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How many times do we hear from our more observant friends and family that abortion is justified for rape and incest? TOO MANY TIMES! Nowhere in Torah is an innocent child in the womb given the death penalty because of circumstances of conception.
Here is a synopsis by a friend of the JPLF about his interactions with the group Save the 1, a pro-life advocacy group that advocates for the right to life for the 1% of abortions that kill innocent children because of this unfortunate situation.
I just returned from the 2023 March for Life, in Washington, DC. I stayed in a house rented by Rebecca Kiessling, founder and president of the organization Save the 1. (See website: https://www.savethe1.com/ .) During my two days in DC, I had meaningful conversations with men and women who had been conceived when their own mothers were raped, and heard testimonies from women who had been raped and conceived a child from that rape.”
Whereas, I had once told you that I thought it would be acceptable, in certain legislative situations, to compromise with regard to “exceptions” in a proposed law generally prohibiting elective abortion but allowing legal elective abortion for women whose children had been conceived through rape or incest, I now believe that any such compromise would be a shameful betrayal of our duty to all pre-born children, and would ultimately work to undermine any good that might come from passage of such ostensibly “pro-life” legislation. As I now see it, by agreeing to such a compromise for the sake of passing what appears to be a “Pro-Life” law, we would, in reality, be participating in a sham. It may save some lives, but it would condemn other lives to death. In effect, it would be a pro-death law for the 1% of babies conceived through rape or incest, and it would create loopholes in an otherwise protective law which would inevitably be widened to weaken and ultimately destroy the efficacy all or nearly all of the well-intended protections. (I make the latter statement about loopholes being widened, based on my personal experience as a trial lawyer.)
By the term “elective” abortion, I mean any abortion other than one which is absolutely necessary to save the physical life of the mother. By the term “rape” I also include incest, which in most cases, occurs through what we call “statutory rape” where an older male has sex with an underage child or sibling.
I would like to encourage you to view the website of Save the 1, listen to the video testimonies of their Pro-Life speakers, and, in particular, please read the blog dated January 16, 2016, entitled “Petulent or Vigilant? The Battle for No Exceptions” by Jim Sable. You can also read Jim’s story in his March 10, 2018, blog post entitled “We Are the 1% - The Shocking Reality Behind the Numbers.” Or you can see and hear Jim’s personal story, on the Speakers page of the Save the 1 website.
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