Part and Party to Rape

I was tempted to approach this subject on tiny cat paws, as quietly and gently as possible...but the subject of rape has no gentility to it, so talking about it in a gentle, careful manner is meaningless. That is especially true if you know someone, love someone, or happen to be someone for whom this is not just a "subject" but a reality in the most real of ways.

As one of my favorite TV-newsie persons likes to say "first a little housekeeping."  Just to make things clear, personally, I am very much pro-life. I am also "I-would-give-my-life-to-save-it" pro choice. This is not at all unusual. I always count my sons first when counting the many blessings in the mixed bag of blessings and curses that is my life. I found out just how pro-life I am, for me and mine, when I dealt with an unplanned pregnancy and could have had a free (truly free--not paid for by tax dollars free) abortion. 

I had a 5 year old already and was in my final year at University and was commuting hundreds of miles per day on many days doing Public Health work in outlying counties. Continuing the pregnancy meant I would be beginning my job search in my seventh month and my marriage was already well on its way to doom. It all seemed insurmountable, and since I'd been doing volunteer escorting at the local clinic where the crazies had been getting increasingly threatening, the owner and staff had offered me free services. As it turned out, the baby shower and biggest gift basket of baby supplies, along with the most heartfelt congratulations came from those same people after I realized that convenient or not, I was already in love with the little potential being inside me. People who work at reproductive care clinics don't hate babies. They care deeply for women and children; they don't want to see unwanted innocents brought into the world to be neglected and abused. They see the world as it is, not as they wish it could be. 

Then there's rape. Clearly no one's thinking of the women here, so let's try a different tactic. Surely you all have a female relative. Surely you would want to destroy, bodily, anyone who assaulted a woman you loved in that way. Stop and think now. Would you, personally, want to be the one to tell her she must give birth to the child of that rapist if she became pregnant? If she were your wife, would you want to live with her for nine months knowing she had the child of her rapist growing inside her? It's not realistic. Can you even begin to imagine the real-life ramifications of this kind of legislation in this nation? Just watch the suicide rate climb...male and female alike. Seriously, imagine the father of a ten year old girl forced to watch her belly swell day after day as he remains powerless to kill the piece of human excrement who did that to his innocent daughter. Then imagine some turd blossom like Todd Akin saying " well, it's my understanding that if she got pregnant, well....she wanted it." SHE'S TEN YEARS OLD! And please don't tell me it doesn't happen. I have personally taken care of the child of an eleven year old in little Green Bay, Wisconsin. It happens!

Ten Year Old Gives Birth

While the female body does not have a way to "shut that whole process down" [in cases of rape] as Todd Akin, Paul Ryan's partner in legislation, so stupidly stated, emotions can and do change the hormonal atmosphere in which the human zygote, embryo and fetus develop. We are only beginning to understand how that atmosphere, including recreational alcohol and other drug use, as well as prescribed psychoactive and other medications so many young women take now, permanently alters development. This is called teratogenesis when it causes cancer and mutagenesis when it causes deformity/mutation. This can result in something as minor as a heart valve malfunction to a trisomy disorder such as Down's Syndrome. I won't launch into a whole science lecture here, but the science is truly fascinating. 

Admittedly those would be extreme examples and not the usual case. My point is that only the woman who has been raped should decide what she does if she becomes pregnant. Any other way dealing with the situation in a very real way continues the assault. I can prove that logically. Rape is the act of forcing ones sexual will upon another human being against their wishes. Legislation forcing women to carry to term and deliver the zygote --> embryo --> fetus --> eventual baby of their rapist is an act of forcing the sexual will of a bunch of people, most of whom are men, on a class of people, all of whom are women, against their will. This, by definition, is rape! By conspiring with the rapist to continue to act against the will of the woman whose physical assault has already been begun by the original rapist, every person who votes for "no exceptions" legislation is part and party to the crime of rape by continuing the physical and emotional assault upon the body of the victim against her will.

This is not an extreme or "out there on the fringes" idea. If you sit for a minute and think...just cogitate for a moment and it will make sense to you...even the most extreme of you, if you are honest with yourselves. You don't have to say it out loud. No one can read your thoughts, and you know it's true. God already knows it, so you're not sinning by admitting the truth.

What I want to discuss, finally and most importantly, is the fact that only a pregnant woman knows what she should do if she becomes pregnant, especially by rape. A woman who is healthy and has a loving and supportive network of family and friends may carry such a pregnancy to term, as the most purely good, Christ-like and loving young lady I have ever known did when this very thing happened to her at a very tender age. She carried the baby to term and made a couple very happy parents of a beautiful, talented child. That is the ideal, of course. She turned something tragic into the greatest of blessings, and it took the heart of a lion to do it too. That is how she healed, and it wasn't easy. Not everyone agreed with her decision, but it was hers to make. That is how she regained control over her body. Another woman may make a different decision, but whatever the decision is, it is the most vital part of the healing process for that woman, so that she may progress from victim to survivor!