What about abortion in cases of rape or incest?
Abortion Q & A — BY JOHN CARDINAL O'CONNOR, ARCHBISHOP OF NEW YORK
July of 1990
http://priestsforlife.org/magisterium/cardocqanda.html#qa13
Some evils are what we call intrinsic evils, that is evil in themselves, so that no circumstances can justify them. Direct abortion is such an evil. It simply can not be morally justified. This principle holds even in regard to rape or incest. An unborn baby is an innocent human being who has committed no crime, regardless of how conception came about. It is never morally right to destroy an innocent human being.
What About Rape?
http://www.prolife.org.uk/about/keyabortion.htm
Abortion is often recommended in cases of rape. But abortion does not undo the rape; instead it compounds violence with violence. It is an indefensible response to a complex situation. Putting aside the injustice of an innocent child being killed for her father's crime, there is evidence that abortion only deepens the trauma of the rape victim as well as taking the innocent life of her child. A rape victim requires special emotional care regardless of whether or not she obtains an abortion. By recommending abortion as a quick and easy way to “lessen the impact”, a disservice is done to raped women.
By promoting abortion specifically in the case of rape one implicitly argues that the means of conception determines the value of a human life. This line of reasoning fails to acknowledge that, biologically speaking, there is no difference between a human being conceived by a loving couple and a human being conceived by rape. Are we to deem born children conceived by rape as having no right to life?
It is also worth noting that statistically speaking, violent rape is extraordinarily unlikely to result in pregnancy; moreover, women tend to love their babies even if they hate the father.
Priests for Life Q&A on Abortion
http://priestsforlife.org/questions.html
A key study on this topic is the book Victims and Victors: Speaking out about their Pregnancies, Abortions, and Children Resulting from Sexual Assault, By David C. Reardon. In this book, read the testimonies of 192 women who reveal that most pregnant sexual assault victims don't want abortion, and those who do abort only suffer more. This is the most comprehensive study published on this theme. http://www.afterabortion.org
Dr. Theresa Burke also addresses this topic in her book Forbidden Grief, www.forbiddengrief.com. One example from that book is this testimony: “The rape was bad, but I could have gotten over it. The abortion is something I will never get over. No one realizes how much that event damaged my life. I hate my rapist, but I hate the abortionist too. I can’t believe I paid to be raped again. This will affect the rest of my life.”
Please also see the following testimony from Jenni Speltz, who was conceived in rape: http://www.priestsforlife.org/testimony/jennispeltz.htm.
In many cases the best choice is adoption. It is important to note that there are hundreds of thousands of couples that want to adopt but have been unable to because so many children are never allowed to be born.
What about the life of the mother? (by Fr. Frank Pavone) http://priestsforlife.org/questions.html
Answer: There are two questions at issue here. One is medical (Is there ever need for an abortion to save the mother's life?) and the other is moral (Would an abortion in that case be justified?) The answer to both questions is no. There is no medical situation whose only solution is a direct abortion, as many doctors have testified. Morally speaking, furthermore, it is never right to directly kill an innocent person, even if good results are foreseen. We do not say that a baby's life is more important than the mother's. We do say that they are equal. You may never directly kill either one of them. If, in spite of the best medical efforts, one or both of them die, nothing morally wrong has been done, because an effort has been made to save life, but has failed. That is far different from killing.
See also these articles by Fr. Frank Pavone:
”Persuading People that Rape Does Not Justify Abortion” http://priestsforlife.org/columns/column8-17rape.html
What moral/ethical/good things are ever done in back alleys anyway?! “Safe, then Legal” http://priestsforlife.org/columns/columns2003/03-10-06safethenlegal.htm
Three expert physicians’ testimonies stating that there is no “medical reason” for having an abortion. http://priestsforlife.org/articles/dropinion.html
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My mother in law told me why she is a believer in abortion. As a nurse, before abortion was legalized, she had a 12 year old patient that was raped by her step father, and became pregnant. She said she didn’t think that it was fair for that child to have to have that baby.
I pointed out, that since the girl could not have an anonymous abortion, the rape was discovered and the perp was sent to prison! Legalization didn’t help this little girl. The fact that abortion was illegal helped this child!
If this had happened after legal “safe” abortion, the man would, as many have since legalization; forced the girl to have an abortion at planned parenthood, and kept on abusing her! As it is, the abuse was stopped.
The girl actually was able under the pre-1974 laws of Washington State to have an abortion....in a hospital, with the full knowledge of her mother, and the police.
I wonder how she is now? Bless her heart.