The problem with exceptions for rape, and I say this as someone considered to be a liberal in these forums, in terms of actually permitting abortion, is that it creates a loophole wherein the potential for abuse exists. However, unlike some people, who seem to think that women raped basically have to deal with it, I believe there is a suitable alternative, and that is a compensation system wherein rape victims would be paid by the government, and since we now know now very wealthy many rapists are, like Jeff Epstein, I propose to fund this by expanding civil asset forfeiture from drug offenses to sex crimes, and then redirecting all funds from both to create special funding for rape victims, which would be available regardless of whether or not they wished to be a mother or put the child up for adoption; the only variation in the amount of the compensation would be if the victim was underage, an additional scholarship for college tuition would be provided, similar to benefits under the GI bill.
Now this scheme might also be abused with false claims, but I would rather send teenage parents to college and spare them a lifetime of poverty; indeed, I am not even sure being a rape victim should be the only way to qualify for the program I propose. Since abortion would continue to be available in Canada, the UK and most of our other major trading partners, even if Roe vs. Wade were repealed here, as I see it, a true pro-life policy would be one which would not only be designed to incentivize Americans not to leave the country but one which would be designed to incentivize citizens of those countries not to have abortions but to come to America.
The program would cause a net positive impact to the economy by increasing the size of the population, which increases demand; the main risk would be increased housing and transport pressure but that too could be addressed by encouraging cities to do more medium density zoning, and medium density mixed use zones are highly beneficial in terms of reduced automobile usage, because commercial services can be provided on the ground floor, and the higher population density makes high end mass transit such as lightrail and streetcars (what we Americans call electric trams such as dominate in cities like Melbourne, Vienna, St. Petersburg, Prague, Zurich and Milan; North America has some very good trams in Toronto, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and New Orleans, with the San Francisco and New Orleans systems containing some lines which are also major tourist attractions akin to the famed trams and funiculars of Lisbon), which unlike busses, people enjoy using.
So there you have it, an integrated pro-life, pro-immigration, pro-economy, pro-housing, pro-transit plan. Because a true pro-life plan has to encourage people to not have abortions anywhere in the world, which requires very open immigration policies, which requires doing a better job in terms of mass transit and avoiding suburban sprawl, and the urban development aspect, if done right, can also greatly improve quality of life for everyone. And I also believe if the US did this, God would reward us spiritually and the result could be improved national unity, more women in higher paying jobs as a result of harm reduction for teenage mothers by providing them an automatic scholarship (virtually all would qualify even if rape were a prerequisite to assistance, on the grounds of statutory rape, but I would rather such a program be universal).
Now, don’t get me wrong, rape is a terrible tragedy, and I propose to provide women of all ages, as well as boys and young men at risk for sexual assault, with free devices which could contact the police if they were in distress, and increase funding so that dedicated officers could be on call to respond to device activations.
I am also pro-life in general; I am opposed to euthanasia and am very uncomfortable with capital punishment. I think a similar program to prevent assisted suicide would be worthwhile, which could be predicated upon greatly improving access to pain relief medication for people with chronic and terminal illnesses, who have suffered as a result of reductions in the availability of pain treatment medication due to the opiod crisis; indeed they have been the victims as much as families of overdose victims. And the main killer these days among opiods in the US is not any medically sanctioned drug, but fentanyl, which in a clinical setting is administered only as the opiod of last resort in the treatment of people who are terminally ill, with the only options past that point being sedation and drugs like ketamine. In addition, with regards to terminally ill patients, a principle of palliative care is the “double effect principle,” where people in sufficient pain deserve access to medication for it, even if there is a risk of death, because the benefit of reduced pain outweighs the risk and death is inevitable; this is not the kind of doctor assisted suicide I am opposed to, and indeed, I would dent that it constitutes assisted suicide in any capacity, since all anesthesia carries risk; there is a .01% chance of fatal side effects with general anesthesia, which is positively required for many medically necessary surgeries to be possible.
But the goal should be to preserve and extend life and minimize suffering in all settings, while discouraging death. Death is bad, abortion is bad, euthanasia is bad, poverty is bad; the US is, due to unique political circumstances, perhaps the only country where the political will to attempt a program to tackle all of this misery exists due to the extremely large pro-life population. In general, my approach is predicated on one of the few aspects of Roman Scholastic theology I like, those being the acts of corporeal mercy. I am all for everything we can do as a society to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, treat the sick, shelter the homeless, care for the orphans, care for the dying, bury the dead. For this reason, I am excited about the opportunity to care for suffering displaced Ukrainians, and I believe the program should be expanded to include Russians who would otherwise potentially starve due to economic sanctions, a general rescue plan for all the suffering Slavic people.
