Can raped girls abort?

[FMLJoliecouer]

I don’t see Linda judging anyone. Of course only God can judge us for only He knows everything in our hearts - more than even we know.

I haven’t seen anything but compassion in this thread. I haven’t seen anyone say that the raped girl is anything but a victim.

I do see you judging the very people you say are judging.

You are absolutely right!

I am the most judgemental person on this thread…and luckily everyone on this forum, I wont be back to the web-site…it will be no great loss, I am sure…

Oh ,…do you volunteer with street people, people with serious mental health issues, drug addicts, people with AIDS, prostitutes and do you know their stories? If I was so judgemental…do you think I could serve my sisters and brothers who most of society just looks at with pity and disgust…

and what do you do to show Christ’s compassion in this world to the most needy and broken people?

 

[tjm190]

I beg to differ. It would be an immoral, un-understandable (non-understandable?), unethical, and WRONG choice for a Catholic and for anyone else. Abortion is murder. Every human being deserves protection, no matter what stage of life they are at, whether it be embryo, fetus, infant, child, adult, elderly…Sanctity of human life is a universal concept and is subject to universal law (which is God’s law).

Really now? You would have no empathy towards a raped girl who gets an abortion?

Every human being deserves protection, but it seems understandable to not want to be forced to offer such protection as the result of someone else’s crime.

 

[LittleSoldier]

You are absolutely right!

Thank you. I am glad we agree.

I am the most judgemental person on this thread…and luckily everyone on this forum, I wont be back to the web-site…it will be no great loss, I am sure…

Well I will be very unhappy to see you go and I wonder why you degrade yourself so. God loves you very much. I respectfully ask you to stay a bit longer, if even to just read the threads. Many people do. It makes me sad that you are so unhappy with yourself.

Oh ,…do you volunteer with street people, people with serious mental health issues, drug addicts, people with AIDS, prostitutes and do you know their stories? If I was so judgemental…do you think I could serve my sisters and brothers who most of society just looks at with pity and disgust…

and what do you do to show Christ’s compassion in this world to the most needy and broken people?

As much as I want to answer your question (and I typed quite a lot and then deleted it), this is irrelevant. The topic of this thread is “Can raped girls abort?” My personal volunteer activities are irrelevant, as are yours, in this particular thread.

Because this would skew the thread off topic, I cannot answer your questions.

 

[LittleSoldier]

If a girl or woman’s life or health is put at great risk …why does the unborn baby’s life come first? Allowing the mother to die is ok?

If having the baby presents a real physical risk to the life of the mother, the Church does allow the mother to choose. This is a very rare situation. For example, allowing an ectopic pregnancy to continue will cause the death of the unborn child and most likely the death of the mother as well. In a case such as this the Church allows the mother to be treated by having the ectopic pregnancy removed. This is not considered an abortion by the Church.

The Church allows this because the death of the child (which is admittedly horrible) is not an ends in and of itself, and only occurs as the result of life-saving procedures performed on the mother.

There are other conditions in which either the child or the mother will die. This is extremely rare, but in these cases, I believe it is left up to the mother to decide if she can accept the death of her child in order to save her own life, or if she is willing to die herself to allow her child to live. I know this is in the CCC but I haven’t been able to find it tonight. It is covered and discussed in some older abortion threads (in the Social Justice sub-forum). But as you have announced you are leaving the forum I don’t think I need to try to find it in the CCC.

Hope this helps!

 

[LittleSoldier]

One more thing…if you live in a rural community…there are no resources, transitional housing etc.

This is a blanket statement and not true. I live in a rural community and we offer a lot of resources for needy pregnant women and other needy people. The Catholic Church here is involved with the Caring Pregnancy Center which supplies clothes, household items, etc. We have “baby showers” and buy new baby clothing. It all goes to the Caring Pregnancy Center. There is another organization in town (I can’t remember the name) that gives clothing to the needy. We have Food Share which is administered by one church in my town but every other church (including my parish Church) participates, along with the few grocery stores, the Boy Scouts, and the US Postal Service. The State offers food stamps for low-income persons.

The St. Vincent de Paul Society offers excellent low-cost housing and will help a pregnant woman obtain that housing. These apartments are not dumps. They are two story townhouses and are kept-up very well. We have other subsidized housing. We also have Habitat for Humanity which is an organization that builds houses for low-income families.

As far as health care goes, we have a program which provides free medical care for low-income persons, even those that are not eligible for state services. A girl (woman) who finds herself pregnant will have her entire pregnancy paid for and it isn’t a tax write-off for the hospital (which is a Catholic hospital). The care is absolutely free.

One last point: parishioners from the Catholic Church pray the Rosary in front of the new Planned Parenthood clinic and offer sidewalk counseling.

I am very proud of my little town. The people here care deeply about the needy and we don’t just “talk the talk”, we “walk the walk.”

 

[LittleSoldier]

Really now? You would have no empathy towards a raped girl who gets an abortion?

Every human being deserves protection, but it seems understandable to not want to be forced to offer such protection as the result of someone else’s crime.

First of all, I am not judging anyone who obtains an abortion. But as a Catholic I stand by what the Church teaches. My heart goes out to anyone who is raped and it also goes out to anyone who finds herself in such a desperate situation that she resorts to killing her own child. I believe there are two victims in an abortion: the child and the mother (one is killed and one is maimed). I think that many times very young women (girls, actually) are duped and that reduces their culpability.

“Every human being deserves protection.” Absolutely true!! That means every human being and that includes the unborn child. The child deserves life just as much as the mother. Why do you believe that it’s OK to murder an innocent child? What did the child do? Did the child rape the girl? No, it was the rapist. So go after the rapist and make him pay for what he did. But murder? No, the Church states that it is morally indefensible to procure an abortion.

Half of the child is from the mother. The child is inside the mother’s womb. It is a tragedy that the mother was raped. It would be another tragedy if the mother killed her own child. As trite as it may sound, two wrongs really don’t make a right.

You feel that it’s OK to murder a child because the mother was a victim? That makes no sense to me. Have you checked the websites whose links are provided in this thread? If not, please do so because I think you would find them helpful.

All human life is precious!! The rapist showed his disregard for human life when he raped the girl. So now should the girl be allowed to show disregard for human life by murdering her son or daughter? All human life is precious. Let’s treat it as such.

 

[Heavens_Flowers]

EVERY child deserves the right to live even those conceived by rape, incest or by a very young girl. It would be hard to do, I’m not saying it wouldn’t. But there is no reason to murder an innocent baby. If you ask god, for strength and courage, he will help us, and give us many graces for doing as he would do, and putting our trust in him. God will help us carry our cross so to speak. Ask and ye shall receive.

 

[adelore]

A friend of our family was rapped and became pregnant. (This was her first pregnancy and was 18 or 19 when this happened.) She then carried that baby to full term, all along saying she was going to put her baby up for adoption when it was born.

She said it wasn’t because she hated the child, but because she loved it enough, even though it was created through a rape, to give it up. She said that she knew her child was a victume, just like she was and yet she said, that she “Feared” if she kept the baby, that she could possible say something to one day harm that child. You know like through anger…

She said, that no child should ever be made to feel anything was their fault…(for something someone else did.) She was afraid that in anger she might blurt something out. We all have been angrey with a child of ours before and we’ve all snapped or said something hurtful to our children that we wished we could take back.

She also use to say that this baby was created for some loving parents who couldn’t have children.

And you know she was right. She took a bad thing that happened and made a good thing out of it. She focused only on the good. By the way the man who raped her was never caught. She had a lot of love and support during the Pregrency from family and friends like us. When the day came that she had to leave the hospital she spent an hour with her baby, she cried buckets, because she gave the baby up, but she was also happy knowing she gave that baby life (and didn’t abort, as she did have a choice) and that a family would love her baby like their very own.

 

[Jermosh]

They did not choose to become pregnant, they are just innocent victims…Is it okay for a rapped girl to have an abortion?

Abortion on Demand? Never, the USCCB has defined the use of emergancy “morning after pill” or other contraceptives if the hospitel can state that fertilization did not happen though.

usccb.org/prolife/issues/abortion/ecfact.shtml

 

[JRKH]

If a girl or woman’s life or health is put at great risk …why does the unborn baby’s life come first? Allowing the mother to die is ok?

Could you show me where anyone on this thread has said that it is OK to let the mother die? Such a thing is counterintuitive since the child (fetus) in the womb cannot survive to birth without the mother.
Please try to recognize that we as Catholics try to Love both the Mother AND the Child.

Peace
James

 

[JRKH]

Really now? You would have no empathy towards a raped girl who gets an abortion?

Every human being deserves protection, but it seems understandable to not want to be forced to offer such protection as the result of someone else’s crime.

Allow me to place before you a slightly modified scenerio.

Let us say that a girl is raped, carries the child to term and gives birth. After a few months with the child, she realizes that every time she sees or hears the child she is reminded of the rape.
Do you think that this woman would be justified in killing the child?

Of course not you would say. That would be murder. She could give the child up for adoption.

To which I would respond, “What’s the difference?” If she cannot kill the child before birth, why is it OK to kill the child before birth?

Peace
James

 

[JRKH]

I know this doesn’t directly relate to this thread topic, but I couldn’t help but be reminded of this other thread from a short time back.

How to turn someone pro-life in two easy steps

Peace
James

 

[Seatuck]

They did not choose to become pregnant, they are just innocent victims…Is it okay for a rapped girl to have an abortion?

Why does the baby get the death penalty for the father’s actions? Should we punish children for their parents crimes?

How about we help the girl through an extremely traumatic and difficult time .How about we take care of both of them.

 

[LindaSK]

Quote:
Originally Posted by FMLJoliecouer View Post
One more thing…if you live in a rural community…there are no resources, transitional housing etc.

I must agree with LittleSoldier. We also live in a rural area and there are MANY resources available - from free pregnancy tests, transportation to medical appointments, counseliing and housing, to free maternity and baby clothing, formula, food, and diapers. We also have a Woman’s Center that provides housing, counseling, legal support for women who have been raped or abused. Local churches participate in a baby bottle campaign to raise moneys to support these facilities.

It is sad to think you will leave this thread. The sense I get from everyone who has posted is that we wish only the best for you. I have no doubt you are being kept in many prayers. I hope you can find some healing in the love God has for you.

Peace

 

[LittleSoldier]

A friend of our family was rapped and became pregnant. (This was her first pregnancy and was 18 or 19 when this happened.) She then carried that baby to full term, all along saying she was going to put her baby up for adoption when it was born.

She said it wasn’t because she hated the child, but because she loved it enough, even though it was created through a rape, to give it up. She said that she knew her child was a victume, just like she was and yet she said, that she “Feared” if she kept the baby, that she could possible say something to one day harm that child. You know like through anger…

She said, that no child should ever be made to feel anything was their fault…(for something someone else did.) She was afraid that in anger she might blurt something out. We all have been angrey with a child of ours before and we’ve all snapped or said something hurtful to our children that we wished we could take back.

She also use to say that this baby was created for some loving parents who couldn’t have children.

And you know she was right. She took a bad thing that happened and made a good thing out of it. She focused only on the good. By the way the man who raped her was never caught. She had a lot of love and support during the Pregrency from family and friends like us. When the day came that she had to leave the hospital she spent an hour with her baby, she cried buckets, because she gave the baby up, but she was also happy knowing she gave that baby life (and didn’t abort, as she did have a choice) and that a family would love her baby like their very own.

Beautiful!! Thank you for sharing that!

 

[Lutheranteach]

I don’t want to debate the wrong or right…I’m just adding this to the discussion. I think there are those women out there that if impregnated via a rape would see every moment of the pregnancy as a reminder of the crime. I can’t imagine the toll that would take. To have the control of your own body taken away from you by a rapist not just during the act itself but in away to have the control of your life and body taken away from some 9 months that would be a truly horrendous situation to be placed in.

 

[LittleSoldier]

Abortion on Demand? Never, the USCCB has defined the use of emergancy “morning after pill” or other contraceptives if the hospitel can state that fertilization did not happen though.

usccb.org/prolife/issues/abortion/ecfact.shtml

I’ve followed your link and I’m a bit confused about this group. I don’t know if it is an organization formally affiliated with the Catholic Church - I have my doubts. I tried to email the group but I wasn’t able to (computer problems). I tried to phone them and someone did answer but he transferred me and then nobody answered the phone.

I don’t think this is Church teaching.

Do you or does anybody else have any further info on this group?

Thanks - I don’t mean to question you or anything but I’ve run across some other websites that don’t conform to Church teaching even though they use the word “Catholic” in their title.

 

[Tantum_ergo]

But Lutheranteach, when does the trauma of living through 9 months in a putative mental agony ‘triumph’ over an innocent child’s right to life?

Suppose that I am somehow hooked up to a machine which inflicts awful psychological pain onto me and I know it will last 9 months. I have a button I can push. If I push the button, the machine will stop its infliction of pain–but a person will die, and I’ll be the one administering a lethal shock to them by pressing the button.

Now. . .you tell me. Do I have the right to kill that person (who has absolutely nothing to do with whoever is ‘torturing’ me?) If the machine’s psychological pain stops, what about the pain that I will feel knowing that I killed an innocent person just to make it stop?

And even if the machine stops. . .I’ll never know (or be able to confront) the person who hooked me up. I’ll never know if it could happen again, or why it happened. . .so I’ll still have pain no matter what, plus I’ll have the pain of having killed an innocent person.

So a woman who is pregnant through a rape is never going to ‘heal’ totally. She isn’t going to feel better once the child is gone–if she has that much trauma going on she probably will have PTSD and flashbacks the rest of her life–and in addition she will, one day, have to come to terms with having killed an innocent child.

 

[tjm190]

Now. . .you tell me. Do I have the right to kill that person (who has absolutely nothing to do with whoever is ‘torturing’ me?) If the machine’s psychological pain stops, what about the pain that I will feel knowing that I killed an innocent person just to make it stop?

I would argue that it is the person who hooked you up to the machine that is culpable for the death caused by your pressing of the button. You are in a position to spare the person, yes. However, you have no moral obligation to suffer on that person’s behalf. Had you by some means consented to this in the past, that’d be another thing all together.

 

[Lutheranteach]

All good questions…and thank heaven this is a very rare situation