what about rape?

This past October, I noticed an ad seeking contributions to a pro-life magazine written for students, by students, called The Advocate. Launched by pro-life activist and UCLA student Lila Rose and her Live Action team, this quarterly publication is part of their "new media movement for life."

I submitted the following essay to the Winter 2009-2010 edition and was grateful to see it published. The image shows the edited version of my writing that was put into print in 65,000 copies to be distributed at over 50 high school and college campuses across the country. It is so encouraging to see the pro-life message spread among young people!

Rebecca Kiessling's story continues to inspire me and countless others as she speaks out about abortion with her very life.

Vita Pro Omni!

What About Rape?

I remember that concert. It was a muggy, 90-degree July evening in Columbus, Ohio, but the crowd swayed along with the saxophonist and sang out every last word, loud and strong: “Celebrate we will… for life is short, but sweet for certain.”

Whether you are a Dave Matthews Band fan or not, most of us have heard these popular lyrics a time or two before. They seem simple, uncontroversial, even nostalgic. But a few weeks ago, as “Two Step” streamed from my iPod, I stopped and considered these words carefully for the first time: “Celebrate… life is… sweet.” Teenagers and adults alike sing along to this mantra all the time; but do they really believe that life is good? Do their lives and actions reflect this straightforward assertion?

In a culture that consistently witnesses the breakdown of marriage and the family, venerates the most pro-abortion president in history, and propagates widespread media that glorifies moral relativism, it should come as little surprise that Americans have an increasingly difficult time drawing a line in the proverbial moral sand. We are arguably the most educated nation in the world, yet we do not understand that the taking of an innocent human life is always and unconditionally wrong. We are confused, baffled, and hesitant about whether or not abortion is “sometimes” okay. In short, we are lost.

Fortunately, an increasing proportion of us are starting to get it. A Gallup poll released on May 15, 2009 showed that more Americans are pro-life than pro-choice for the first time. Yet, many of these pro-lifers are only supportive of certain lives, making exceptions, most often, for cases of rape and incest.

Rebecca Kiessling was conceived in rape. Her mother was brutally attacked at knife-point by a serial rapist in Michigan in 1968. The police quickly referred her mother to a counselor who basically told her an abortion was her only option and set her up with a back-alley abortionist. Typical back-alley conditions (dirt, lack of sanitation, and even blood on the table and floor), paired with the knowledge that abortion was illegal in the state of Michigan at that time, led her mother to back out.

Next her mother was referred to a more expensive abortionist. This time she was told to meet someone at night by the Detroit Institute of Arts who would approach her, say her name, blindfold her, put her in the backseat of a car, drive her somewhere, abort her daughter, then blindfold her again and drop her back off. Rebecca’s mother could not bring herself to go through with this, either, so finally decided to carry Rebecca to term and put her up for adoption instead.

Almost every time Rebecca tells her story, there are listeners who just shake their heads, lamenting how horrible it is that her mother would have had to have gone through that in order to abort her. Incredibly, they truly believe they are being compassionate. However well-intentioned their position may be, there is nothing compassionate about standing before a woman and telling her you wish it had been more “quick, clean, and easy” for her mother to kill her; yet, this is the reality with which Rebecca lives every day.

If abortion had been legal in the state of Michigan at the time her mother became pregnant, Rebecca would not be here today; but the law made her mother rethink her decision and choose to give Rebecca to a loving family instead. Because Rebecca and all unborn children were protected under Michigan state law at that time, her life was spared.

Today, Rebecca is a spunky, intelligent, and accomplished 40-year-old. She has been married for ten years and is a mother of five, as well as a family law attorney with four pro bono cases of international attention. She is also an international pro-life speaker, having saved countless lives through her dedication to the most innocent and defenseless persons and their mothers. I had the great pleasure of meeting Rebecca last year at one of her speaking events, and she is a gem. She is passionate, firey, and gorgeous. She has a sparkling sense of humor and a heart full of love. And she is absolutely no less worthy of life than you or me.

We must never forget that a child conceived through an act of violence is no less a human being than a child conceived through an act of love. We must understand that women who have been the victim of rape are in desperate need of solace, not more suffering. And we must realize that rape victims who chose to abort their child often say they can come to grips with the fact that they had violence inflicted upon them, but they cannot come to grips with the fact that they inflicted violence on someone else: their own son or daughter.

Let us strongly acknowledge that rape is a horrific atrocity and injustice. What makes it wrong is that an innocent human being, the woman, is violated. And what makes abortion wrong? Ah. An innocent human being, the unborn, is killed.

We cannot kill a blameless person in response to another’s suffering. We cannot punish a child for his father’s crime. And we certainly cannot stand there, look Rebecca in the eye, and say, “I think your mother should have been able to kill you.”

I admit that Dave Matthews probably didn’t have abortion in mind when he wrote his lyrics. But his words nonetheless speak to a basic understanding written in the human heart: we have a solemn duty to celebrate and defend life— all life— knowing that a person’s value does not lie in the circumstances of her conception, her parents, her religion, her race, her IQ, or her abilities, but rather in her inalienable right to simply live.