Posted on 08/25/2012 8:30:09 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Republican Todd Akin is standing firm. He has refused to bow to pressure to withdraw his candidacy for the U.S. Senate after he made a comment that Gary Bauer of The Campaign for Working Families called, "a gift to our political enemies."
When the Missouri Congressman was asked by a St. Louis TV station to state his views regarding possible exceptions for abortion, he responded, "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." He added: "But let's assume that maybe that didn't work or something. You know I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child."
For all his good intentions of trying to put the focus on the right to life of the unborn, Akins' use of the phrase "legitimate rape," which he later called a "misstatement," and for which he apologized and asked for forgiveness, has resulted in fierce castigations from Democrats and the liberal media. It has also brought calls from his fellow Republicans to withdraw from the race against incumbent Claire McCaskill.
Ann Coulter wrote, "If Akin truly loves his country and genuinely wants Roe v. Wade overturned, he will step aside and allow another Republican to run in his place." Coulter and others have said Akin should have been better prepared to respond to the question.
"How about saying," she offered, "'Yes, it's still a life, but more people are killed in drive-by shootings in Chicago every year. You give us the 2 million abortions that aren't a result of rape and incest and we'll give you the few thousand that are.'"
Coulter was correct in pointing to the huge number of deaths every year at the hands of abortionists. But her response still misses the mark on two points.
As lawyer Rebecca Kiessling, who was herself conceived in rape, says, "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."
According to Kiessling, the "rape exception" only perpetuates injustice against rape victims whose accounts are viewed with skepticism. She says that "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."
This assumption was expressed by Susan Milligan in U.S. News and World Report. She called children conceived through rape, "spawn." Such comments deserve as stern a rebuke as Akin's do. No child is any less human because he or she was conceived during a rape. Such a claim denies the biblical truth that all children-including the unborn-are created in the image of God. The circumstances of their conception are irrelevant. The baby in the womb is an innocent human person whose inalienable right to life must be protected just as much the baby outside of the womb.
Coulter's response also overlooked the fact that abortion itself is a traumatizing experience. The truth is:
abortion hurts women. Giving a woman the abortion option-whether she is the victim of a rape or a married woman with unplanned pregnancy-is not the "compassionate answer." Abortion does not bring healing; it brings misery, pain, and suffering, as millions of women who have had abortions can attest.
After 39 years of legal abortions in America, the statistics on the effects of abortion on women are nothing short of tragic:
•65 percent of women who abort report symptoms Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder that they attribute to their abortions.
•Women who abort have a 62 percent higher risk of death from all causes for at least eight years after their pregnancies.
•Suicide rates in women are 6–7 times higher after an abortion.
Supporters of the abortion industry want to hide the truth that abortion is harmful to women. Every woman considering having an abortion should be told the fact that 31percent of women who have abortions suffer health complications afterwards.
•Women who abort are twice as likely to have pre-term or post-term deliveries in subsequent pregnancies.
•Women who abort are more likely to experience infertility, stillbirths, and miscarriages.
•Women who abort have a significantly increased risk of breast cancer and cervical cancer. (See the Elliot Institute's Life-Threatening Risks of Abortion)
As Rebecca Kiessling observes, Rep. Akin is not the first political candidate to have run afoul of the media over the question, "What about rape and incest?" "The problem," she says, "is not with these candidates' values. The problem is how they express them."
Kiessling says candidates should respond to the question by giving the following three-part answer:
First, according to the Supreme Court, the death penalty is "cruel and unusual punishment" and rapists don't deserve the death penalty. However, if the rapist father doesn't deserve such punishment, how can we say that the innocent child conceived in rape deserves to die for the crimes of her father?
Second, Keissling points out, 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.. "If we truly care about rape victims," she says, "we should 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."
Finally, notes Kiessling, rape victims choose abortion at half the rate of the average unplanned pregnancy, which is over 50 percent. "Only 15-25 percent of rape victims choose abortion…. The majority of rape victims choose to raise her child - not 'the rapist's baby'-HER child." At her website, Rebecca has gathered stories of women who became pregnant by rape and either regret aborting, are raising their children, or are birth-moms. She also has stories of those who were conceived in rape and/or incest.
The answer to the question, "What about rape and incest?" is clear-and it's not abortion. Two wrongs do not make a right.
-- Dr. Karen Gushta is a writer and researcher for Truth in Action Ministries (formerly Coral Ridge Ministries). Her most recent book is How Can America Survive? The Coming Economic Earthquake. She has also written The War on Children: How Pop Culture and Public Schools Put Our Kids at Risk (2009) and co-authored Ten Truths About Socialism (2010). Dr. Gushta is a former board member of the Broward County Right to Life and is Vice-President of Broward County Eagle Forum. Her doctorate is in Philosophy of Education.
The violence of abortion parallels the violence of rape. When a woman exercises her right to control her own body in total disregard of the body of another human being, it is called abortion. When a man acts out the same philosophy, it is called rape.
Easy. I'm against both.
Not specifically, but there are other important decisions to be made also - Economy, Foreign Policy, etc.....and the decision to engage them in moral argument with a media, government and throngs of union, PACs, etc. is pointless. They have no morals. It detracts, pure and simple.
This may offend your moral sensibilities, but turning the other cheek and honest conversation with Democrats DOES NOT WORK! You don’t confront them with narrative, you confront them with power that allows you to take definitive action when the power is attained to do so. Their bleats after you’ve established fact don’t matter. You simply cannot reason with them.
Every time an interviewer brings up the words abortion or rape with a Republican, they should answer, “Unemployment is 8.3% and going up, 16 million workers have given up and dropped out of the work force, or the numbers would be worse. We need to grow the economy to provide opportunities for young people. Next question.”
In the case of rape, incest, or life of the mother, I support the decision that mother makes.
That is all.
In America we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, starting with the right to live.
Punish the guilty, defend the innocent.
To kill an innocent person for the sin of another is barbarism.
Does anyone know the percentage of Rape & Incest babies? I bet it is extremely low. That is why it is Never mentioned in any Lib article. This entire subject is about Libs wanting the public to pay for their abortions(in general). It is a single issue which gives the ProChoice Fanatics a platform. They think this is going to change an election? Think again. Most people with an set opinionreally don’t care whether people want to kill their babies. There are much more important issues on the table. DNC put all their eggs in this basket and it will be a crushing landslide against them.
So, you're pro-choice. You do not believe in equality, or that our rights are God-given and therefore unalienable.
As Rush says; you don’t respond. You ask if the interviewer has asked Obama about his support for partial birth abortion and live birth abortion.
When the interviewer tries to follow up keep hammering on the fact that Obama voted three times to allow killing children who were born alive after an abortion attempt.
Turn it back on them.
Call it whatever you want. I answered the question and I’m sticking by my answer.
I would never force by law a woman to bear the child of her rapist. If she chooses to bear that child, then God Bless her, if she chooses to not bear that child, then God Bless her.
And may God damn the rapist for creating this terrible situation.
It’s good question to be asked of all candidates for office and insist on an answer. Too much shuck and jiving going on. Also ask about gay marriage.
Of course, liberals don't see it as a child, so the answer would be lost on them, but at least it frames the debate.
Not specifically, but there are other important decisions to be made also - Economy, Foreign Policy, etc.....
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Yes, but often there is NO difference between the RINO positions on these issues and the dems.
Take OmamaCare vs. RomneyCare for example.
Therefore the ONLY issues that matter are moral ones. And my moral sensibilities are always offended. By Repugs.
I expect gutter values from libs. It’s when Repubs are too chicken to stand up for Chick fil A, or abortion, that I’m offended the most.
Your tagline is very self-descriptive.
Most of you planned parenthood people are heartless.
That's why we don't practice "preventive detention" on the 5% or so of a population demographic which commits 95% of the street crime.
By denying the child their most fundamental right, the right to live, you have not only abandoned the first principles of this free republic, as expressed in our national charter, the Declaration of Independence, you are violating every clause of the Constitution’s statement of purpose, and stand against the explicit, imperative requirement that each innocent person be protected.
Have a nice day.
Yes, it is, and I am not a planned parent hood people.
Agreed! It’s the vast majority of abortions that needs to end now. The minority of incest and rape abortions are being used as a political wedge.
Can’t finish, have to run my son someplace...sigh.
I do not base my principlies around the principles of a website, for one.
And for two, you are perfectly free to believe however you want to believe, and so am I.
But I am just going to tell you this. Forcing a woman to bear the child of her rapist is an extreme position, and I do not care how you try and justify it. It will NEVER be passed into law, so just keep keep on discussing it academically amongst yourselves if it makes you feel better, mmmk?
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