THE HARD CASES

Is abortion acceptable in cases of rape or incest?

* First of all, we need to understand that pregnancies resulting from assault rape and incest are very rare, and "hard cases make bad laws," as they set precedents for all cases:

* "Perhaps more of a gross exaggeration than a myth is the mistaken and unfortunate belief that pregnancy is a frequent complication of sexual assault. This is emphatically not the case, and there are several medically sound reasons for it" [American Medical Women's Association]

* Most reliable figures of assault rape put resultant pregnancy at far less than 1% of pregnancies. A scientific study of 1,000 rape victims who were treated medically right after the rape reported zero pregnancies [L. Kuchera, "Postcoital Contraception with Diethylstilbestrol,"]

* Two Denver sexual assault detectives reported pregnancies in 1500 rape cases [Interview with Christian Research Associates]. In 3500 cases of medically treated rape victims in Minneapolis/St Paul over a 10 year period, there were no pregnancies [Zero Pregnancies in 3500 Rapes," The Educator]

* Pregnancies resulting from incest are also rare: 1% or less [G. Maloof, "The Consequences of Incest," The Psychological Aspects of Abortion, University Publications of America]

* Unfortunately, some women, though very few, do become pregnant in these circumstances. They should be treated with compassionate care and not encouraged to attempt to correct one evil (rape or incest) with another (killing an innocent human being). Abortion will not "unrape" the woman or reduce her trauma; it will only add the guilt of violence that she does to the trauma of the violence that was done to her. In addition, no child should be condemned to die (abortion) for the crime of its father (rape or incest). From a Christian perspective, god is still the creator of life regardless of the circumstances: for example, well-known Christian singer Ethel Waters was a product of rape.