If You Are Pro-Life But Support Exceptions
You are likely here if you believe
- Abortion is generally wrong, but it should be legal in cases of rape or incest.
- If the mother’s life is in danger, abortion must be an option.
- A child with a severe disability might be mercifully aborted.
- You don’t want to force a rape victim to carry her attacker’s child.
The question your position cannot answer
If the preborn child is a human being — and we both agree they are — then an exception for rape means we believe it is just to kill an innocent human being for the crime of his or her father. An exception for disability means we believe some human lives are worth less than others. An exception for the mother’s life assumes a dilemma that modern medicine and honest examination almost never produce.
An exception is not a compromise. It is a denial of the principle.
Read in this order
- No Exceptions — the case that exceptions are morally incoherent given what we both agree the child is.
- FAQ — “What about rape and incest?” — the direct answer to the hardest case.
- Kristan Hawkins’ Flawed Reasoning vs Scripture — addresses Students for Life’s defense of exceptions from within the pro-life movement.
- Biblical, Not Secular — where the authority to reject exceptions actually comes from.
- Abolitionist, Not Pro-Life — why the pro-life movement cannot self-correct on this point.
The specific objection the corpus answers
“I just can’t tell a rape victim she has to carry her attacker’s child.”
The archive’s answer: we are not telling her she has to endure her attacker — we are telling her she may not murder her child. Rape is a capital crime against the mother. The child is the second victim, not the perpetrator. Read No Exceptions and sit with that distinction.
When you’ve read these
If you agree that exceptions deny the very principle they claim to defend, you are no longer a consistent pro-life person — you are an abolitionist who hasn’t yet said the word out loud.
Or, if you still hesitate on strategy (“yes, but we can’t pass that today”), read If You’re Pro-Life and Support Incremental Laws next.