Smoke v. Flames.

The Akin imbroglio is actually producing some discussion on the rape/pregnancy/abortion nexus.

This is from a discussion between Gloria Alred and Rebecca Kiesling on the Piers Morgan show; (Kiessling is the product of rape; her mother attempted to have her aborted twice.)

Kiessling had facts: you may be surprised to know that “rape victims choose abortion at half the rate of your average unplanned pregnancy (50% in the U.S.). With rape victims, it’s only 15 -25% who abort[.]”

And:

3. Rape victims choose abortion at half the rate of the average unplanned pregnancy, which is over 50%. Only 15-25% of rape victims choose abortion, depending on the study. The majority of rape victims choose to raise her child — not “the rapist’s baby” — HER child.

Those statistics seem counter-intuitive. I'd like to see the support for them. The best support I found seems to come from studies that were done in the late '70s and early '80s. I'm not sure that I'd put a lot of weight on them without more.

There's also this:

But just as we moved from opinion to focus on facts, both Morgan and Allred interrupted, saying the stats are mind-numbing, and while Morgan still insists that he has respect for Kiessling, we don’t get back to Kiessling’s train of thought. Allred heaps on fear, desperation, back-alley butchers, emotion, and the injustice of women being forced to raise children. Finally, they have a question for Kiessling: shouldn’t America stand for the basic right (to have an abortion) if one is desperate not to have a baby?

Kiessling responded immediately: “Modern America doesn’t allow us to kill a rapist or even a child molester. The Supreme Court has said that they did not deserve the death penalty. And I don’t believe that I or any other child similarly situated deserve the death penalty for the crimes of our fathers.”

That's a point worth considering, but, of course, when rapists are locked away, the victim doesn't have to re-confront the crime on a daily basis as would seem to be the case with a rape-caused pregnancy.

The fact that any woman would see beyond the crime to the humanity of her child seems like a miraculous act of heroism.