Politician explains ‘epiphany’ that led him to oppose abortion even in cases of rape

LifeSiteNews reports that "Canadian Parliament Member Kyle Seeback openly admits that he was once 'fairly comfortable' with the viewpoint that a pregnant woman should have the option to abort in the case of rape. He also says that even though he saw abortion as okay for rape and incest, he still thought of himself as 'pro-life.'

But all that changed one day when Seeback was invited by Campaign Life Coalition to attend a talk by Rebecca Kiessling, a woman who was conceived in rape and adamantly defends the right to life for everyone conceived in rape.

'It just resonated with me right away. I kept thinking: ‘Why would someone get to choose that she would not have a life.’ It didn’t make sense to me,' he said earlier this month.

Kiessling was conceived in rape prior to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. Kiessling’s mother would have aborted her had abortion been legal at the time, but was ultimately prevented from doing so by Michigan state law. Kiessling calls the pro-life legislators active at the time she was conceived her “heroes” for having laws protecting her life.

Seeback said that Kiessling’s talk transformed his view on being pro-life except in the case of rape.

'If life begins at conception then abortion is taking a life. I don’t think that [abortion] is an appropriate response to a terribly traumatic event (rape),' he said.

'To say that because you went through a very terribly traumatic event (rape) — of course it was — you can then end someone else’s life? To me it just didn’t make sense [anymore].'

One of the common points you'll hear pro-life advocates make is that, in cases of pregnancies resulting from rape, the unborn child should not have to pay with his life for the sins of his father. That's very true - and Rebecca Kiessling would certainly agree. But what you don't often hear is that many women who have chosen abortion under these circumstances often seek counseling not because of - or only because of - the rape, but because they're traumatized by the abortion.

Unfortunately in our country, abortion is seen not only as the most viable solution to a tragic situation, but in many ways it's pushed as the only solution. The truth is, though, that the evil of abortion does not erase the evil of rape - it only compounds the evil. And if even one rape victim is further traumatized by the ensuing abortion, shouldn't we at least consider the well-being of the mother before selling abortion as her only hope? Or has our country become so entrenched in the culture of death, that the mother's well-being is secondary to anything that promotes death over life?

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From LifeSiteNews