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How Do We Respond to the Question 'What About Rape and Incest?'
Christian Post ^ | 08/25/2012 | Karen Gushta

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.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: abortion; incest; rape
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To: chris37
In the case of rape and incest, it is a justifiable killing

Fortunately saying it, doesn't make it so. Repeating pro abortion rhetoric and propaganda doesn't make it any less a lie or propaganda.

And no matter how many kudos you might get on FR for your sophistry it is still sophistry and a pernicious deception.

141 posted on 08/25/2012 8:56:48 PM PDT by Brian Kopp DPM (Sin Makes You Stupid.)
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To: chris37; tacticalogic
Rape and Incest 1, Abortion is never the right choice

or how about this baby?

Rape and Incest 2, Abortion is never the right choice

142 posted on 08/25/2012 9:02:50 PM PDT by Coleus
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To: little jeremiah

Thank you for your post LJ, for your honesty and courage.

Yours is the reality nobody wants to admit or accept. It is the only reality, the universal reality of the scenario described in this thread. Being a victim does not justify victimizing the next innocent victim. Murdering an innocent baby conceived in rape cannot be justified by any appeal to “consent” or any sophistry that renames murder as justifiable killing.


143 posted on 08/25/2012 9:03:05 PM PDT by Brian Kopp DPM (Sin Makes You Stupid.)
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To: Dr. Brian Kopp

Fortunatley, calling my original thoughts pro abortion rhetoric and propaganda doesn’t make it pro abortion rhetoric or propaganda.

They are my own thoughts. A question was asked, and I answered it.

And I do not care about kudos. That isn’t why I posted in this thread. I do admit that I am glad to know that I am not alone in my thoughts, but considering the subject matter, it doesn’t provide me any real positive emotion. What has been discussed is tragic.

It’s fine if you don’t agree with me, but if you are going to insult me, just keep it to yourself man, you aren’t going to change my mind, I will never force a woman to bear the child of a man who forced her to have sex with him.

You do that if you want, but you can count me out.


144 posted on 08/25/2012 9:08:30 PM PDT by chris37 (Heartless.)
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To: Dr. Brian Kopp

I still shed tears to this day, for causing the death of an innocent human being, one given to me to bear, even though conceived in very bad circumstances. If I could go back in time and choose differently, I would, no matter what the cost in any way.

It is an indescribably heavy weight of pain I will carry to my dying day. What is nine months of discomfort compared to this?


145 posted on 08/25/2012 9:09:05 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)
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To: Coleus

The one that was conceived by rape.

Why don’t you ask the mother?


146 posted on 08/25/2012 9:10:06 PM PDT by chris37 (Heartless.)
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To: chris37
Rape 3
147 posted on 08/25/2012 9:15:05 PM PDT by Coleus
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To: chris37

Why don’t you ask the mother? >>

all rights come from God, the mother has no right to murder the child He created in his likeness and image, created with a soul, to have a purpose on earth and created to live with God forever.


148 posted on 08/25/2012 9:16:48 PM PDT by Coleus
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To: Coleus
all rights come from God, the mother has no right to murder the child He created in his likeness and image, created with a soul, to have a purpose on earth and created to live with God forever.

Interesting. Let's break it down.

all rights come from God, the mother has no right to murder the child He created...

Did God rape the mother?

all rights come from God, the mother has no right to murder the child

Aborting the child of a rapist upon request of his victim isn't murder, it is a justifable killing, albeit tragic.

all rights come from God, the mother has no right

Did God not give the mother any rights?

the mother has no right

Apparently not.

Sorry, I don't agree with you now, and I never will. In the case of rape, incest and life of the mother, the ooutcome of her pregnancy is her decision, not yours.

149 posted on 08/25/2012 9:39:11 PM PDT by chris37 (Heartless.)
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To: little jeremiah

I’m so sorry that you had to experience something like this. Words cannot express. Perhaps your story can convince other young women to do the right thing.

I hope that God and time have granted you a measure of peace in your life.

Rape is such an unjust, evil crime. Just below murder, perhaps in some cases just as bad. In the sense that the victim may never know happiness again.

It bothers me that she never gave consent, yet some people want to tell her what she must do. I just can’t go there. Its as if her consent means nothing.

If you can convince her to keep the baby and raise it or give it up for adoption, then I think that is really the best.

Do you remember the story of Joseph where he tells his brothers, you meant it for evil, but God turned it to good. Something like that.

I despise violet criminals because they destroy so many lives. The crazy Colorado gunman destroyed many hundreds if not thousands of lives when you count all the family and friends affected.

Likewise Rape often affects more than just the victim.


150 posted on 08/25/2012 10:21:41 PM PDT by desertfreedom765
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To: Coleus
Which of these political entities is authorized within the original intent of the Constitution to define and prosecute the crime of murder and to regulate the practice of abortion?

1.The United States Congress

2 The States, and the People

151 posted on 08/26/2012 4:49:55 AM PDT by tacticalogic ("Oh, bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: chris37

Did God rape the mother? >>>

now you’re getting childish and your logic is skewed.

and BTW, today, with modern medicine, women do not die as a result of getting pregnant, if they do die, it’s usually during childbirth. Women can now get chemotherapy while pregnant and so on. The health-of-the-mother excuse is used to fool people just like you.


152 posted on 08/26/2012 10:58:10 AM PDT by Coleus
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To: Coleus

No I am not being childish, and my logic is not skewed.

You said God created the child.

There are only two ways that I am aware of for a child to be created and that is via intercourse between a man and a woman, however in this case that intercourse was forcible which makes it a crime, or immaculate conception.

So exactly which method did God use to create the child in question? Because the reality of this situation is that the rapist created the child via the act of rape, and you’re saying that God created it is an attempt to ignore the fact that he crime of rape occured in reality, and until you deal with the commision of that crime and the consent that was never obtained from the mother, then you cannot proceed without behaving in a manner that is strikingly similar to the behavior of the rapist.

Further more, I did not say “health of the mother”, I said “life of the mother”, so do not substitute a more general term for the specific term that I used, or I am going to assume that it is people like YOU who are trying to fool me.


153 posted on 08/26/2012 11:17:49 AM PDT by chris37 (Heartless.)
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To: chris37

so rape is a crime and murdering a baby in the womb is not a crime, no your logic isn’t skewed, lol.

Like I said previously, women do not die as a result of being pregnant, so the life of the mother excuse is a moot topic.

Pregnancy isn’t a disease, most women whose life is lost is lost at the time of childbirth, usually due to bleeding and stroke. As a matter of fact the life of the mother is enhanced by pregnancy.


154 posted on 08/27/2012 9:16:23 AM PDT by Coleus
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To: chris37
Women Who Cried Wolf — the illegitimate rape claim behind Roe v Wade

Roe v. Wade was built on a lie. Norma McCorvey a.k.a. Jane Roe of the SCOTUS case Roe v. Wade,  admitted she lied when she claimed that she was raped in order to challenge the Texas law against abortion.

155 posted on 08/27/2012 9:18:50 AM PDT by Coleus
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To: tacticalogic

you’re purposefully leaving out the Bill of Rights in your statement, how convenient. BTW, abortion was illegal in during the time of George Washington.


156 posted on 08/27/2012 9:24:14 AM PDT by Coleus
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To: Coleus
you’re purposefully leaving out the Bill of Rights in your statement

Amendment X:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Abortion was illegal during the time of George Washington under which laws - federal or state?

157 posted on 08/27/2012 9:35:12 AM PDT by tacticalogic ("Oh, bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: Coleus
so rape is a crime and murdering a baby in the womb is not a crime, no your logic isn’t skewed, lol.

No, as I told you my logic isn't skewed. Your logic is skewed. If a mother has no right to consent, or if her consent doesn't mean anything, then there is no crime of rape. Forcible intercourse is simply the Lord's will, and no one can or should resist it or its outcome. lol.

Remove the crime of rape form the book, release all men previously convicted of it. They were just following the Lord's plan. lol.

Like I said previously, women do not die as a result of being pregnant, so the life of the mother excuse is a moot topic.

Why don't you google mother dies during childbirth and educate yourself?

158 posted on 08/27/2012 9:41:23 AM PDT by chris37 (Heartless.)
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To: tacticalogic

5th amendment, we have a right to LIFE.


159 posted on 08/27/2012 10:23:33 AM PDT by Coleus
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To: Coleus
5th amendment, we have a right to LIFE.

Can you provide supporting evidence from the records of the Convention that the intent of that amendment was to outlaw abortion?

160 posted on 08/27/2012 10:27:00 AM PDT by tacticalogic ("Oh, bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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