Abortion & Rape and Incest - Fr. Kline's Two Cents

See the angel watching over the unborn baby in the sonogram.

 

There have been a number of friends in our community, who say they thought abortion would be permissible due to rape or incest. I hope you are able to use this to be helpful to them. 

These abominations who affect the innocent are very difficult for any woman or child who has been raped. Yes, children get raped too, and sometimes by their own father, brother or uncle! Most have to deal with the effects of it the rest of their life. And there is also the problem of spousal rape. 

You would be surprised at how many times in 18 years, as a priest, I helped women with this, and even before a priest, I knew of these things happening to girls, even in my own high school, especially through date rape. On occasion, after talking with a victim, when I then take it to Jesus in prayer, I cry, because I feel their pain and truly believe Jesus feels everything they have gone through, but in a much more intense way, and He too weeps. 

 

Women can suffer from false guilt (blaming oneself), the feeling of being dirty, embarrassment, fear of wanting intimacy with one’s spouse, who had nothing to do with it. Anger, unforgiveness and other emotions afflict them. The perpetrator causes immense harm.

If we use a serial killer as an example, many would think a serial killer should deserve the death penalty. Others, don’t believe in the death penalty. If proven guilty, everyone would agree there should be punishment and prevention, such as jail.

If a married man had four children and then later in his life, he becomes a rapist, and then is apprehended, everyone agrees, he should go to jail as a punishment, and to prevent it again. His children conceived in his marriage would be very embarrassed and heart broken to discover their father was like a monster, who preyed upon innocent victims.

Should an unborn child conceived in the violence of rape be killed? Since his children in his marriage were conceived in love, they should live, right? After all, they are already born. After his wife discovers her husband is a serial rapist, she divorces him. She later reveals two of her four children from her marriage were also conceived in rape, because he raped her during marriage. She was forced to have relations with him and was beaten and abused in the process.

Would anyone think a 4 yr old and 7 yr old child should be killed, since they were conceived through the abomination of rape? Of course not.

If any woman became pregnant due to a rapist, she fears she could later look at the child and see “the rapist” and to avoid that, she may want an abortion. But the woman, who had four children from her serial rapist ex-spouse, two of which were conceived that way, still she would never want to kill them.

The dynamic behind this, is that the mother does not see her unborn child and therefore its easier to do away with her child. But, if she held her child in her arms and even if later the child grew to look like the rapist, because of a mother’s love, she would still love the child. The psychological harm (seeing him in her child) done to her by the rapist, is the problem. The child is not the problem.

Do people really mean, that if an innocent person (a child) reminds someone of their wicked father, then the innocent child should be killed? What! Does anyone really think its okay to kill an innocent son or daughter, due to the father’s sin?

Rape and incest are both criminal acts, and 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 that if a pregnancy results from an act of rape or incest the compassionate response is to offer the traumatized woman an abortion. No woman should be "forced to carry that monster's child," we are told. Adoption is always an option. The trauma of sexual assault is very real. But, why compound such severe trauma with the additional trauma of abortion? Rape is an act of violence inflicted upon a woman. She is an innocent victim, and this knowledge may someday help her come to terms with the rape and rebuild her life. Abortion, on the other hand, is an act of violence that a mother inflicts on her own child.

Through abortion, the mother becomes the aggressor, and this knowledge may haunt her long after she has dealt with the rape. 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 problems; it merely created additional ones.

The compassionate response to rape is to meet the real needs of the mother. Providing life-affirming medical, financial, emotional and psychological care meets these needs, and pro-life groups across the state of Kansas – more than 30 crisis pregnancy centers, and groups like Life After Assault League – and Sarah’s Hope in Wichita www.sarahshope.com 1-800-848-LOVE are doing this work. Abortion takes the life of a living human being.

The circumstances of conception may have been criminal, but the life of the newly-created human being is just as valuable as any other person's. We do not put criminal's innocent children to death in our culture; it simply isn't done.

The so-called "life of the mother" exception for abortion is unnecessary and dangerous. To begin with, there are no situations where abortion, defined as the direct and intentional killing of an unborn child, is medically necessary to save the life of the mother. Medical operations such as the removal of a cancerous uterus or the removal of an ectopic pregnancy are moral even under Catholic teaching and are not considered abortions. If a pregnant woman has a cancerous uterus that imminently threatens her life, then the uterus may be removed even though such removal results in the death of the unborn child. Similarly, when a fertilized ovum lodges in the Fallopian tube and grows there, the damaged portion of the tube containing the baby may be removed where it is clearly necessary to save the mother's life. Such operations are justified by the "principle of double effect," because the death of the child is an unintended effect of an operation independently justified to save the mother's life. They do not involve the intentional and willful destruction of an unborn child. Legally, such operations are not considered abortions. The removal of such conditions has never been prosecuted in this country, even when the mother's life was not immediately threatened. There is, therefore, no need to provide a specific exception for such cases.

In February, I heard Melissa Ohden speak in Wichita. She was conceived in rape and her mother attempted to abort her, but she survived the abortion. She was given up for adoption and then later in life met her mother. She give thanks to God everyday, for sparing her life and in response she tries to help other women, who suffer from rape, to not kill their own child. She belongs to the organization Abortion Survivors. (www.abortionsurvivors.org)

Moreover, an explicit exception for the life of the mother is dangerous. One should never attempt to codify in law the importance of one innocent human life over and above another. Physicians must make their best effort to save both patients, giving equal care to mother and child. They should never be given a license to intentionally kill either of them.

Finally, many abortionists believe that the very condition of pregnancy itself is a life threatening condition. Consequently, a "life of the mother" exception can become a massive statutory loophole through which to drive abortion on demand. Once pro-lifers say there can be a "good reason" to kill a preborn baby, the foundation of the pro-life movement crumbles. The argument is lost. Either the preborn child is a person, or the child is not a person. Since the preborn child is a person, there can be no exceptions for abortion.

"Beware that you don't look down upon a single one of these little children. For I tell you that in heaven their angels will have constant access to my Father. And I, the Messiah, came to save the lost. If a man has a hundred sheep, and one wanders away and is lost, what will he do? Won't he leave the 99 others and go out into the hills to search for the lost one? And if he finds it, he will rejoice over it more than over the 99 others safe at home! Just so, it is not my Father's will that even one of these little ones should perish." (Matthew 18:10-14)

Let us turn to Jesus and ask Him to help those traumatized by rape, incest or abortion and give all of us a deep love in our heart to help everyone in need. Let us pray for the repentance and conversion of perpetrators. Let us pray the hearts of mothers will turn to their unborn children and love them and overcome their fears and wounded hearts. And may God’s mercy and love triumph in the hearts of every person.

This is the Pastor's Column in The Monitor, local newspaper of Little River, KS for August. I'm not a pastor, but a priest in residence at Holy Trinity in Little River, but the kind editor of the paper permits me to give my two cents once a month.