Abortion: What About Rape & Incest?

DID YOU KNOW? . . .

There are at least 1.3 to 1.6 million abortions performed each year in the U.S.?
There have been at least 30 million abortions since 1973?
In a survey (conducted by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a research arm of Planned Parenthood) of why 1,900 women aborted their child, 95% cited social reasons ("concerned about how baby could change her life, can't afford a baby now, unready for responsibility, etc.")?
Only 1% cite fetal abnormality, rape or incest as a reason for her abortion'?¹

How Are Abortions Done?

During the first three months:

Suction Aspiration - A suction tube (with a knife-like edge) is inserted into the womb. The strong suction tears the baby to pieces drawing them out into a container. Great care must be taken not to tear the womb.

Dilation and Curettage (D & C) Similar to the suction method except for the insertion of a curette (knife) which cuts the baby apart and scrapes the pieces out through the cervix.

During later stages of pregnancy:

Dilation and Evacuation (D & E) In this process, the baby is pulled apart (its bones are calcified) and its skull crushed to enable removal through the cervix by force.

Saline Injection (Salt Poisoning) Though outlawed in Japan and other countries due to its risk to the mother, this procedure is used in the U.S. after the fourth month of pregnancy. A concentrated salt solution is injected by needle into the sac surrounding the baby. The baby inhales and swallows the solution. Organs and tissues are burned; hemorrhaging and convulsions begin. The mother goes into labor and a dead or dying baby is delivered within 24 to 48 hours.

Prostaglandin Abortion - Prostaglandins are hormones which induce labor. They are injected into the sac surrounding the baby. The mother goes into labor, giving birth to a child too young to survive.

Hysterectomy - Usually done in the third trimester, the abdomen and womb are surgically opened; the baby lifted out and the cord clamped. The child, usually too young to survive without medical care, is simply put aside to die.

When Are Abortions Done?

"No significant legal barriers of any kind whatsoever exist today in the United States for a woman to obtain an abortion for any reason during any stage of her pregnancy" concluded the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in an official 1982 report (#98-149): 120,000 late abortions (from the beginning of the fourth month to the end of-the ninth month) are performed every year in the U.S.² In 1983, 12,270 abortions were done on babies 21 weeks (six months old), an age when some babies, if born prematurely, have lived.³

Who Has Abortions?

At least 30% of all pregnancies are now ended by abortion.⁴ 81% of pregnancies to unmarried women are aborted.⁵ For teenagers, 41%-46% of pregnancies are aborted.⁶

"In 1987 the Alan Guttmacher Institute took a survey of 9,480 women at approximately 100 abortion clinics throughout the U.S. and found that 42.9% of the women said they were having repeat abortions."⁶

The Guttmacher Institute also "reports that 46% of American women over 45 have had an abortion."⁷

"It's A Baby - Not A 'Choice'!"

at 18 days after conception, doctors have detected the unborn child's beating heart
at 45 days after conception, brain waves have been traced by an EEG
a baby is sensitive to touch and pain at 2 months
by three months the baby can grasp an object
all body systems are present and functioning by three months.

(In 1983, 1,426,390 babies were aborted during these first three months of pregnancy.)³

What About RAPE?

"Given known data on the issue of rape, we can calculate that approximately 250-500 rape victims will become pregnant in the United States in a given year. If one puts that into perspective, one realizes that less than 0.1% of all abortions would now be performed for indication of rape. Now let's expand that and place into the accounting the possibility that there's a ten fold under reporting of the number of forcible rapes in the U.S. That would give us the figure of 2,500-5,000 victims of rape who would become pregnant in a given year. That means that 99.7-99.8% of all abortions are being performed for reasons other than rape. Thus, to bring rape into the question of abortion is camouflage, a smoke screen, a cover-op. It's using this highly emotionally charged issue (rape) to avoid...discussion of the real issues. To have a sound policy towards the rape victim, we should not have abortion as its cornerstone. We should have a caring, sensitive assistance towards those young women who need our help in this particularly traumatic situation." (Thomas W. Hilger, M.D., FACOG)

Points to ponder concerning pregnancy due to rape:

There are two victims - the woman and her unborn child.
Every abortion kills a living and growing baby.
Is the real harm not already done?
Does abortion, in robbing the unborn child of life heal, or compound, the mother's wounds?
Will an abortion prevent, or intensify the psychological trauma of rape by compounding the shame of rape with the guilt of abortion?

Abortion, a second act of violence, is not a solution to problem pregnancy due to rape. Abortion causes a woman its own devastating psychological and emotional trauma.

What About INCEST?

"It is very important to keep in mind that in an incestuous relationship we're looking at a psychosexual, pathological relationship and that...this can respond quite favorably to treatment. Aborting an innocent unborn child will never correct the pathology nor mend the hurts. The problems exist with or without pregnancy - with or without abortion. We've got to get abortion out of the arena of discussion and bring (in) the real discussion of both rape and incest so we can get to the core of the problems, and stop the band-aid solutions of the band-aid society." (Thomas W. Hilgers, M.D., FACOG)8

Some points to consider for pregnancy due to incest:

There are two victims - the woman and her unborn child.
Regardless of the circumstances of conception, every abortion kills an innocent, unborn child. In effect, the child is punished for the sins of the father.
There is no psychological evidence that abortion will be a psychological benefit to the incest victim.⁹
Pregnancies due to incest are rare. (Abortions performed for reasons of incest account for less than 1% annually.)
If we are truly concerned for victims of incest, we should be moving toward less violent solutions to these problems than human abortion.

"If I were in high public office...and I were asked, as I surely would be, what I would do about pregnancies due to rape and incest, I would reply by asking another question: 'Are you willing to do anything to reduce the 1.5 million abortions performed in this country every year? If not, why not? In the meantime, stop talking about rape and incest as if they were the only reasons for abortion'."

Francis Canavan, professor emeritus of Fordham University

God's ways are not our ways. As the Scripture tells us, "God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world, and the despised things..." (1 Cor.1:27, 28) For each child formed in the womb, regardless of the circumstances of conception, God has a purpose in His plan for the ages.

Is abortion really the only solution we can offer a woman who is pregnant against her will?
Or shall we find truly compassionate ways to support and assist both she, and her baby?

SOURCES

"Why Do Women Have Abortions," Family Planning Perspectives, a journal of the Alan Guttmacher Institute, an affiliate of Planned Parenthood, Vol. 20, No. 4, (July/August '88)
Statistics on late abortions: Bernard Nathanson, M.D., Eclipse of Reason, 1987
Family Planning Perspectives, Jan/Feb 1987
Family Planning Perspectives, Vol. 19, No. 2, Mar/Apr 1987
Center for Disease Control figures as reported in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, 11 /26/1988
Association for Interdisciplinary Resources in Values and Social Change newsletter, Vol. 2, No. 3, Summer 1989
As reported in The National Review, May 28, 1990, p. 9
Thomas W. Hilgers, M.D., "Rape and Incest: the Emotional Scapegoats of the Abortion Issue," Pope Paul VI Institute, Omaha, NE., tape LI.-3, 1989
G.E. Maloof, M.D., "The Consequences of Incest: Living and Taking Life," in The Psychological Aspects of Abortion, (Washington: University Publications of America, Inc. 1979) p. 87

This article is available in brochure form from LFL. Click here to go to the on-line Life Resource Catalog. © Non-commercial use permitted without prior permission, provided that proper credit is attributed.