As a man who tries his best to respect and honor women, this is a constant reminder that there are people who appear to have no such regard for their wives, mothers, sisters and daughters. More often than not, these comments stem from someone who claims to have a close relationship with God, that the honor and value and respect the sanctity of life. But what I cannot wrap my head around is how could anyone who has a close relationship with a woman ever think even for a second that the horror that rape incurs would ever somehow be something that should be politicized.
If it happens that a woman chooses to carry a baby conceived via rape to term because that's something she has chosen and accepted into her life, that is completely her decision to make. It is not the decision of anyone outside of the woman who had her choices taken away from her. It is not something that the public should have any input or say into, that the details and consequences of something so awful and heinous should be fodder for anyone else's discussion but that woman and whomever she chooses to share in her decision making process.
That people purport to believe that the government should not infringe on the rights of the individual, that 'big government' is curtailing the ability of Americans to live the lives they are truly destined to live, would ever have the audacity to inflict their own chosen beliefs onto someone who has endured something that you would never wish on your worst enemy is yet another assault on that person. In a free society, no one should ever be forced to accept a course of action based on the will of another person's dogma or ideology. These people want to turn a secular country that is not a religious nation into a religious institution guided not by logical or intelligent decisions, but by assumptions and determinations of faith.
For the individual who is guided by that faith, who follows that path, it is a choice they are free to make because that is what makes this country beautiful. They should not subvert that beauty by taking that decision away from someone who had their soul and body violated because they opt to handle the consequences of the violence inflicted upon them in a manner that may differ from their own. This is not what makes a country free.
This is not an issue about the sanctity of life in regards to the morality of abortion. It is not just offensive, but insane to think that a woman who was raped and impregnated is immoral because she chooses to terminate the pregnancy wrought out of something that will forever scar that woman. It is not a decision that woman ever wanted to make, never thought she would have to consider, so why would anyone want to take away a choice that no one had sought in the first place?
We need to honor those who make these decisions, and understand that it is not a carefree and immoral decision but something that respects the person who makes that choice. If one cannot respect the choice another person makes on their own terms in honor with their own belief systems, you cannot possibly respect that person. This is your sister, your daughter, your girlfriend or wife, cousin, mother, friend, co-worker, teacher, nun, doctor, dentist, bus driver, waitress, judge, neighbor that has been raped and never wanted this to even be a consideration. Or even more unfortunately, maybe this is you. I know you don't want this. None of us do. Act with love and kindness and understanding. It might be the only thing we actually have left.
Here, here. Well said.
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