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!
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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.
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