I have a much more relevant question regarding rape and abortion.
The argument goes that the woman should not have to carry around the child of rape for the nine months it would take to carry the baby to term and put it up for adoption.
It IS a valid argument and one with some real weight to it. However, I just need to know how.
How does an abortion erase from a woman's memory, the horror of a rape? If the abortion is some kind of answer to not having to live with rape, what is the mechanism that allows the memory of rape to be exercised after the abortion?
This is NOT a partisan question. I just don't get the semantics of the argument.
After all, it seems to Me that an abortion is just compounding guilt of abortion on the trauma of rape (you could say shame or guilt on guilt since some women feel shame or guilt at being raped, but that's a different debate)..
The real issue here though is not the "effect on the person who is raped" it is the effects of the actions on the right of an individual to live. At some point in a pregnancy it is not "just a collection of cells". I am not going to be vain enough to try to define that, that is an issue for the states to decide. If the person who is raped thinks that something will help her then she should be allowed to do it as long as it doesn't infringe on the rights of another individual. Once a state defines what exactly is an individual with regards to the pregnancy then a woman should not be able to infringe on that individual's right to live. We would not let a mother who was raped and had the child kill her 3 day old baby because the baby reminded her of the attack and every state is allowed to decide when that point in the pregnancy is.
Mike