Why abortion activists need to exploit rape
There is always a predictable response from pro-abortion activists, politicians and the news media to any pro-life measure. They’ll exploit the horrific tragedy of rape.
Rape is one of the most violent things one human can do to another. Victims need wholeness and healing, not abortion profiteers and activists waving the latest pink euphemistic signage. Mainstream media isn’t interested, either, in presenting anything other than a pro-abortion narrative.
They deliberately miss opportunities to share the valuable perspective of rape survivors who’ve rejected the violence of abortion. One of the most powerful stories is that of Nancy Kelly. She personified courage. At a Students for Life rally in Montgomery, Alabama, she shared that her healing from rape came from her twins conceived in it.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
In my travels as an international public speaker, I’ve heard from women who’ve become mothers through rape (an estimated 50% of whom choose abortion). A common thread in their journeys (even from those who are post-abortive) is that children are the only redemptive part of such horrific violence. Highlighting this reality is the story of Kathy Barnette whose mother was raped at the age of 11. It’s hard to imagine such an inhumane violation of a child, but the mother and daughter story of inexplicable courage defies what we’re constantly told.
I was conceived in rape but adopted in love. I am the 1% used to justify 100% of abortions. And I’ve been callously told numerous times by activists, college professors and politicians that I “should’ve been aborted.” Did any of us control the circumstances of our conception? Then why do some pretend they can be arbiters of inherent human value?
The circumstances of our conception don’t change the condition of our worth. Ever.
In MSNBC’s The Grio (a color-based “news” outlet), Texas’ Heartbeat Act (SB8) is blasted as “a perfect example of rape culture.” In the article, activist Kimiya Factory weaves a typical pro-abortion tale: “When we’re talking about abortions, we’re talking about situations of domestic violence where a child can be brought into a circumstance that they should not have to withstand. We’re talking about instances of rape and molestation and incest.”
The vast majority of abortions have nothing to do with rape or incest. Even the radically pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute doesn’t make such assertions. In its study “Reasons U.S. Women Have Abortions” Guttmacher reveals that 0.4%-1.3% of respondents claimed to be victims of rape (not sure why there’s a range), and less than half a percent claimed to be victims of incest. State statistics (here, here, and here) show even far lower numbers. In Florida, 0.1% of abortions were for rape and .01% were due to incest. In Louisiana, 0.5% were attributed to rape and incest. Part of the problem is that only seven states even require rape-related abortion statistics to even be reported.
Also, the notion that the actual violence of abortion is better than possible domestic violence once born is such an extreme mentality. We don’t kill people because they might (or do) experience adversity.
To the abortion activists who constantly exploit rape with impunity, I ask this simple question: “If I were to concede that tragic (less than) 1%, would you agree to end the other 99% of elective abortions?” Of course, the answer is always the same: either silence or an emphatic “no.” It’s because this automatic-go-to defense of abortion really doesn’t have to do with rape. It’s why they always vehemently protest pro-life bills that include exceptions for rape and incest.
Let’s keep in mind, this is the same movement that announced a massive “March For Choice” event to protest the passage of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act in on June 5, 2003. Five days later, Planned Parenthood, The National Organization for Women and NARAL “joined forces” to demand the protection of what most consider the most barbaric form of abortion — partial birth abortion. Planned Parenthood claims “there is no such thing as partial birth abortion.” Really? See one here. (WARNING: It is insanely graphic.) How any of these extremist abortion groups could defend this is unconscionable.
Big Abortion and its allies continually insist partial birth abortions were a myth and that late term abortions are “extremely rare” as if to dismiss them as trivial. Abortions beyond 21 weeks gestation occur at a higher percentage than those from rape: 1.2%.
None of it’s trivial. Every human being deserves the right to life, born and unborn.
The resistance to Texas’ SB8 and all other pro-life measures isn’t about rape. It’s about an ideology that pretends that abortion is healthcare and that women aren’t equal without its violence. I call it fake feminism. Where are their demands to punish the rapists? Where’s their outrage when abortionists sexually assault their patients? Where are their demands to hold abortion businesses responsible for failing to report rape? Planned Parenthood has been sued in state after state for such failure (here, here, here and here). The $2 billion abortion empire’s actions allow predators to keep on harming, but that’s not enough to spur any fake feminist protests.
Planned Parenthood’s staunchest supporter, Whoopi Goldberg, infamously defended a famous rapist saying that director Roman Polanski’s drugging and raping of a 13-year-old wasn’t “rape rape.” The abortion giant’s own celebrity spokespeople have joked and lied about rape. Not-so-funny comedian Sarah Silverman asked: “Who’s gonna complain about a rape joke? Rape victims? They don’t even report rape. They’re traditionally not complainers.” Actress Lena Dunham, whose vile book Not That Kinda Girl boasted about how she molested her younger sister, lied about being raped and lied to cover up the crime of an accused rapist. Of course, her book tour was sponsored by Planned Parenthood.
Fake feminists help to aid and abet rape culture, whether intentionally or not. Abusing the criminal act of rape to justify more violence is reprehensible and reveals that abortion activists truly have no defense for limitless abortion-on-demand.
The Department of Justice, led by a radically pro-abortion Attorney General, just sued Texas over SB8. AG Merrick Garland unsurprisingly called the law “clearly unconstitutional.” Roe v. Wade, which allowed the unrestricted commercialized killing of the unborn and the harming of their mothers, was and is clearly unconstitutional. This is the same AG who suspended all federal executions back in July saying: "The Department of Justice must ensure that everyone in the federal criminal justice system is not only afforded the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States but is also treated fairly and humanly [sic]," he said.
So, criminals, including rapists, deserve to be treated fairly and humanely but not unborn children? My biological father deserved punishment for the crime he committed, but those like him are afforded far more protection and dignity than those conceived in rape. The Supreme Court, never one for consistency, delivered a ruling in 1977 in Coker v. Georgiadeclaring the death penalty to be “cruel and unusual.” The justices concluded: “Although rape deserves serious punishment, the death penalty, which is unique in its severity and irrevocability, is an excessive penalty for the rapist.” That same Roe Court ruled just 4 years prior that an unborn child (regardless of how he or she was conceived) could be killed for any reason. That’s undeniably cruel and unusual.
May we never forget, either, that Roe v. Wade began with a lie. Norma McCorvey, aka Jane Roe, lied that she had been raped. The exploitation continues nearly five decades later. Through the organization I cofounded, The Radiance Foundation, I’ll keep on fighting for the most marginalized among the marginalized. Why? Because every human life, planned or unplanned, has purpose.
Ryan Bomberger is the Chief Creative Officer and co-founder of The Radiance Foundation. He is happily married to his best friend, Bethany, who is the Executive Director of Radiance. They are adoptive parents with four awesome kiddos. Ryan is an Emmy Award-winning creative professional, factivist, international public speaker and author of NOT EQUAL: CIVIL RIGHTS GONE WRONG. He loves illuminating that every human life has purpose.
