Mormons and Roe v. Wade - The Rape Exception

-Introduction
-Some of the Bare Facts
-When Does Life Begin?

For most Mormons (and yes I am making another generalization based off of my experience) legal exceptions ought to be made for abortions performed due to pregnancies that resulted from rape (or incest). This is of course related to the LDS Church's current moral and church-membership policy that abortions may be permissible under those circumstances and that it should be a decision left up to the woman. What most Mormons who wish to overturn Roe v. Wade do not know is that RvW centered around a woman's legal right to have an abortion for a pregnancy resulting from rape.

In 1970 under Texas law, the only abortion that could legally be performed was one to save the life of the mother. Abortions for rape, incest, severe defects, and even the health of the mother were all criminal offenses. Women you received these abortions (even if they went out of state to receive them) could be imprisoned. Roe v. Wade resulted when a Texan, "Jane Roe," claimed* to have become pregnant after being raped and desired to have an abortion.

So what about repealing Roe v. Wade, but making a legal exception for pregnancies that result from rape? There are three main problems with attempting to criminalize all abortions except for those done because of rape (and incest). (1) The exception would deny the necessary right to life that most pro-life moral arguments are based upon. (2) Such an exception is completely impractical and could not be implemented. And (3) a rape exception would increase mental, emotion, and physical violence among rape victims.

First, the rape exception denies the necessary right to life claim which is usually appealed to in pro-life arguments. If the unborn fetus has a necessary right to life, then why would its being conceived by rape cause it not to have that right? I so often here the appeal made that "this is a human being that has to be protected." If that is the case, how then does it being conceived by rape make it less than a human being? There seems to be three options available here: either all unborn fetuses possess a necessary right to life; all unborn fetuses do not possess this right; or all fetuses, except those conceived by rape or incest, have a necessary right to life. If we choose the first, then those conceived by rape ought to be protected as well. If we choose the second, then the appeal to a necessary right to life is lost. If we choose the third, then we have drawn a rather arbitrary line that renders the claim rather meaningless. If you someone is to argue that the unborn fetus has a necessary right to life, then that person cannot also argue for exceptions for rape (and vice versa).

Second, actually legislating a rape exception would be impractical. First, this would naturally result in an overwhelming increase in accusations of rape. If abortions were only legal for rape, then it is inevitable that we would find an increase of false rape accusations, as it would be seen as the only recourse that women have who wish to receive an abortion.* This increase of false rape accusation leads to the next reason why a legal exception for abortions due to rape is so impractical - the difficulty in proving rape. Will a court-order proving that a pregnancy did in fact result from rape be required before a woman could receive an abortion? If not, would women be required to prove after the abortion that they had in fact been raped? This is highly problematic because for most rapes, unless it was done by violently and/or by a complete stranger, it is nearly impossible to prove. When a high percentage of rapes are perpetrated by someone the victim knows, determining whether or not it was forced or consensual can be nearly impossible.

Finally, the rape exception would result in an increased amount of mental, emotional, and physical violence against rape victims. Because of the difficulty in proving rape, by the time most victims are able to prove that they were raped, they would already be late-term or have already given birth to the unwanted child. While the added stress of needing even more to prove their rape would increase the mental and emotional anguish they would incur, this could easily increase the displeasure they have in having to keep the pregnancy while their claim is being evaluated, which would in turn further increase their mental and emotional pain. Also, because of the aforementioned increase of false rape accusations, there would arise an increased need of proof that there was in fact a rape and that it was not consensual sex. The violent resistance that may provide this proof would go against the wisdom and fact that violent resistance to rape dramatically increases the violent abuse of the victim and often does not prevent the rape.


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*Norma McCorvey, also known as "Jane Roe," was unable to get the abortion and gave up her baby for adoption after it was born. She later claimed to have lied about the rape and became an ardent pro-life supporter.