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Abortion: Rape and Incest

Rape and incest are similar in the sense that both are criminal acts. In our system of justice, we punish the criminal. We do not punish the victim, nor do we punish the criminal’s children. We are told, however, that if pregnancy occurs as a result of rape or incest, offering the victim an abortion is the compassionate thing to do. No woman should be “forced to carry that monster’s child.”

The trauma of sexual assault is very real, and there is no intention here to downplay that. But abortion carries its own variety of trauma. Women—even those who were victims of sexual assault—have reported years of physical, emotional, and psychological difficulty following their abortions. Abortion did not solve their problem; it merely created additional ones.

In addition to this, we should never forget that abortion takes the life of a living human being. The circumstances of how the child’s life was created may have been criminal, but the life of the newly created human being is just as valuable as any other person’s. Killing the child of a criminal who has committed sexual assault is not the solution. We should punish the criminal, not kill his child.