Abortion continues to be a hot topic in our culture. It is a needlessly heated debate. One would think it would be clear cut, but we still find ourselves on one side of a very clear cut issue. Is abortion a sin, or is it a woman's right? Is it healthcare, or is it cold blooded murder of the most innocent and defenceless victims? In an effort to defend abortion, some bring up the question of rape. If a child is conceived in rape, is it ok to kill it?
It is worth noting that those who use this argument don't usually care about rape itself. A simple question to ask them is "can we establish a rule before we work out exceptions?" See, rape is a minority reason for abortion. If you ask your pro-abortion friend (pro-choice is an extreme misnomer) if they can agree that the 98% of abortions that are not for reasons of rape or incest should be outlawed, they will almost certainly answer "no". This is because rape victims are mere pawns to abortionists. It is an appeal to emotion designed to piggyback abortion on demand. So, really, this is quite literally the last question you should be asking.
But let's suppose they grant that abortion on demand is an extreme position to hold, and that they genuinely do think rape should be the exception to the rule. Should rape excuse abortion? Realistically, no. The central question isn't how a child is conceived, but whether or not it is a human. See, there are a large number of people alive today outside the womb who were conceived by rape. Every single one of them is inarguably human. They have a life, they have rights, and they have dignity. If you walk up to a 90 year old who was conceived by rape and stabbed him to death, you would be convicted of murder. The same is true for a 50 year old, a 30 year old, a 10 year old, a 4 year old, if you slaughter a newborn baby, the fact that they were conceived in rape would not acquit you of murder (except, apparently, in the more savage regions of New York).
So, why inside the womb? Inside the womb, the child is still demonstrably human. In a different developmental stage, sure, but in this day and age, not even all abortion advocates are fully grown. The Bible also describes children in the womb as humans, being hand knitted by God (Psalm 139:13). And so the rights of a child inside the womb are identical to those of a child outside the womb. Thus, if it is evil to kill a child outside the womb, it is evil to kill a child inside the womb.
No child should ever have to pay for the crimes of their parents (Deuteronomy 24:16; Jeremiah 31:30). If a child is conceived by rape, by all means kill the rapist. I will lay this down for the record; there is a serious flaw in the legal system of any country that allows a rapist to live without some form of restitution to the victim. But no child should have to suffer the same fate. The child did not rape their mother, but it might actually help her survive the rape. According to studies conducted by the Elliot Institute in California, the average annual suicide rate per 100,000 women is 3 for delivering women, compared to 7.8 for aborting women. The national average suicide rate for women between the ages of 15 and 44 is 5.2 per 100,000 women. (1) Statistically speaking, women who have an abortion have a higher suicide rate than women in general, while giving birth generally reduces women’s suicide risk.
Rape is no excuse for abortion. It is the exact opposite of justice; the innocent dies for the crimes of their father. Our hearts should break for the victims of rape, and rapists should die a very brutal death at the hands of the government, but the fact that you cannot abort the child of a rapist should be as obvious as the fact that you cannot kill that same child when they are outside the womb for the same reason.
That last principle actually applies to almost every argument for abortion. There are some arguments that obviously don't, but most arguments for abortion apply equally, if not more, to killing an adult. Abortionists simply have no case, and they know it, which is why thy so recklessly capitalise on rape victims. The question is, how long will it be before they repent of such a bloodthirsty belief?
References
1. Cited in The Post-Abortion Review - Suicide Rate Higher After Abortion, Study Shows (link)