GOP senatorial candidate Richard Mourdock has stated that when a woman becomes pregnant through a rape, she should be denied an abortion. He explained his reasoning by saying that, "God is at work when rape leads to pregnancy."
Now, I don't know what personal experience Mourdock has had with rape. I don't know if he's ever had a daughter or a female relative who has ever been raped. All I do know is that rape is horribly prevalent in our society today with the US Department of Justice
estimating that about 300,000 women in the US are raped each year.
Pregnancy and rape is always a nagging worry within the mind of any young woman who dates regularly, and that worry is only exacerbated when someone who will probably never worry about rape or pregnancy occurring to his person makes a law further restricting a woman's choice should the unthinkable happen to her.
What are your opinions? Should there be worry about Mourdock's position? Is his way of thinking indicative of a new course regarding women's rights in the US today? Or is Mourdock right?
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Comments (149)
The unborn child is innocent. Rape does not justify killing an innocent person.
Thank God for good men like Senator Murdock.More proof the Judeo-Christian "God" is a fucking asshole not worthy of worship, praise, or admiration, but rather scorn, ridicule, and revulsion.
No, just, no. The war on women is disgusting (and, by the way, I'm male). I will stand behind a woman's right to choose in any circumstance, rape included.
A victim of rape is innocent as well, and should have a choice in how they want to proceed in their lives, abortion or not. Ultimately, you shouldn't' be able to tell someone what to do with their body.
@PrisonerxOfxLove@xanga - A fetus is not a person, it is a potential person. Whereas life begins at conception (a scientific fact), the same claim can't be made for personhood. Life and personhood are not synonymous terms.
@secretbeerreporter@xanga - The fetus is just as much a person as you or I.
Human life begins at conception.Therefore the fetus possesses human nature.
And science says so too. All the DNA identifying the being as human is possessed by the fetus.
You get bullied because you look like a wierdo. But your sweet little dog has no prejudice based on appearance.
That should make you especially sensitive to judging people based on their appearance. Just because the fetus doesn't look like you, doesn't mean it isn't fully human.
@PrisonerxOfxLove@xanga - Dude, it's a Wednesday afternoon and this is the fiftieth post you've typed today. Get a damn job.
@PrisonerxOfxLove@xanga - I never said life DIDN'T begin at conception, now did I? No, I did not. I fully accept that as a scientific fact. However, personhood cannot be scientifically quantified. Life (even human life) and personhood are not synonyms, no matter how you turn it.
Sorry, but a fetus doesn't have the same value as a born person. Not all human beings are equal in value or worth ("All people are [created] equal" is a factual lie). Even among the born there are those who have inherently more worth and value than others. That's all there is to it. As it is, a fetus is nothing more than a parasite in human form, feeding off of its host (the mother). Until it can live independently and on its own without a host, it is nothing but a parasite and can and should be treated as such.
Further, abortion saves the fetus a life of suffering and prevents it from ever having to experience this traumatic thing called life. It is, after all, better never to have been born, so having an abortion is doing that thing a favor rather than an injustice.
@phoebester@xanga - Maybe it's my day off.
And since you seem to be following me around all over Xanga, maybe you should follow your own advice.
Or is this your day off too?
@secretbeerreporter@xanga - Words mean things.
Conception means beginning. The beginning of what? The beginning of human life.There is zero probability that a human fetus will become a pig or a fish. That's because it possesses human nature, not pig nature or fish nature.
That the fetus is fully human is obvious to anyone who values reason.
@PrisonerxOfxLove@xanga - And I haven't disagreed with that, now have I? Human =/= person. They are not necessarily synonymous terms. There are some humans (fetuses included) that do not have the title of "person." Only persons have rights.
I think that when we separate personhood from simply being human, there are serious philosophical repercussions. Anyone can be killed for whatever reason we wish if personhood isn't dependent on being human alone. This has been done many times in history, to the detriment of whole people groups.
I think rape is horrible. It is more than a violation of someone's rights--it's damaging to their soul and in a way, their future. It will forever be with them. It is one of the gravest crimes in my book. And, I hope none of the survivors of rape would ever become pregnant. But I don't think it makes terminating the pregnancy right--even though I understand their reasons, and I wouldn't go haranguing a woman who did get an abortion after a rape.
I would say--the right to life outweighs the right to not be pregnant. Even though it's a very tough call.Victims of rape should be treated with the utmost sensitivity and understanding, despite anyone's stance on abortion.
@secretbeerreporter@xanga - All human beings are equal because we all possess the same human nature.
When you look at a tree, no matter what kind, you know that it is a tree. And you know that because the tree has a specific, fixed nature.
It is the same with human beings.
@PrisonerxOfxLove@xanga - Well, lucky for you I shot that whole claim down months ago: http://secretbeerreporter.xanga.com/763208515/the-false-notion-that-all-men-are-created-equal/.
Check and mate.
@Jenny_Wren@xanga - If you didn't believe in fairy tales (i.e. religion/God), you'd believe differently. Your opinion is 100% rooted in religion and 0% rooted in secular philosophy and/or scientific fact.
@PrisonerxOfxLove@xanga - Coming from a person whose blogs are 100% emotionally charged and not based on fact. Sometimes cold, hard facts are just that: cold and hard. Unlike you, I actually am able to separate my emotions from simple, observable facts, regardless of how cold, heartless, or inconvenient they might seem.
i think i will defect to canadia if romney wins the election. is there any way we can claim congress again too? cause that would be pretty awesome.
@PrisonerxOfxLove@xanga - I observe from a distance. I know exactly what's going on over there.
@secretbeerreporter@xanga - Unless you can prove atheism, you're in a worse position than any other religion.
The existence of God can be proven.
Go ahead and prove atheism for us.
...crickets...
...crickets...
Unless you can apply the same standard of proof to your own beliefs that you require of others, you have no credibility.
i cannot believe that there are still people like this in the world who dont believe that a woman should not have the right to control her own body. this is why i am a firm believer in the political and social idea of anarchy. as long as there is society and religion out there there will be disgusting human beings like him who want to tell us that, based on their personal moral code, what we do with ourselves is wrong.
@PrisonerxOfxLove@xanga - The proof of atheism lies in the fact that there is not one shred of hardcore, scientific, tangible evidence in favor of the existence of a supernatural being. Only natural processes truly exist.
If there is no hardcore, tangible proof of something, it doesn't exist. That's all there is to it. I reject the existence of god/gods for the same reason I reject the existence of love: the lack of proof.
@PrisonerxOfxLove@xanga - prove god exists. right now. with ACTUAL evidence.
(crickets crickets)
you cant do it. you cannot prove the existence of a god just like you cannot prove that a god doesnt exist. all you are left with is what you believe.
dont tell people what to believe and ridicule them if they refuse to believe what you do. that is asinine and childish.
Wow. This guy shouldn't speak publicly anymore. Ever. Rape is awful, and if someone doesn't want to keep a child conceived from rape, that's their right.
@PrisonerxOfxLove@xanga - another note, you seem to have a strange obsession with crickets...
you should probably have that checked out. the sexual repression that is forced upon those of your religion (yes the vanilla christians are just as sexually opressive as any other religion) has probably led you to projecting your desires out onto poor little bugs that never did you any harm.
on top of that, if you rape the little cricket and get her pregnant, according to your own religious philosophy, the poor girl will have to keep all the little cricket larvae and you will be stuck with supporting a bunch of baby crickets (you cant possibly expect an unwilling mother to take fiscal responsiblity for the offspring you produced).
@gilly_owens@xanga - if you think this guy is bad you should talk to some of the people on here. there is one nut who thinks the woman should be forced to marry the rapist and be happy about it because "at least she would have only slept with her husband".
it really disgusts me when people try to make their religious views into political campaigns and later laws.
@LauraDeLuna@xanga - Jolly good show, my friend.