Some women keep babies that are conceived through rape. And those babies turn out to be wonderful additions to their lives. It is a baby after all, so cute!
This whole Todd Akin thing has proved, once again, how unable to see the real issues we are as a society. This is not a pro-life vs pro-choice argument. This is a time for that horrible division between the two sides to be bridged.
A person who is pro-life will tell you they are more pro-woman than a person who is pro-choice. The idea being they are protecting the woman from abortion. Their intentions are good. And a pro-choice person will also say they are pro-woman, protecting a woman from having her body controlled by another. Their intention also are good. Neither side wakes up in the morning and thinks, "I just hate women so much, I'm going to support/prevent abortion just to hurt them".
The so-called war on women is not being waged by the pro-lifers and it is not being waged by the pro-choicers. This war is being waged by the political establishment so intently set on winning elections and raising money that they will wave whatever words or thoughts in your face to get you to vote for them. That is the real problem here.
The problem is, after a woman gives birth to her rapists child, that rapist has the same parental rights to the child as any other upstanding man. The problem is that women are afraid to report rape because they will have to defend themselves, and prove it was a real rape. The problem is we teach boys that "no means no" rather than "unless you are 100% sure you are both agreeing to participate leave her alone".
Why do we give men the power to approach any woman and hit on her, that he gets to be with her unless she says no. That doesn't even make sense, do robbers get to rob my house unless I put a sign up that says "don't rob me"? No, of course not, a person is not welcome in your house or on your property unless invited. Otherwise it is trespassing and illegal. But a rapist is allowed access to a woman's body until she says, "no, go away".
The truth is, you are not welcome to another person's body unless invited. Seems logical and silly for me to have to say. But think about this, women: when is the last time some guy made a really inappropriate comment about your body or how he would like to be with you? Men: when is the last time you oogled over some woman as if she was a model there for you to just check out?
Of course people aren't blind and women check out men as well. But you know as well as I do the difference between "hey that person walking there is cute." And the inappropriate version. If you don't, ask someone.
We should be raising kids to think "yes means lets talk about it and make a decision if this is right for us" and anything else means no. We should be teaching our kids that even if that person said yes, it's OK to still not do it. We should be teaching our kids that it is better to drive someone crazy saying "are you sure, because I just don't want to hurt you" than it is to do anything they don't want to do, ever. And if you are not smart enough to figure out if someone is SURE, then you probably shouldn't be having sex anyways.
Todd Akin is nothing more than the spokesperson for the ignorance of the country. Daniel Tosh is nothing more than the face of millions of college aged men. These people are bullies.
It is estimated that about 17.7million American women have been victims of rape. That doesn't count the women who don't report it. It doesn't count sexual harassment. Maybe they had abortions, and maybe they didn't. But they got taken advantage of in the worst way possible. If you're really interested in protecting women, start by fighting the rape culture instead of supporting the political smokescreen.
Here are 3 important articles to read:
Rapist visitation rights?
A personal account.
The problem with men explaining things
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