"EXCEPT IN CASES OF RAPE OR INCEST"

I saw Rebecca Kiessling tonight.  Perhaps you’ve heard of her:  Rebecca is a family life attorney, a lanky blonde fireball who has built a career out of telling her life story.

You see, Rebecca’s mom was raped.  It was 1970, just three years before Roe v. Wade became the law of the land—and here in Michigan, where the brutal crime occurred, abortion was illegal.  Rebecca’s mom thought hard about obtaining a “back alley” abortion; but the callous attitude of the abortionist frightened her off, and she gave birth to a baby girl whom she placed for adoption.

Perhaps you consider yourself pro-life, “except in cases of rape or incest.”

Or perhaps you are pro-choice (at least you support choice for the mother, if not for the child), but noting the gravity of the consequences for a rape victim who is impregnated by her attacker, you support abortion “especially in cases of rape.”

Rebecca stands as a reminder that ALL children, regardless of the circumstances of their conception, have an intrinsic and inestimable worth.  All are created in the image of God.

When Rebecca first learned the truth about her father, a serial rapist, she wrestled with feelings of inadequacy, guilt and shame.  Even now, from her platform as a successful professional and a loving wife and mother, Rebecca’s vulnerability is evident.  She herself explains it best:

“Have you ever considered how really insulting it is to say to someone, ‘I think your mother should have been able to abort you’?   It’s like saying, ‘If I had my way, you’d be dead right now.’  And that is the reality with which I live every time someone says they are pro-choice or pro-life “except in cases of rape” because I absolutely would have been aborted had it been legal at the time….  I know that most people don’t put a face to this issue—for them, abortion is just a concept—with a quick cliché, they sweep it under the rug and forget about it.”