Kathleen DeZeeuw is a mother of a child that was conceived from rape. In an article on lifesitenews, Kathleen disagreed with pro-choicers who argument is that abortion should be legal because of the victims whom became pregnant through rape. Kathleen states, “I, having lived through rape, and also having raised a child ‘conceived in rape’, feel personally assaulted and insulted every time I hear that abortion should be legal because of rape and incest. I feel that we’re being used to further the abortion issue, even though we’ve not been asked to tell our side of the story.” She goes on to say that she is not saying that being rape is not traumatic because it really is; however, she felt that women that keep their babies after being raped are not supported by this decision.
In class this week we talked abortions and situations where having abortions are acceptable for “very important reasons.” We also learned that almost half of all pregnancies are unintended. This statistic alone caused me to ponder about horrific cases where becoming pregnant was unplanned, one of the first situations I thought of was when a victim is raped. I felt that this situation alone was of course a very important reason to get an abortion. I thought to myself: Who would want to keep a baby conceived through rape? Wouldn't that be unbearable for the women to have to live with?
One thing however that we didn’t cover in class is the percentage of victims that actually keep their babies after being raped. Sarah Terzo stated in her article, that in a study done about pregnant rape victims 70% of women decided to keep their babies. This statistic was very shocking to me. Mainly because I ignorantly assumed that most women will actually want to abort their baby in a situation like this in order to cease the physiology pain that it will actually cause by carrying the baby and also after the pregnancy always being a mother to the child. However, I learned that women who actually kept their babies have a better psychological outcome then women who abort their babies. Check out a few minutes of the video below to actually hear from pregnant rape victims that kept their babies.
My question to you is: Is it right for women to have abortions to avoid raising a baby conceived in rape? Would you support a mother who actually gave birth to a baby conceived through rape?
You have some great points! I also assumed that women should be allowed to abort babies conceived by rape but after watching that video and reading your blog I do not think it is right. It implies that the baby does not deserve the right to life. These women are also not being forced to raise these children; they can let their baby be adopted. I would support a mother who gave birth to a rape baby because it was not her fault that she was raped nor was it the babies fault for being conceived.
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