I believe pregnancy resulting from rape is one of only very few reasons for abortion. God would not expect any woman to carry a child to term who was conceived in such a brutal way. However, women who do choose to are imho amazing.
Sorry jody I find myself having to play devil's advocate here and to defend a position I don't really hold.
Personally I'm not opposed to abortion and, like many other men - men just as much as women - I don't just base my view on some cerebral opinion I've arrived at in the abstract but also on lived personal experience of women I'm close to. What was it that one of the Clintons once said about abortion? That it should be "legal, safe and rare"?
But this isn't about my personal views on abortion but about the logic of those who claim the moral justification of God for their views.
KTJ and garfield - I'm going to ask you to pull your heads in for a bit and to STFU. And I'm going to do it nicely and politely by saying "please!" Whether you like it or not and whether you think it's all fairy tales and talking to an imaginary friend, the fact remains that God - with or without inverted commas - is big news to a lot of people when it come to making moral decisions. And I think that whether or not to abort a pregnancy is a pretty serious moral decision - among other things. So it won't be helpful if a paleo-atheist comes onto the thread at this point and does the cyber equivalent of farting in a crowded lift. So please, just desist ... this time. OK? Thank you.
It seems to me that if you believe that babies are a gift from God, that the act of conception is a miracle - and I agree it is darned miraculous - and that pregnancy is what Dutch Catholics are pleased to call "heilige toestand", or "holy circumstances", then that sort of logic (and I stress it isn't my logic) would dictate that
all babies are gifts from God - no matter what the circumstances of the pregnancy; that
all acts of conception are miracles and that, ipso facto,
all pregnancies are "holy".
Even, and this is the hard bit, pregnancies caused by rape.
I repeat, this is not a view I hold. But what I'm doing is taking the logic of a faith-based position and running with it to see where it goes.
If a belief system grounded in Christianity makes "feel good" statements of faith about conception being a miracle, pregnancy being something "holy" and babies being a gift from God, then that's fine as long as there are no if's or buts. But if they then say "oh, rape resulting in a pregnancy is different. You can abort that one!" then what they're doing is starting to make exceptions which then raise the questions:
1. When is a conception not a miracle? Why? Does God only make "all things bright and beautiful"? Doesn't he also make all things hideous and loathsome?
2. When is a pregnancy not "holy"? Does that mean that not all pregnancies are "holy"? And what does that say about a woman who decides that her rape-induced pregnancy is something holy in spite of the rape that caused it? Does that mean she wasn't raped?
3. When is a baby not a gift from God? What does it say about a woman who decides that her baby, conceived in a rape, is not responsible for the despicable act that resulted in the baby's existence, is a gift from God in spite of the circumstances of its conception, and chooses to love it and care for it? Personally I'd call such a woman a saint. Notice my choice of word? Has a religious reference, doesn't it. Lots of moral questions have a religious reference.
I've basically used the Catholic Church's position and logic on conception, pregnancy and birth to show how they really can't avoid their position on abortion which is blanket opposition.
I don't share it!! Along with their fucked up position on divorce, their view in abortion is one of the fundamental problems I've had with Catholicism which led me to separate myself from the religion I was brought up in.
But what I am saying is that even though I don't accept the argument and the conclusion regarding abortion, I have to acknowledge the power and consistency of the logic. I just find it all rather fascist and abhorrent. But that's just my own personal view
) that there should be a word for this phenomenon of elevating "belief-in-spite-of-the-facts" to a sacred ideology. Let's call it "Credulism" and its practitioners are Credulists. 
) that there should be a word for this phenomenon of elevating "belief-in-spite-of-the-facts" to a sacred ideology. Let's call it "Credulism" and its practitioners are Credulists. 
