Babies Conceived in Rape and Incest are Human Beings

All human life is sacred. All human life is sacred.

Conceived by rape, their mothers gave them life: LEFT: Eartha Kitt, singer and actress (Photo by Carl Van Vechten, Library of Congress, via Wikimedia Commons). CENTER: Layne Beachley, seven-time World Champion Surfer (Photo via Facebook). RIGHT: Valerie Gatto, Miss Pennsylvania 2014, sexual assault awareness advocate (Photo via Facebook).
Conceived by rape, their mothers gave them life: LEFT: Eartha Kitt, singer and actress (Photo by Carl Van Vechten, Library of Congress, via Wikimedia Commons). CENTER: Layne Beachley, seven-time World Champion Surfer (Photo via Facebook). RIGHT: Valerie Gatto, Miss Pennsylvania 2014, sexual assault awareness advocate (Photo via Facebook). (photo: Register Files)

It is true that Donald Trump has appointed a good number of conservative federal judges. It is true that Donald Trump has reinstated and expanded the Mexico City Policy, which protects preborn children. It is true that Donald Trump has defunded the United Nations Population Fund — another action that protects the pre-born. His recent tweet, however, about being “strongly Pro-Life” while allowing rape and incest exceptions is not only logically incoherent but fails to recognize a basic truth about the sanctity of human life.

Here is the tweet:

As most people know, and for those who would like to know, I am strongly Pro-Life, with the three exceptions - Rape, Incest and protecting the Life of the mother. - the same position taken by Ronald Reagan.

We hear a lot today about “settled science.” But if science has settled anything at all, it is that human life begins at fertilization, and that a heartbeat begins at 16 days. We hear a lot today about social justice, but if we cannot agree on the principle that the deliberate destruction of an innocent human life is gravely wrong, then how can we even agree on definition of justice?

Babies conceived in rape and incest are human beings, and all human life is sacred. All human life is sacred.

That’s a statement that needs no caveats, disclaimers, or notes in the margin. The idea that a child’s worth and dignity are based on the circumstances of her or his conception is the fakest of fake news. But worse than that — far worse than that — it declares God Himself to be in error. Because regardless of the human actors and circumstances involved, every human baby is both created and maintained in existence by the love of God. And God does not make mistakes.

It is a shame that just as God opens the womb, men close their minds.

There are those in society who say it’s time that not everyone be on the “sacred” list. But God Himself put everyone on the sacred list before time began.

In case you were wondering or have heard differently, YOU have been fearfully and wonderfully made by God:

regardless of which side of the American border you are on,
regardless of which side of the womb you are on,
regardless of how many chromosomes you have,
regardless of the language you speak or do not speak,
regardless of the color of your skin,
regardless of who your father and mother might be,
regardless of each and every single mistake of your past,
you are an enduring master work of God.

You are greater than all the oceans and all the mountains and all the forests and all the planets and all the stars combined. Don’t let anyone — be they princes or presidents or kings or queens or jacks — tell you otherwise. Ultimately, your inestimable worth and value come not from the Constitution, but from the Creator. Constitutions written by the hand of man come and go. But you were created with the Finger of God.

If we are to be a truly compassionate society, abortion is not the answer for either the child or the mother. As doctor of neuroscience and priest Tadeusz Pacholczyk of The National Catholic Bioethics Center puts it:

Rape is an unconscionable crime and a tragedy of enormous proportions. If a woman becomes pregnant following sexual assault, abortion is sometimes offered as a path to ‘fixing’ the rape. But the decision to encourage a second trauma after the first trauma of sexual assault represents, ultimately, a misguided response to a situation that needs to be handled with much greater sensitivity and compassion…

We have a real obligation to reach out in love and acceptance to the woman who has been victimized, and when a child is conceived, she and her child need our loving assistance all the more.

It is not a dismissal of all the good President Trump has done in defense of preborn life to regard his recent tweet as incoherent and wrong. Further, it is our duty in charity to point out that those women who have suffered profound evil must be offered profound good. It is high time that individuals, families, corporations, communities and places of worship come together to provide practical, meaningful and charitable assistance to women who have undergone these terrible crimes. Our response must be understanding, love and compassion.

Without exception.