the baby before birth, but after it's born and she has a chance to see what the baby looks like, she gets the choice of thumbs up it's spared, or thumbs down, she can smash it with a sledgehammer.
There's an echo in here! I could have just cut and pasted your post and saved myself some time. :^)
other than trespassing for those leftist idiots, I guess.
She will have a special place in Heaven.
They will have the Grace of God protecting them. Her parents raised her as a great Catholic.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.