Why Impose A Death Penalty On A Child Conceived in Rape?

Media Release Thursday 17th March 2016

Right to Life Asks, Why Impose A Death Penalty On A Child Conceived In Rape?

Why do many citizens who are opposed to abortion make rape an exception? Rape elicits feelings of sympathy and horror. We are asked, how could you be so unfeeling as to force a woman to carry the child of a brutal rapist? A United States Gallop poll conducted in 2015 revealed that 55 per cent of those opposed to abortion made rape an exception. Rape as an exception has been used by the abortion industry to promote abortion on demand. Many people believe that it is compassionate to allow abortion for rape. It is actually misplaced compassion because it victimises the woman again. The violence of abortion does not undo the violence of rape.

We don’t punish the brutal rapist with the death penalty, nor should we impose a death penalty on the innocent child.

The abortion law in New Zealand does not allow rape as a ground for abortion; however it may be a consideration. According to the Abortion Supervisory Committee [ASC] the estimated number of cases where rape is a consideration is about 50 cases each year.

Right to Life is concerned that Certifying Consultants are required to report to the ASC cases where a woman claims rape, The Committee does not seek any information on whether or not the alleged rape was reported to the Police. In cases where a girl seeking an abortion is under 16 years of age and the father of the child is over the age of 16 this should be reported to the Police for investigation, as this could be a case of statutory rape. It is disappointing that the Committee again seeks no information on such cases. The same position is held with cases of incest. The ASC has advised Right to Life that it is not the business of the Committee to request information. How then can the community be assured that girls seeking an abortion for incest are not handed back to the girl’s abuser or that rapists are charged before the court and punished for their brutal crime?

A study undertaken by rape counsellor, Dr Sandra Mankorn in the United States found that 75 to 80 per cent of pregnant rape victims chose life for their baby. 70 per cent of these women believed that to have an abortion would be perpetuating the violence inflicted on them by the rape. Many raped women who had an abortion said that the abortion inflicted on them caused more grief and suffering than the rape. In the United States it is estimated that 1 per cent of abortions are on the grounds of alleged rape. A widely-cited 1996 study from the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology sampled over 4,000 women and found that the rape-related pregnancy rate was 5.0 percent.

Every child is an unrepeatable miracle of God’s loving creation that is endowed at conception with an inalienable right to life. The child conceived in rape does not lose its right to life.

We don’t punish the brutal rapist with the death penalty, nor should we impose a death penalty on the innocent child.

If we care for raped pregnant women, we will love and support them both, mother and child. Rape is a terrible crime but killing the baby for the actions of the father re-victimises the mother and kills the innocent child.

Ken Orr

Spokesperson,

Right to Life

ENDS

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