“Posted on 08/21/2012 2:53:18 PM PDT by NYer
Rebecca Kiessling, a pro-life attorney from Michigan, fully understands the national debate going on concerning the controversial comments Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin made about abortion and rape. Kiessling was conceived when her mother was victimized by a rapist.
“It seems to me, first of all, from what I understand from doctors, if it’s a legitimate rape, that’s really rare. The female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,” Akin said. “The punishment ought to be on the rapist, and not in attacking the child.”
Kiessling responded to the comments saying that the use of the term “legitimate rape” was unnecessary and improper and she gave her advice for how pro-life candidates can thoughtfully and articulately address the sensitive subject of rape and abortion.
“
First of all — never say ‘legitimate rape,’” Kiessling said. “Ron Paul used the same terminology last January and he got lambasted for it too. This kind of remark only serves to perpetuate the suspicion of rape victims’ accounts. It’s estimated that only 1% of rape victims ever see their rapist convicted as charged. Rape is rape. “Legitimate rape” almost sounds as if it was somehow justifiable.”
“If you are 100% pro-life with no rape exceptions, there is no need to question the veracity of a rape victims’ account, because you are against all abortions. It would not matter if a woman was not or not raped,” she continued.
While abortion advocates often talk about supporting a woman’s right to privacy, Kiessling says rape exceptions in abortion laws turn that notion on its head.
“Rape exceptions in the law actually put the government in the position of having to ascertain when the child was conceived, who the father is, whether the child was conceived during the alleged rape or during intercourse with her husband or boyfriend, and if the child was conceived during the time frame of the alleged rape, then the government would need to determine whether the sexual intercourse was consensual or not,” she explained. “So rape exceptions serve to perpetuate the injustice against rape victims that their accounts are to be viewed with skepticism, and it further leaves the majority of impregnated rape victims wholly unprotected under the law. Rape exceptions suggest that a “real rape victim” couldn’t possibly love “the rapist’s baby” and that rape victim mothers don’t exist.”
The pro-life attorney says pro-life candidates need to be coached on how to answer the media’s inevitable question.
“Senator Rick Santorum, during his presidential campaign, said that he thinks that a child conceived in rape is “a gift from God,” and he was made fun of for that. Just Google images for “Santorum rape” and you’ll see all of the posters where he is mocked for this statement. While I believe it’s true that every child is a gift from God, including children conceived in rape, I don’t believe this was the best response for the interview,” she explained. “If it had been my birthmother sharing that she believes that I’m a blessing and a gift from God, she would not be mocked and ridiculed in the same way he was. And then Sharron Angle, during her Senate race in Nevada, said it’s a “lemonade situation,” which did not come across well at all. The problem is not with these candidates’ values. The problem is how they express them.”
Kiessling gives a three-step process in terms of how candidates should answer the question:
1. The Supreme Court has said that the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment for rapists and that rapists don’t deserve the death penalty. I don’t think the innocent child conceived in rape deserves the death penalty for the crimes of her father. It seems to me that is cruel and unusual punishment.
2. Rape victims are four times more likely to die within the next year after the abortion, with a higher rate of suicide, murder, drug overdose, etc.. As someone who really cares about rape victims, I want to protect them from the rapist, and from the abortion, and not the baby. A baby is not the worst thing that could ever happen to a rape victim — an abortion is. We need to educate the American public on the truth in this matter and not make public policy based on myth and misinformation.
3. Rape victims choose abortion at half the rate of the average unplanned pregnancy, which is over 50%. Only 15-25% of rape victims choose abortion, depending on the study. The majority of rape victims choose to raise her child — not “the rapist’s baby” — HER child.
Of course, I also think it helps to share a personal story and there are lots available, of women who became pregnant by rape and either regret aborting, are raising their children or are birth-moms, as well as stories of those of us conceived in rape and/or incest. You can find those stories on my website: www.rebeccakiessling.com/Othersconceivedinrape.html and www.rebeccakiessling.com/PregnantByRape.html
Any person derived as a clone is another unique person. If I make 5 copies of a machine, each one is a unique individual machine so that now there are 5, not one.
Criminal law my butt. I think the govm't should stay the hell out of these matters.
No, it's a clone with the exact same DNA. It could be used for spare parts without fear of tissue rejection.
The embryos in the petri dish are not clones of the parents, they have their own distinct identities.
"A human being comes into existence when the information from an egg and sperm combine to create a new unique individual or set of individuals in the case of maternal twins (unlike cloning which comes from a single existing individual's DNA)."
Information? The information is roesent in any human cell. Any human cell is human life and contains all the information necessary to develop into an adult — a unique person. Any of them is derived from some prior union.
"To purposefully abort a human being or to use contraception that does not prevent conception, by definition, ends the existence of a human being and is wrong. "
Your "definition" is faulty. A human being is defined by adult characteristics, not potential characteristics. An embryo, or close to it does not meet, or even come close to those characteristics. It also is not viable w/o someone to join in union with it and become a part of it just to exist. A woman's body, or some technical creation is required for that. Notice that to become a part of it is required! An embryo is mostly the person of the mother and consists of almost nothing that resembles a person. It's the parents who announce, "it's a baby!" It's the parents who attribute personhood as God did at some point in man's evolution.
It is a fundamental right of the parents to decide if and when to call that person a child, baby, and give it the gift of personhood, not anyone else. That right derives from the sovereignty of will granted to the mother over her own body and the free will of both parents to procreate as they see fit. If the pregnancy is not wanted, the parents have a right to stick with that decision and no one else is justified in calling it a homicide.
"There are forms of contraception that prevent conception, and by definition, do not end the existence of a human beings."
You are welcome to your belief.
"Ending the existence of a human being at any stage of their development is wrong, whether a non-productive senior that requires someones dedication and complete care for many years,"
Seniors are still sovereigns. Living wills that include DNR orders and quick painless endings in terminal conditions are not homicide either. That includes the use of anesthetics and the withholding of food and water in cases of inevitable death.
Amazing! You'd cut up a live person just to get some parts. A you going to keep him sedated 'till the harvest, or just keep him captive so the parts grow up strong and healthy?
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The people.
The people.
"Well maybe the government should stay the hell away when a criminal breaks in your house and steals your stuff "
I noted tht they genrally have, especially when it's close to the end of the shift and one has to fight with them to fill out a report, a keep after them to investigate the burglary, or theft.
> Either you are anti-abortion or pro-abortion.
What say you to the exception to save the mother’s life?
And what about birth control?
Lines are drawn in all aspects of life and death. You have yours and depending on how extreme they are determines if you get to implement them or not.
No, I wouldn't. That's why we oppose cloning.
But the wild eyed baby-killing, euthanasia, packer/muncher culture-of-death types would.
What the hell do you think the embryonic stem cell/abortion industry is all about?
So let me get this straight: in your mind, embryos are not human & just because a human gestates in a woman’s body, abortion is ok?
What the hell is w/ all the pro-abort trolls today??
>>The people.<<
No, the RATs.
The RATs run all cities, the education/indoctrination system, the media, "entertainment" they infest all bureaucracies, government unions, the court system etc etc etc.
The RATs run the USA.
Who can with absolute honesty answer that question? Given it is a known fact that not all women report ‘legitimate rape’. I have come to the opinion because of Akin only women should be allowed to speak about rape pregnancies. Only they can know if the rape was ‘legitimate’ or not.
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Egregiously absurd. You are no conservative. End of exchange.
Based, of course, on the idea that a 16 1/2 year old is too immature to decide on a sexual relationship. But if she wants an abortion, well hell, clear the decks and get her in there, it's her right to hide it from her parents, according to the leftists.
Who's really waging a "war on women," people who don't want to pay for other peoples' abortions, or the people who are killing about 600,000 unborn women every year in the US?
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