{"id":76409,"date":"2015-10-08T09:11:04","date_gmt":"2015-10-08T13:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=76409"},"modified":"2015-10-08T20:26:26","modified_gmt":"2015-10-09T00:26:26","slug":"rape-victims-like-me-should-not-be-pawns-in-the-abortion-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/rape-victims-like-me-should-not-be-pawns-in-the-abortion-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Rape victims like me should not be pawns in the abortion debate"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

The “hard cases” make up 1 percent of all abortions provided in the U.S., and these cases\u00a0include those conceived in rape.\u00a0How many times have you heard or have you yourself said “I am against abortion except in the cases of rape”?\u00a0Even the pro-life bills we are trying to pass have the rape exception, leaving those conceived in violence in harm’s way.<\/p>\n

The common pro-choice argument is that by forcing a woman to carry a child conceived in rape,\u00a0you are\u00a0delaying her relief of the trauma.\u00a0She\u00a0will be forced to continue to think of her attack for another nine\u00a0months until she can deliver and\u00a0place her baby\u00a0for adoption. Aborting the child will mean she\u00a0won’t have that traumatic experience with her as long.\u00a0Let her abort and be done with it.<\/p>\n

This argument\u00a0might seem valid at first, but I am ready to shut\u00a0it\u00a0down.\u00a0I never wanted to share my experience, but if it saves even one rape victim\u00a0from becoming a victim of abortion, then I have no regrets about\u00a0coming forward.<\/p>\n

At the age of just almost 17, on a night I thought I was going to watch movies with a group of friends, I became a victim of rape. I never saw it coming and I never did anything about it.\u00a0All I could do was think, “just be over, already.”\u00a0I never thought I’d actually be a victim of rape but\u00a0if I ever were, I thought for sure that:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. I would fight like hell.<\/strong>
    \nI didn’t.\u00a0I was paralyzed with\u00a0fear.<\/li>\n
  2. I would get away as soon as I could and never look back.<\/strong>
    \nI didn’t.\u00a0I drove him to his buddies’ house afterward because he told me to. And if I knew one thing, it was that if this guy wanted me to do something, I was going to do it – whether I wanted to or not.<\/li>\n
  3. I would report it to my parents and the police.<\/strong>
    \nI didn’t.\u00a0I was embarrassed and disgusted with myself. I felt like it was my fault for putting myself in this situation. And I didn’t think anyone would believe me.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I didn’t talk about it again until years later.<\/p>\n

    It took a long time before I felt whole again or\u00a0as if I weren’t\u00a0to blame. It took even longer to forgive the man who attacked me, but now when I think of him, I mostly wonder if he feels bad or regrets it. I wonder if he has grown and gone through his own forgiveness. I hope so.<\/p>\n

    So why am I telling you all of this now?\u00a0Because I do<\/em>\u00a0understand what trauma from sexual abuse feels like and I can promise, 100 percent, that the trauma these victims feel is not from the pregnancy – it is from the rape.<\/p>\n

    I did not get pregnant from my attack. But\u00a0guess what? Nine\u00a0months, 12 months, 18 months\u00a0–\u00a0heck – 45<\/em> months later, I was still carrying my trauma inside of me.<\/p>\n

    The problem is not the baby – it is the attack!<\/em><\/p>\n

    Aborting a baby will not make the rape disappear. You will NEVER get to undo what that man did to you. Neither will I, and it sucks!\u00a0But as much as it sucks, adding even more physical and emotional trauma to such a traumatic event is not the answer.<\/p>\n

    A woman who is raped does not\u00a0need an abortionist reaching inside her body to force out an unborn baby before sending her on her way like nothing happened.\u00a0Victims of rape need to be treated with the utmost level of compassion – and there is nothing compassionate about abortion.<\/p>\n

    After abortion, a victim will\u00a0not only have to deal with the emotions from her attack; she will also have\u00a0to deal with the emotions of getting an abortion.\u00a0Some research has shown that\u00a0women who get abortions are 6 times more likely to take their own lives.<\/p>\n

    So the innocent baby dies, the innocent woman is deeply scarred from her attack and her abortion, but the rapist is footloose and fancy free.\u00a0We aren’t helping anyone with this system here, people.<\/p>\n

    Let’s not forget\u00a0the children conceived in rape.\u00a0Can a so-called “rape baby” not<\/em> grow up into a productive member of society?\u00a0Why are we punishing the children for the sins of their fathers?\u00a0These children did nothing wrong.\u00a0And why do we even call them “rape babies”? They didn’t rape anyone, so no “R” word is necessary.<\/p>\n

    There is so much that goes through the minds of sexual abuse victims.\u00a0I still have bad days and moments of questioning the “what ifs”. And now that I am dealing with infertility, I have literally thought that, for me, a baby conceived in rape\u00a0would be better than no baby at all.\u00a0The emotions that come from an attack are deep-rooted and will never fully disappear. I\u00a0will always have that in my\u00a0history book. But it doesn’t need to define me\u00a0or destroy me.<\/p>\n

    I, for one, will no longer tolerate people using rape victims as pawns in the abortion debate. We are real people who have real pain. Enough of the “don’t force continued trauma” line. Our trauma continues, baby or no baby. Abortion doesn’t undo\u00a0the rape; it\u00a0kills a baby.<\/p>\n

    The pro-life\u00a0community needs to defend the 1 percent as much as the 99 percent.\u00a0Every time the 1 percent\u00a0is used to justify abortion, every time we hear about “rape exceptions,” and every time we hear innocent children being called “rape babies,”\u00a0women who have been raped are reminded of our trauma and are reminded\u00a0that our babies were (or would have been) called by that name.<\/p>\n

    If you\u00a0care about the victims of rape when it comes to the abortion debate, you\u00a0would never use them\u00a0–\u00a0use me<\/em> – as an example or as a pawn to pass a law or to get what you\u00a0want.<\/p>\n

    No more exceptions! Enough is enough.<\/p>\n

    Jamie Jeffries blogs at Prolife Wife<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The “hard cases” make up 1 percent of all abortions provided in the U.S., and these cases\u00a0include those conceived in rape.\u00a0How many times have you heard or have you yourself said “I am against abortion except in the cases of rape”?\u00a0Even the pro-life bills we are trying to pass have the rape exception, leaving those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":374,"featured_media":65866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[2242],"tags":[299,3851,5485],"yoast_head":"\nRape victims like me should not be pawns in the abortion debate<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""Enough of the 'don't force continued trauma' line. Our trauma continues, baby or no baby. 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