Rape and Incest: The Ultimate 'Hard Cases'
ShareCHAPTER 79 — RAPE AND INCEST: THE ULTIMATE "HARD CASES"
American Life League
How I am grieved by the indignities I have suffered, and revolted by rank smells How I despise the nomad land and hate the nomad sky! When I became pregnant with a Buranian child, I wanted to kill myself. Yet once I bore it, I found the love of mother and child. His looks are strange and his speech is different, yet my hate turns into love. Deep inside, I feel the tug of my heartstrings. Morning and evening he is with me. How can I not pity that which my womb has borne and my hand nurtured?
Lament of an ancient Chinese noblewoman who was kidnapped and raped by barbarians.[1]
Anti-Life Philosophy.
Legal abortion provides the only humane disposition of a pregnancy resulting from rape or incest.
The National Abortion Rights Action League.[2]
Rape and Incest The Initial 'Wedge.'
There is always an easy solution to every human problem neat, plausible, and wrong.
H.L. Mencken.
In every one of the 56 countries that now have abortion on demand, the initial step taken by the pro-abortion forces was intense lobbying for abortion in the so-called 'hard cases' fetal deformity (eugenics), and/or rape and incest.
Any attorney will acknowledge that "hard cases make bad law," but that hasn't stopped anti-life people all over the world from using the classic 'hard cases' to introduce first artificial contraception, then abortion, then infanticide, and finally euthanasia.
Once the pro-abortionists secure abortion for the 'hard cases' of rape and incest, they use the situation to point out the "inconsistency" in existing laws in order to justify abortion on demand.
No Apologies!
Opponents of abortion rights walk a fine line within their own movement when they condone any abortion. Based on their own definition, they are guilty of being accessories to "murder" in certain circumstances by accepting rape and incest exceptions.
'Religious' Coalition for Abortion Rights.[3]
As correctly pointed out by one of the most rabidly pro-abortion groups in the world, the 'Religious' Coalition for Abortion Rights, pro-lifers must never apologize for fighting rape- and incest-justified abortions. If we even begin to think that preborn lives are disposable for any reason other than to save another human life, we set the life of the preborn below that of other human beings and this is what started our nation and our world on the road to abortion on demand in the first place!
As former abortionist Dr. Bernard Nathanson has said so eloquently, "If a part of a human community were not at stake, no woman should be required to undergo the degradation of bearing a child in these [rape and incest] circumstances, but even degradation, shame, and emotional disruption are not the moral equivalent of life. Only life is."[4]
How Many Pregnancies Are Caused By Rape?
A pregnancy conceived by forcible rape would probably head the list as the most often unwanted, but it is such an unlikely event that it is not really relevant to an understanding of the reasons why women define certain pregnancies as unwanted.
Pro-abortion writer N. Lee.[5]
Introduction.
From an ethical and logical standpoint, the number of pregnancies caused by rape and incest in this country is an issue that simply is not relevant to the moral case against these exceptions. Either all unborn babies are worth saving, or none of them are.
However, it is very useful to be able to show just how rare rape- and incest-caused pregnancies really are, because the pro-abortionists have succeeded in convincing the public that the number is extremely large. A 1990 national Wirthlin poll found that the average guess at the number of abortions performed for rape and incest was 21% of the total number of abortions in the United States.[6]
Calculations.
Since the definition of rape and the reporting procedures for such crimes vary widely from one jurisdiction to another, it is difficult to precisely pin down the number of pregnancies that result from rape each year.
However, it is possible to make an accurate estimate by taking into consideration Federal Bureau Investigation reporting percentages and known fertility factors that affect both the rapist and his victim.
Figure 79-1 shows calculations of the estimated rate of rape-caused pregnancies in this country using statistics from the Census Bureau and various leading researchers. This rate of rape-caused pregnancies is then used to calculate the total number of resulting pregnancies in this country over the period 1973 to 1992 as shown in Figure 79-2.
These calculations show that, on the average, about 550 women per year become pregnant as a result of rape. Using this figure, this means that, since Roe v. Wade in 1973, an average of 0.04% (one twenty-fifth of one percent) of all abortions have been performed for rape or one out of every 2,500!
FIGURE 79-1
CALCULATION OF PREGNANCY PROBABILITY DUE TO RAPE
[A medium text size on your computer's 'view' setting is recommended, otherwise, the tables may be discombobulated.]
Possible Rape-Induced
Sociological, Physical, or Demographic Factor Pregnancies
Assume an initial sample rape victim
population of 100,000. 100,000
Factors Affecting the Woman's Fertility.
About one-third of all rape victims are
postmenopausal or have not yet reached
menarche (first menstruation), and are
therefore generally sterile. Of those
victims that are of childbearing age,
47 percent have been rendered permanently
sterile due to elective surgery or
environmental effects. Finally, about 40
percent of all non-sterile women of
childbearing age are temporarily sterile
due to contraception use. This means that
(100% - 33%) X (100% - 47%) X (100% - 40%)
= 18.9% of rape victims were fertile at
the time of the attack.[A] 100,000 X 21.3% = 21,300
A woman is fertile only three days out of
a typical 28-day cycle. Furthermore, even
if all conditions are ideal and both man
and woman are fertile, and intercourse takes
place on every fertile day, pregnancy will
take an average of five months (or a total
of 15 fertile days out of five 28-day cycles)
to achieve.[B,C] 21,300 X (15/140) = 2,280
Factors Affecting the Rapist's Fertility.
Men in the United States have an infertility
rate due to natural or surgical causes
of about 25 percent. However, as a class,
rapists have a much higher degree (57%) of
erective or ejaculatory dysfunction serious
enough to render them sterile.[D,E]
2,280 X (100% - 57%) = 980
Rape is legally defined as penetration only;
ejaculation need not be accomplished.
Of those nonsterile rapists achieving
penetration, only about half deposited sperm.[D,E]
980 X 50% = 490
CONCLUSION: These calculations show that, on the average, 490 per 100,000 women who are raped become pregnant in the United States. This is equivalent to 0.490 percent, or about one-half of one percent.
References. [A] R.B. Everett and G.K. Jemerson. "The Rape Victim." Obstetrics and Gynecology. 50, 1977, page 88. Also data based upon telephone communications with Dr. Charles Pratt, Survey of Family Growth Division, National Center for Health Statistics, April 4, 1978, and Planned Parenthood-World Population on April 4, 1978. Summarized in testimony by Congressman Thomas J. Bliley, Jr., (R-Va.) on July 25, 1983, and reprinted in the next day's Congressional Record. Also see United States Bureau of the Census. Reference Data Book and Guide to Sources, Statistical Abstract of the United States. 1990, United States Government Printing Office. Table 99, "Contraceptive Use By Women, 15-44 Years Old, By Age, Race, Marital Status, and Method of Contraception: 1982." [B] R. Pearl. The Natural History of Population. New York: Oxford University Press, 1939. Pages 72 to 79. [C] V. Seltzer. "Medical Management of the Rape Victim." Journal of the American Medical Women's Association. 32, 1977, page 141. [D] C. Groth, A. Nicholas, and Ann Wolbert Burgess. "Sexual Dysfunction During Rape." New England Journal of Medicine, October 6, 1977, pages 764 to 766. [E] M. Dahlke, et al. "Identification of Semen in 500 Patients Seen Because of Rape." American Journal of Clinical Pathology. 68, 1977, page 740.
FIGURE 79-2
PREGNANCIES CAUSED BY RAPE IN THE UNITED STATES, 1973 TO 1990
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
Rape Estimated Pregnancies Legal
Reported Reporting Total Caused Abortions
Year Rapes Ratio Rapes By Rape Performed
1973 37,662 55.5% 68,000 333 744,600
1974 40,008 52.8% 76,000 372 898,600
1975 41,501 56.2% 74,000 363 1,034,200
1976 43,222 54.1% 80,000 392 1,179,300
1977 47,829 53.3% 90,000 441 1,316,700
1978 50,590 48.8% 104,000 510 1,409,400
1979 57,958 50.5% 115,000 564 1,497,700
1980 63,599 51.4% 124,000 608 1,553,900
1981 63,038 55.7% 113,000 554 1,577,300
1982 59,967 52.8% 114,000 559 1,573,900
1983 61,019 47.0% 130,000 637 1,575,000
1984 66,367 56.0% 119,000 583 1,577,200
1985 71,060 61.0% 116,000 568 1,588,100
1986 73,453 48.1% 153,000 750 1,475,000
1987 73,456 53.2% 138,000 676 1,510,000
1988 75,441 55.8% 135,000 662 1,550,000
1989 80,045 51.1% 157,000 769 1,610,000
1990 77,920 60.1% 130,000 637 1,575,000
AVERAGES, 1973 to 1990 (18 years) 554 1,402,550
CONCLUSIONS: An average of 554 rapes result in pregnancy each year. An average of 1,402,550 abortions are performed each year. If every rape-caused pregnancy ended in abortion, 1 out of every 2,532 abortions would be performed for rape. This is 0.0395 percent of all abortions (just under four one hundredths of one percent).
IMPORTANT: Note that this table takes into consideration not only those rapes actually reported, but those that are not reported as well. The calculations performed by the United States Census Bureau divide the reported rapes by the reporting ratio to arrive at the total number of annual rapes committed in this country.
Calculations and References.
Column (2): Figures are from Bureau of the Census, United States Department of Commerce. National Data Book and Guide to Sources, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1990 (110th Edition), 960 pages. Table 289, "Forcible Rape Number and Rate, By Selected Characteristics: 1970 to 1988."
Column (3): Figures from the Statistical Abstract, unnumbered table entitled "Police Reporting Rates for Personal and Household Crimes: 1975 to 1987," page 168.
Column (4): Column (2) divided by Column (3). This calculation yields the total number of estimated reported and unreported rapes committed in this country by year.
Column (5): Figure 79-1 shows that the calculated probability of pregnancy from rape is about 490 per 100,000 assaults. Therefore, total pregnancies resulting from rape would equal Column (4) X 0.0049.
Column (6): Figures are from the Statistical Abstract. Table 100, "Legal Abortions Estimated Number, Rate, and Ratio, By Race: 1972 to 1985." Numbers of abortions for other years in this table are extracted from Centers for Disease Control and Alan Guttmacher Institute datasheets.
Verification With Studies. This number has been verified by several studies performed in the late 1960s. These studies, which are summarized in Figure 79-3, show that about one in 1,238 rapes result in pregnancy. Although 20 years old, the studies are entirely valid, because the basic parameters (as shown in Figure 79-1) remain the same. No similar studies have been performed since 1970, because the liberalization or elimination of abortion laws have rendered the question of rape-induced pregnancies largely moot.
FIGURE 79-3
RESULTS OF STUDIES REGARDING THE FREQUENCY OF RAPE-INDUCED PREGNANCY
Rapes Pregnancies Ratio
54,000 80 1 out of 700 [1]
86,000 22 1 out of 3,900 [2]
14,400 0 [3]
914 21 1 out of 44 [4]
117 0 [5]
524 3 1 out of 175 [6]
155,955 126 1 out of 1,238 (0.08%)
References. Note that all of these studies are more than 15 years old. No comprehensive studies of this nature have been performed since the late 1960s, because the liberalization or elimination of abortion laws has rendered the question of pregnancies caused by rape largely moot. [1] Registrar General's "Statistical Review of England and Wales for 1969." London: 1971, H.M.S.O. Cited in R. Gardner, Abortion, the Personal Dilemma (Eerdmans, 1972), page 169. [2] B. And J. Willke. Handbook on Abortion. Hayes Publishing Company, 1979, page 40. [3] "Illinois State Medical Society Symposium on Medical Implications of the Current Abortion Law in Illinois." Illinois Medical Journal, May 1967, pages 677 to 680. [4] Of 1,100 women raped in the District of Columbia from July 1969 to December 1970, 914 victims were followed up for 12 months. 21 became pregnant. 15 had abortions and one miscarried. C.R. Hayman, W.F. Stewart, F.R. Lewis, and M. Rant. "Rape in the District of Columbia." American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 1972; 113:91-97. [5] R. Everett and G. Jimerson. "The Rape Victim: A Review of 117 Consecutive Cases." Obstetrics and Gynecology, 1977; 50:88-90. [6] H. Fujita and W. Wagner. "Referendum 20 Abortion Reform in Washington State." In J. Osofsky and D. Osofsky. The Abortion Experience: Psychological and Medical Impacts. Harper & Row, 1973.
In summary, if this page, from top to bottom and from edge to edge, was an area representing all abortions performed in this country annually, the square below would proportionally represent all abortions performed for rape;
Verification: The Louisiana Experience.
The state of Louisiana requires the most comprehensive reporting on abortions in the country. Therefore, its records are the best source for determining how frequent (or infrequent) abortions for rape really are.
In Louisiana, the abortionist must fill out a form entitled "Report of Induced Termination of Pregnancy" (Form #PHS 16-ab) for every abortion he commits. The form notes at the top that "Failure to complete and file this form is a crime."
Item 9d on this form is entitled "Reason for Pregnancy Termination."
The Office of Public Health of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals compiles these statistics. Over the 14-year period 1975 to 1988, 202,135 abortions were performed in Louisiana. Of these, the reasons were listed for 115,243 of them.
The reasons for these abortions are listed below;
JUSTIFICATION FOR LOUISIANA ABORTIONS
Mother's mental health 114,231 (99.12%)
Mother's physical health 863 (0.75%)
Fetal deformity 103 (0.09%)
Rape or incest 46 (0.04%)
This means that, in Louisiana, 1 out of every 2,483 abortions is performed for rape or incest. This number, which is statistically very reliable due to the large sample population, almost precisely confirms the results of the calculations described earlier in this chapter.
The state of Missouri has noted similar ratios. In 1980, the state operated under court and Executive Orders to pay for rape and incest abortions for poor women. Not a single claim under these headings was submitted during the entire year.[7]
Pro-Abortion Liars.
[My mother] finally approved of her unwanted one, whom she had borned so long ago in such great pain and sorrow and humiliation ...
Some people disclaim their natural heritage. I always name my origin. It didn't hold me back and neither has my color. I was born in poverty. My father raped my mother when she was 12. Now they've named a park for me in Chester, Pennsylvania.
Ethel Waters.[8]
Overview.
Every pro-life sidewalk counselor is familiar with the scene of woman after woman waltzing into abortion mills, each claiming that "I was raped, so my abortion is OK."
It is almost certain that they are lying, because the figures above show that even a high-volume abortion mill that performs 5,000 abortions a year would see, on the average, about 2 genuine rape-caused pregnancies each month.
Lying in the United States.
Women who are willing to kill their own children for convenience obviously see lying as a relatively small crime. Rebecca Chalker and Carol Downer admit in their A Woman's Book of Choices that "Before abortion was legal, women sometimes got abortions by claiming that they had been raped."[9]
The Hyde Amendment.
Concrete statistical evidence of these persistent lies was provided by the Hyde Amendment's varying effects upon the level of Federal funding of abortions since 1977. This Amendment cut off Federal funding for convenience abortions, and paid for 17,983 abortions to save the life of the mother and for rape and incest in Fiscal Year 1981.
In Fiscal Years 1983 and 1984, only abortions to save the life of the mother were allowed under the Amendment, and the average number of abortions paid for during these two years plunged to 411.
This means that about (17,983 - 411) = 17,582 abortions were performed for claimed "rape and incest" under the Hyde Amendment in 1981.
This brings up a very interesting point. To begin with, about 20 percent of all women in the United States qualify for federal abortion funding under this Amendment due to their low incomes. Figure 79-2 shows that the estimated average number of both reported and unreported rapes in this country during these two years was about 124,500.
If this number is divided by five in order to find out approximately how many low-income women were raped during these years, we arrive at 24,900.
In other words, these low-income women are claiming that (17,500/24,900) = 70 percent of all of their rapes resulted in pregnancies!
To take this analysis one step further, Figure 79-1 shows that about 0.49 percent of all women who are raped actually become pregnant as a result of the act.
Therefore, the number of women who claimed that they were raped to get a free Federal abortion was (70 percent/0.49 percent) = 143 times the number that were actually raped.
In other words, more than 99 percent of them lied to get a free taxpayer-paid abortion!
For more information on the Hyde Amendment and on Medicaid funding of abortion, see Chapter 60.
Lying All Over the World.
The phenomenon of women lying to obtain abortions is certainly not unique to the United States. Just as a bogus gang-rape was used as the basis of the Supreme Court decision to usher in abortion on demand in the United States, a girl who claimed that she was a victim of a gang-rape drove the first wedge into Britain's protective abortion laws in 1938.
According to sworn testimony, professional pro-abortionists alleged that a 14-year old girl was lured into a stable to see a horse with a wooden leg (I am not making this up) and was supposedly gang-raped by four guardsmen. She became pregnant, and went to a crusading pro-abortion 'doctor' (Alec Bourne), who gave her a free abortion. He then turned himself in. In the resulting case of law, Rex v. Bourne, Judge Alex McNaghten decided that delivery of the baby would impair the girl's mental health, and acquitted the abortionist.
Naturally, the guardsmen were never called into court to answer to the charge of rape and for good reason. The incident never happened.
At the other end of the world, a New Zealand commission that liberalized that country's abortion laws recommended against a rape and incest exception since the likelihood of false reports and the difficulty of checking them would render the exception utterly meaningless.[10]
The Impacts of Lying.
When an abortion law is liberalized to allow exceptions for rape and incest, the number of women claiming rape just so they can get a free abortion invariably multiplies by a factor of two or five or even ten. Just as inevitably, all available rape-crisis resources are overwhelmed by the sudden explosion of referrals. Women who were really raped will be victimized a second time because of these liars, and agencies and the public will eventually begin to regard even genuine claims of rape as "crying wolf."
Additionally, these callous and uncaring women will stretch law-enforcement agencies to the limit. The results may be twofold: When the lying woman is quizzed regarding her "rape," she may feel pressured to come up with a name any name, and innocent men will be prosecuted and even jailed (although this result may be welcome to the Neofeminists who claim that "all men are, by their very natures, rapists"). Secondly, the chances of real rapists being caught will drop drastically, and these predators will be free to rape and rape again.
In just one of thousands of cases of false rape accusations, an 11-year old girl accused her mother's boyfriend, Ivie Cornell Norris, of raping her repeatedly. Cornell was convicted and sent to prison. After he had languished there for more than a year, the girl admitted that she had lied. Her story was based on an episode of the television program "21 Jump Street," which had depicted a rape.[11]
Norris' life was destroyed; he lost his job, his freedom, his reputation, his girlfriend, and all of his savings over this spurious charge. This is typical of the impacts on a man who is imprisoned on a false rape charge. Neofeminists know full well that Norris' story might be repeated thousands of times annually if women try to get abortions under rape and incest exceptions. But, since they could not care less about the impacts of their decisions on men, the Neofems cannot be expected to promulgate any kind of safeguard against this terrible abuse.
The Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act of 1988 required women who claimed to be victims of rape or incest to report their crimes before getting a free abortion from the state. The reporting of rapes jumped significantly the very first month the law was in effect, and police reported that some women admitted that they were reporting rapes just to get a free abortion.[12]
When large numbers of pro-abortion women start lying to get their free abortions, the situation makes it next to impossible for law enforcement agencies to find and prosecute real rapists. As Ferris B. Lucas, Executive Director of the National Sheriff's Association, said in 1983;
We do, however, wish to comment on the provisions that would allow federal funds to be paid for abortions performed for treatment of rape or incest victims only. The wording would lead a person desirous of an abortion to make false reports to law enforcement agencies which would have to be checked and investigated to some length. These crimes are not easy ones to prove or disprove and resultantly require many manhours of investigation. American law enforcement agencies are presently overburdened and do not have this vast amount of time available.[13]
This explosion of uncaring liars first occurred in Colorado, when the Model Penal Code abortion law revisions were passed 1967. This law allowed abortions only to save the life of the mother for rape and incest, and for the mother's health. Of the 1,850 legal abortions performed in Colorado the first year under this law, 18 percent (or 333) of the mothers claimed to be rape victims.[14] According to the statistical analysis performed earlier in this chapter, it is probable that at least 330 of the 333 were lying. This percentage is buttressed by the fact that, in all of these cases, not a single rapist was arrested or even identified, a statistical impossibility in light of the fact that more than half of all rapes are committed by men that the victim knows.
Exaggerated Numbers.
Women are not the only people who lie about rape-caused pregnancies.
At the Labor/HEW Appropriations Bill Conference Committee Meeting on September 15, 1976, rabid pro-abort United States Senator Edward Brooke stated that the Uniform Crime Report showed that more than 50,000 forcible rapes occurred in the United States annually. He then said that it was the opinion of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that only ten percent of all rapes are reported. Then he pulled a convenient number out of the air and said and that two percent of all rapes resulted in pregnancy.
He concluded by claiming that these numbers "proved" that there were 10,000 rape-caused pregnancies in the United States every year.
Dr. Willard Cates, Chief of the Abortion Surveillance Unit, Center for Disease Control (CDC), who is himself pro-abortion, replied to this fabrication three weeks later in an October 7, 1976 letter by saying that "I know of no good studies documenting this [10,000 figure] ... We don't want this type of misinformation attributed to CDC."[15]
Pro-abortion groups, of course, are in the forefront when it comes to trotting out doctored public opinion polls and bogus statistics. National pro-abortion groups continue to make impressive claims as to the number of women who become pregnant due to forcible rape. These numbers have ranged up to 12% of all rape victims or a total of 20,000 rape-caused pregnancies each year a factor of exaggeration of at least 4,000 percent!
These pro-abort organizations occasionally quote studies that 'prove' the above figures. However, they dishonestly manipulate the figures in two ways;
• When they quote government figures that show that a certain percentage of rape victims have unwanted pregnancies in a certain year, they deliberately quote those figures that include those unwanted pregnancies that were not a result of the rape; i.e., they had become pregnant as a result of voluntary intercourse with their boyfriends or husbands. The pro-aborts even include women who were pregnant at the time they were raped in their figures.
• The pro-aborts also quote figures from other pro-abortion organizations and from rape crisis centers that have done unscientific 'surveys' or 'studies' of women who have given reasons for wanting to get abortions. As described elsewhere in this chapter, the women who obtain abortions for 'rape' are almost always lying. Additionally, a very high percentage of the women who appear at rape crisis centers and claim that they were raped are also lying. But these claims are not even investigated in a cursory manner.
The Question of Incest.
Do women get pregnant through rape? Yes, they do. If we define rape as intercourse by any man forced on an unwilling women, then the pregnancies number in the thousands ... The poor victim of rape might receive an abortion for $200 and medical care for a few hundred. If she gets neither, that's the value of her life.
Planned Parenthood.[16]
The Pro-Abortion View.
Abortion for incest is the detestable twin sister of abortion for rape. Pro-abortion people believe that a woman or girl can 'erase' the child conceived of incest just as easily as they can 'erase' a child of rape.
From an immediate and short-term point of view, of course, this is absolutely true. But pro-abortionists are notoriously short-sighted. They believe that an abortion closes the matter, and then everyone lives happily ever after. They have only one solution for all possible problems that a woman might have: Abortion!
There is one aspect of incest that is missing from the crime of rape: An abortion will remove the preborn child, but the assailant remains. In fact, it is often the assailant who insists upon the abortion to cover up his own crimes.
Incest-Caused Pregnancies.
Although incest usually involves repeated intercourse over a period of up to ten years, it has a very low probability of pregnancy less than one percent.
This is due to several factors.
Most cases of incest currently involve one to three acts of intercourse, and are promptly reported or uncovered. This has not always been the case. Until about 1970, incest resulted in as many as 20 percent of the victims becoming pregnant before incest treatment programs and self-awareness training became widespread.
According to Robert Carroll of the Santa Clara County Child Sexual Abuse Treatment Program in San Jose, California, and Dr. George E. Maloof, a psychiatrist at the Community Mental Health Center in Daly City, California, the incest rate per victim (not per incident of felonious intercourse) is "less than one percent."[17]
The Christopher Street program in Minneapolis reported four cases of pregnancy in 400 cases of incest, or about one percent. Santa Clara County's incest treatment program, run by Henry Giaretto, reported less than one percent pregnancies (12 instances) in 1,500 cases of incest. And Washington State's incest treatment program reported no pregnancies whatsoever in more than 600 cases.
If the results of these four studies are combined, we see that the probability of pregnancy due to incest (per girl, not per case of intercourse), is 16 out of 2,500 cases (one out of 156, or 0.64%).[18]
Abortion As a Coverup for Incest.
Abortion is the best possible coverup for incest. Perhaps this is why groups of organized pedophiles and pederasts including the North American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) are stridently pro-abortion. NAMBLA insists that taboos against incest are 'antiquated' and 'outmoded.'[15] There is absolutely no reason for an organization consisting of child molesters to advocate abortion except to cover up the most damning evidence of their crimes.
It is common for Planned Parenthood and similar groups to use 'hard case' stories in their literature, debates, and presentations. These people will often talk of twelve- and thirteen year old pregnant girls (and sometimes, nine- and ten year old girls) who are sexually active or pregnant. Planned Parenthood, of course, supplies abortion, contraceptives, and, above all, confidentiality to these young girls.
We might ask Planned Parenthood who it thinks the male parties to such sexual activity are. Certainly they are not nine- or ten-year old boys! These girls are almost always the victims of (step)father/daughter or big brother/little sister incest. Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion and pro-homosexual organizations, by their advocacy of abortion, are directly helping many incestuous relationships to continue.
For example, Wardell Pomeroy, who wrote a sex education book that was endorsed by Planned Parenthood, claimed that
We find many beautiful and mutually satisfying [sexual] relationships between fathers and daughters. These may be transient or ongoing, but they have no harmful effects ... Incest between adults and younger children can also prove to be a satisfying and enriching experience ... When there is a mutual and unselfish concern for the other person, rather than a feeling of possessiveness and a selfish concern with one's own sexual gratification, then incestuous relationships can and do work out well. Incest can be a satisfying, non-threatening, and even an enriching emotional experience, as I said earlier.[19]
And SIECUS (the Sex Education and Information Council of the United States) alleges that "Most pedophiliacs (people who are sexually interested in minor children) are gentle and affectionate, and are not dangerous in the way childmolesters are stereotypically considered to be."[20]
Finally, Valida Davila of San Diego's homosexual/pederast/pedophile Childhood Sensuality Circle, makes the ultimate claim: "We believe children should begin sex at birth. It causes a lot of problems not to practice incest."[21]
Fetal Deformity.
The primary concern voiced by geneticists in cases of incest is fetal deformity. However, the vast majority of incest cases occur between stepfathers and stepdaughters, so there is no increased probability of fetal deformity in such cases.
It is extremely difficult to measure the frequency of deformity in babies born of incestuous relationships between genetic fathers and daughters, because such babies are rare. They are rare because pregnancies are rare, and the vast majority of these pregnancies end in abortion, usually at the insistence of the father. Therefore, conflicting study results are to be expected because the sample population is so small.
Swedish psychiatrist Dr. Carl Olstrom has heavy experience in the study of fetal deformities resulting from incest, and says that "There is no evidence to support the assumption that children resulting from incestuous relationships [with a father or mother] run a greater risk of being malformed than other children."[22]
However, three much smaller studies showed serious birth defects in up to one-fourth of all children that were a product of bloodline incest, an incidence that is about fifteen times the expected normal frequency.[23]
From the standpoint of pure eugenics, we must ask ourselves two questions; (1) "Are handicapped people as valuable as those who are not handicapped?," and, if the answer to the first question is "No," we must ask ourselves the second question: "Are we willing to kill a minimum of three perfectly healthy children for every one that may have a handicap?"
The Psychological Aspects.
Pro-abortionists sometimes remind pro-lifers of children with hammers. Everything looks like a nail to such a child.
The pro-abortionist's 'hammer' is their beloved surgical procedure. To a hard-core pro-abort, no other solution is possible. This is why Neofeminists have attacked crisis pregnancy centers and have even condemned adoption as an alternative to abortion.
Abortion is just as inept a solution for incest as it is for rape or any other reason especially from the psychological point of view. Incest expert R. Bruce Sloan, M.D., states that "The psychiatric basis for terminating the life of an unborn baby incestuously conceived has absolutely no scientific merit and derives from a blind adherence to a legal formulation espoused by abortion promoters now including organized psychiatry."[24]
Georgia Early struck at the heart of the matter when she said that;
When incest is involved, allowing abortion in pregnancy cases of minors tends to compound the exploitation of the innocent victim and protect the perpetrator from exposure so that he may continue his illegal and immoral acts without fear of discovery.
To rehabilitate child abusers, it is necessary to work on their feelings of self-esteem, their memories of themselves being abused as children, and to get them to see their own children in a new way. Abortion sidesteps this very involved process because the child incestuously pregnant is taken for an abortion and then returned to the home where the abuse occurred. Abortion also perpetuates the generational violence where the abused child becomes the child abuser.[25]
Rape = Wedge for Full Abortion Funding.
I could never, ever have an abortion. Even if I were raped by a man who was a drug addict, I'd have the baby. And I'd keep it!
Actress Brooke Shields.[26]
Women As Helpless Tools.
It comes as no surprise that pro-abortion strategists are using rape victims as unknowing tools to drive wedges into existing laws barring funding for rape and incest victims. As described in Chapter 17 of Volume I, "Pro-Abortion Propaganda Stories," these people have no qualms at all about heartlessly using women, no matter how difficult their situation, to advance their agenda.
During the time period 1987 to 1990, pro-abortionists vigorously attacked the Federal ban for funding rape-caused abortions, causing President George Bush to veto such bills twice.
But the real agenda of the pro-death legislators was not to obtain abortion funding for rape and incest victims; it was to gain political capital.
Admissions from the Pro-Aborts.
Speaking for leading pro-abort Congressman Les AuCoin [D.-olt], legislative aide Ron Fitzsimmons revealed the true anti-life strategy behind trying to get abortion funding for rape. In a January 1990 briefing to pro-abortion activists, he said that the objective of the 1990 session was to write a very loosely-worded "rape and incest" exception to the Hyde Amendment. This exception was intended to be open to abuse, so pro-life congressmen would have no choice but to vote against it and the President would have no choice but to veto it.
The pro-abortionists would then trumpet the "insensitivity" of the President and the pro-life congressmen in an attempt to discredit them and defeat them in the November elections. As Fitzsimmons said during the briefing session; "It's hard to ignore the rape and incest victims. But I can speak for my boss, he felt that in the long term what we want is full Medicaid funding. And the only way we're going to get that is to get the votes in, for people who will vote that way."[27]
Is Abortion for Rape Ethical?
All bad precedents began as justifiable measures.
Gaius Julius Caesar.[28]
How Many Victims One Or Two?
There is no question that rape is traumatic. But why pile trauma upon trauma by insisting on abortion to 'remedy' rape?
As with any other problem pregnancy, the woman's problem is not that she's pregnant. The main problem is how others treat her. Rape and incest victims have always unjustly been victims of the "Scarlet Letter Syndrome," but 'treating' this problem of societal perspective with abortion is like saying that the woman is a hopeless case or 'damaged goods.'
What is more caring to sneer at her problem and just tell her to 'get rid of it,' or to respect the life within her and give her whatever real help she needs?
Abortion = Infanticide for Many.
According to experts at the University of British Columbia's Department of Psychiatry, "Whatever may be the case at the conscious level, at a much deeper level, abortion is regarded by many women as infanticide."[29]
Obtaining an abortion may not be much of a problem for a hard-core, heartless pro-abortion Neofeminist, but what about a woman who truly believes that abortion is the killing of a human being?
According to various polls, more than sixty percent of all women in the United States believe that the unborn are human beings (see Chapter 76 for documentation regarding this "attitude tracking" public opinion poll).
In summary, the tragedy is the rape not the child that is conceived. Contrary to what pro-aborts apparently believe, two injustices do not equal a right or a healed life. The greatest pain of the first injustice lasts nine months, but the pain of the abortion 'remedy' lasts a lifetime.
Some may answer that the woman has a right to be free from assault. This is true, of course, but in the case of abortion for rape, the assault has already happened. Just as the woman has a right to be free from assault, so does her unborn baby. Allowing her abortion for rape under this argument is like saying that anyone who is assaulted can find remedy by going out into the street and punching the first person he or she sees.
The Eugenics Argument.
Some self-proclaimed pro-abortion genetics 'sexperts' insist that rape-caused pregnancy must end in abortion because the child (if male) will turn out to be a rapist, as well.
This is utter hogwash. Nobody has ever even attempted to perform a study that examines the allegation that the tendency to commit rape or any other crime is hereditary. Psychiatrists and psychologists agree that the making of a criminal is primarily due to environmental effects.
Many pro-abortionists are so racist, they see dark skin as a sort of a birth defect. For example, lobbyists for the Medical Association of Georgia urged Governor Lester Maddox to pass an initial rape and incest exception for abortion, asking him how he would feel "... if a White girl got raped by a Negro and then became pregnant."[30]
In any case, how many persons think that there should be capital punishment for rapists? Obviously, not too many. If this majority of people do not favor capital punishment for the obviously guilty rapist, why then should they favor it for the innocent child, who has committed no crime whatever?
Try This ...
Pro-life debaters might like to try this theoretical question: Take a newborn baby conceived by rape or incest and lay him next to a newborn conceived in a loving marriage. Then ask a pro-abortionist if they could tell you which one was the result of a rape by comparing their appearance and behavior.
Then try this second question: Would a pro-abortionist think less of an adult neighbor who was conceived by rape than he would of another neighbor who was conceived within marriage? The answer (if the pro-abort still retains a shred of human kindness) should be no. Regardless of the answer, ask if the pro-abort would kill his neighbor merely because he or she was conceived as a result of rape? After all, that is what a woman is doing in cases of abortion for rape and incest.
Pro-abortionists say that they want abortion for rape and incest instances based purely on the circumstances of the baby's conception. This is the same as saying that children conceived out of wedlock are somehow less worthy than those conceived within marriage.
These children used to be called "bastards," and they carried a heavy load of shame and discrimination throughout their lives.
Now our solution is much simpler.
We just kill them.
This kind of appeal is particularly powerful when addressing high schoolers, since 50 percent or more are now 'illegitimate,' and most are painfully aware of the fact.
Pregnancy Prevention.
By denying abortion to a victim of rape, they [pro-lifers] in a sense become participants in the rape.
Planned Parenthood.[16]
Progesterone Injection.
As described above, only a very tiny percentage of women who are raped actually become pregnant. The problem is that many of these women will not know if they are pregnant until several weeks after the assault. One solution that is often suggested by social service agencies is to go to a hospital emergency room for an injection of the female hormone progesterone. The woman might alternatively take several birth control pills for a 'morning after' effect.
However, these courses of action will affect a woman's body in three ways: Suppression of ovulation, thickening of the cervical mucus, and prevention of implantation. The first mode of operation is non-abortifacient, the second is moot, and the third is definitely abortifacient in nature.
Diethylstilbestrol (DES).
At one time, the standard postcoital treatment for rape and incest cases was the administration of diethylstilbestrol (DES) to prevent pregnancy. However, DES has been shown to cause unpleasant side-effects, not only to women but to their daughters as well.
DES is believed to prevent the implantation of a fertilized ovum in the uterus, and is thus an abortifacient. Dr. William A. Lynch states that "On all available evidence, DES administered to rape victims prevents implantation of the fertilized ovum."[31]
Many pro-aborts contend that a ban on abortion would prevent the administration of post-rape therapies such as those listed above. However, pro-lifers could use the same logic advanced by pro-aborts when they advocate menstrual extraction techniques: Anti-abortion legislation, including the various Human Life Amendments, would not affect the administration of DES or other drugs postcoitally to rape and incest victims, because there must be proof that an unborn child exists if the physician is to be legally protected. Such proof is always tenuous at best within three days following intercourse.
The Bottom Line.
The vital question here for pro-lifers is this: When does the actual merging of the sperm and egg take place? Pro-life researchers say up to a day, while pro-abortion researchers insist that conception can take place in as little as seven minutes.
Unfortunately, neither side has really hard evidence to back up its claims, although research is continuing.
References: Rape and Incest Exceptions.
[1] "The Unwanted Child 195 A.D., China." National Right to Life News, May 1978, page 6.
[2] Looseleaf booklet entitled "Organizing for Action." Prepared by Vicki Z. Kaplan for the National Abortion Rights Action League, 250 West 57th Street, New York, N.Y. 10019. See Emily C. Moore, Ph.D. "The Major Issues and the Argumentation in the Abortion Debate." Pages 33 to 43.
[3] 'Religious' Coalition for Abortion Rights. Booklet entitled "Words of Choice." 1991, Washington, D.C. Page 24.
[4] Bernard Nathanson, M.D. Aborting America. Doubleday, 1979, page 239.
[5] Pro-abortion writer N. Lee. The Search for an Abortionist. University of Chicago Press, 1969, page 149.
[6] Results of a 1990 Wirthlin poll described in "The Week." National Review, December 3, 1990, page 12.
[7] "Medicaid-Funded Abortions for Rape and Incest: The Issue That Isn't." Newsletter of Missouri Citizens for Life.
[8] Ethel Waters, quoted in testimony on July 25, 1983 by Congressman Thomas J. Bliley, Jr., (R-Va.), and reprinted in the Congressional Record. Part of an excellent pamphlet printed by the American Life Lobby entitled "Rape and Incest Exception Not Needed and Unwarranted." Available from ALL, Post Office Box 490, Stafford, Virginia 22555. Telephone: (703) 659-4171. Also see Ethel Waters. His Eye Is On the Sparrow, pages 277 and 278.
[9] Rebecca Chalker and Carol Downer. A Woman's Book of Choices: Abortion, Menstrual Extraction, RU-486. Four Walls Eight Windows Press, Post Office 548, Village Station, New York, New York 10014. 1992, 271 pages. Page 39.
[10] Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Contraception, Sterilization and Abortion. New Zealand, 1977.
[11] "TV Program is Source of Made-Up Story." American Family Association Journal, April 1990, page 4.
[12] Andrew Sheehan. "New Abortion Law Brings More Reports of Rape." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 25, 1988, page 5.
[13] Ferris B. Lucas, Executive Director, National Sheriff's Association, July 18, 1977. Quoted by Congressman Thomas J. Bliley (R-Va.) in July 25, 1983 testimony printed in the Congressional Record.
[14] Described in Eugene F. Diamond, M.D. "Rape and Abortion." Linacre Quarterly, August 1980.
[15] Quote by Dr. Willard Cates, and NAMBLA information, from Basile J. Uddo. "On Rape, Incest and the Right to Life." Human Life Review, Summer 1984, pages 55 to 66.
[16] "Let's Tell the Truth About Abortion." Pamphlet distributed by Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood. 1985, 22 pages. Fight Back Press, Post Office Box 61421, Denver, Colorado 80206.
[17] Telephone conversation with Robert Carroll on April 5, 1978. Quoted by Congressman Thomas J. Bliley (R-Va.) in July 25, 1983 testimony printed in the Congressional Record. Also see the report on the presentation made at the Symposium on the Psychological Aspects of Abortion at the Loyola University School of Medicine, November 1, 1978. Quoted by Congressman Thomas J. Bliley (R-Va.) in July 25, 1983 testimony printed in the Congressional Record.
[18] G. Maloof, M.D., "The Consequences of Incest." The Psychological Aspects of Abortion. University Publications of America, 1979, page 74.
[19] Wardell Pomeroy. "A New Look at Incest." Variations Magazine, 1977, pages 86 to 88, and Forum Magazine, November 1976, pages 84 to 89.
[20] Robert O. Hawkins. "The Uppsala Connection: The Development of Principles Basic to Education for Sexuality." SIECUS Report, January 1980.
[21] Valida Davila of San Diego's Childhood Sensuality Circle, quoted in John Leo. "Cradle-to-Grave Intimacy." Time Magazine, September 7, 1981, page 69.
[22] Carl Henry Olstrom, M.D. Medical World News, February 4, 1967.
[23] Mary Meehan. "Facing the Hard Cases." Human Life Review, Summer 1983, pages 19 to 36.
[24] R. Bruce Sloan, M.D. New England Journal of Medicine. Quoted in G. Maloof, M.D., "The Consequences of Incest." The Psychological Aspects of Abortion. University Publications of America, 1979, page 74.
[25] Georgia Early. "Incest, Sexual Child Abuse and Abortion." Life Advocate, May/June 1980.
[26] Brooke Shields, quoted in the Los Angeles Times, August 10, 1991, and in "Brooke Shields Says She Could Never Have Abortion." American Family Association Journal, October 1991, page 16.
[27] Richard Doerflinger. "Hyde Amendment to Be Examined By Congress Again." The [Portland, Oregon] Catholic Sentinel, November 9, 1990, page 7.
[28] Gaius Julius Caesar, quoted in The Conspiracy of Catiline by Sallist in the 1st Century B.C. Also quoted in Jonathon Green. The Cynic's Lexicon. New York: St. Martin's Press. 1984, 220 pages.
[29] Ian Hunt, M.D., University of British Columbia's Department of Psychiatry. American Psychiatric Association's Psychiatric News, March 3, 1978.
[30] Sagar C. Jain and Laurel F. Gooch. Georgia Abortion Act of 1968: A Study in the Legislative Process. 1972: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, pages 56 and 57.
[31] William A. Lynch, M.D. Linacre Quarterly, August 1977.
Resources and Further Reading: Rape and Incest Exceptions.
Two organizations that help rape or incest victims regain control of their lives without resorting to murdering their preborn children are listed below.
Life After Assault League (LAAL)
1336 West Lindbergh
Appleton, Wisconsin 54914
Telephone: (414) 739-4489
Fortress International
Post Office Box 7352
Springfield, Illinois 62791
Telephone: (217) 529-9545
Lynda Allison. Lisa Said No.
Hazelwood, Missouri: Word Aflame Press. 1989, 188 pages. Reviewed by Ed Hurlbutt on page 53 of the August-September 1989 ALL About Issues. The story of how a young girl chooses life over death after being sexually molested.
Jeff Lane Hansley (editor). The Zero People: Essays on Life.
Servant Books, 1983. 310 pages. Reviewed by Douglas Johnson on page 9 of the November 24, 1983 issue of National Right to Life News. An anthology of 26 essays on the life issues, most of which are extracted from the Human Life Review. This book is useful to all pro-life activists, no matter what their experience level, because the accomplished writers bring together all of the life issues, explain them, and show how they are inextricably intertwined. See especially Basile J. Uddo. "The Hard Cases: Rape, Incest, and Public Policy," pages 109 to 122.
Thomas W. Hilgers, M.D., Dennis J. Horan, and David Mall (editors). New Perspectives on Human Abortion.
Frederick, Maryland: Aletheia Books, University Publications of America, 1981. A superb compilation of essays by the most experienced pro-lifers in the land, dealing with virtually all of the basic issues involved in taking human life. An excellent primer for any pro-life activist. Articles include Makhorn and Kolan, "Sexual Assault and Pregnancy." This article discusses the "Scarlet Letter Syndrome" as it applies to rape and incest victims.
David Mall and Walter F. Watts, M.D. (editors). The Psychological Aspects of Abortion.
Sponsored by the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University. 1979: University Publications of America, Inc, Washington, DC. 156 pages. Order from: Life Issues Bookshelf, Sun Life, Thaxton, Virginia 24174, telephone: (703) 586-4898. This collection of studies covers post-abortion psychosis, abortion and the consequent abuse of siblings, the psychic causes of the abortion mentality, and how abortion depersonalizes both the individual and society in general. Written in layman's language, easily readable, and filled with good and indisputable information. See especially George E. Maloof, M.D. "The Consequences of Incest: Giving and Taking Life," pages 74 to 89.
Robert G. Marshall and Charles Donovan. Blessed Are the Barren: The Social Policy of Planning Parenthood.
Ignatius Press, San Francisco. Reviewed by Mary Meehan on page 5 of the November 29, 1992 National Catholic Register. This volume provides lots of detail on the Planned Parenthood connections with racist eugenics, the effort to capture the Black leadership, and its ability to tap into hundreds of millions of dollars of tax and private money.
Lothrop Stoddard, Ph.D. The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1921. Reprinted in 1971 by Negro Universities Press, Westport, Connecticut. A classic racist book that clearly and vividly demonstrates the kind of thinking that led to eugenics, the current-day racist abortion program in the United States, and the Nazi mentality.
Jack C. Willke, M.D. "Assault Rape and Pregnancy" (3 parts).
National Right to Life News, July 17, August 21, and October 9, 1986. An outstanding encapsulation of all of the important points surrounding the rape/incest debate. This series, which is must reading for anyone who hopes to seriously debate or research this issue, is available in the archives of most state and local Right to Life chapters.
Kay Zibolsky. How You Can Live Again After Assault.
Wilson, North Carolina: Star Books, 1989. 93 pages. Reviewed by Judie Brown on page 45 of the May 1989 issue of All About Issues. The story of a victim of rape and how she recovered and is reaching out to other victims.
© American Life League BBS — 1-703-659-7111
This is a chapter of the Pro-Life Activist’s Encyclopedia published by American Life League.
