SDA World Leader: Abortions Justified In Rape, Threat Of Death

[waves]

Jamaican lawmakers are obligated to observe the sanctity of life as they mull over the hot-button issue of abortion, the most senior Seventh-day Adventist leader globally warned on Friday, just two days after the controversial debate boiled over in Parliament.

But while reaffirming his denomination’s general stance against abortion, Pastor Ted Wilson, president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Churches, conceded that terminations would be justified in mitigating circumstances.

“We do urge that lawmakers give strong adherence and cognisance to the sanctity of life. Most Adventists would be very supportive of the sanctity of life and not in favour of abortion unless the mother’s life was in danger or there was incest or rape involved, and that’s left to the individual to decide.”

SDA World Leader: Abortions Justified In Rape, Threat Of Death


Any form of abortion is murder. Abortion is not justified in any circumstance. When rape and incest occurs, the perpetrators should be brought before the courts and punished for their crimes, not the unborn children.

There are persons in Jamaica who are born as a result of rape. I know of a situation where a woman's father raped her mother and as a result she was born, She is doing quite well, has a family of her own, and she has brought so much joy to her mother's life.

She is not treated different from her other siblings, her mother loves her and took care of her, because she is her daughter, a child, irregardless of how the child came into the world.

This mother's was raped not by a stranger but by someone apart of her family, someone she would always have some connection with. Her situation I am sure was extremely difficult emotionally and physically but she chose life not death. She chose to give her daughter a chance at life. Out of the bad thing that happened to her came good.

 

[JacobKStarkey]

Exception for pregnancy by rape or incest.

That is between the woman and the Lord.

 

[Brian Mcnamee]

If a woman is being attacked and raped her life may be deemed in danger and if she killed the rapist during the attack it would be justified. But say she knew who did it and after the fact went and got a weapon and killed the man she would be guilty of murder. Now the child conceived in her is a result of the crime but is innocent of any wrong doing. To kill this child even though it was a traumatic experience is worse than killing the rapist after the fact. So if it murder to kill the perpetrator how much more would it be wrong to kill the unborn baby?

 

[JacobKStarkey]

Brian, that is a fallacy of false equivalency.

 

[Gary K]

If a woman is being attacked and raped her life may be deemed in danger and if she killed the rapist during the attack it would be justified. But say she knew who did it and after the fact went and got a weapon and killed the man she would be guilty of murder. Now the child conceived in her is a result of the crime but is innocent of any wrong doing. To kill this child even though it was a traumatic experience is worse than killing the rapist after the fact. So if it murder to kill the perpetrator how much more would it be wrong to kill the unborn baby?

I have no problem with exceptions to rules. There are women who are incapable of dealing with a horrific rape and then being reminded of it every day for the rest of their lives. I know what it is like to be abused, but I have never been raped the way a lot of women are raped. To push a woman who doesn't have the stability and the emotional support in her background into living with a physical reminder of what happened to her is extremely cruel. It is saying that no matter what kind of mental torture you go through you must behave in a certain way and you have not the right to remove that reminder from you.

Here's an example of something similar. Let's say you accidentally run over one of your children with your car and kill that child. As a result of that you will be required to live that over and over again in virtual reality because you took a life. Now think about decades have having to see yourself killing your own child every day for the rest of your life. Oh, not a once or twice a day experience, but 10 to 12 hours a day. Ah, no big deal for you. Right? You could handle that with ease. Right? That is less than what a mother must do after she's raped and gives birth to that child. That is the type of horror a woman who is brutally raped will have to live with every day of her life when she concieves and carries that child full term and doesn't adopt it out. And you would force that upon every woman whether they are capable emotionally handling that cruelty or not. Some women are capable of living with that. Others are not.

Forcing a woman into suicide because she can't handle the emotional consequences of what you would require her to do is just as much murder as going up to her and shooting her. In fact, just outright killing her would be far kinder than what you want to force her to do.

I know women who were raped decades ago and that experience is still painful for them to this day. If 40+ years can't get rid of the pain when there is no daily reminder, just how painful would it be for those women to be reminded every day of how they were brutalized? And don't tell me they can just get counselling. Not everyone can afford it, and publicly funded counselors can not give Christian counseling. In fact they would tell a woman to get as far away from Christianity as possible.

You have not thought this situation through. Yes, abortions are not a good thing. But, in a world of sin, pain, misery and suffering some times really tough choices have to be made. Is a mother's life less valuable than her child's? Is it just to torture the woman for decades just so her child might live? God, through the centuries as allowed things that cause problems in society and families because of societal issues. We have examples of that in the lives of Abraham and Jacob. Look at the suffering and misery that came out of polygamy in their lives. Yet God allowed it. Look at what Jesus said about divorce. He allowed it because of the influence of sin and because not allowing it would have been caused more suffering than allowing it. I see this as the same kind of situation.

 

[JacobKStarkey]

Hypotheticals are interesting yet inconclusive, so I will support the woman, who is real and in pain.

 

[mmksparbud]

He is not supporting abortion in those cases, he clearly says it is up to the individual. I had 3 abortions--they were my fathers and the first was at the age of 12. I had no choice in the matter. I knew a young man that had a horrible relationship with his mother. He could never understand why she was soo very distant from him and, in fact seem to hate him. He was informed by his grandmother, finally, that he was the product of rape and every time she looked at him, she was taken back to that scene. It is not his fault, and she had no right to make him feel like that, but she tried and could not get past that trauma. I have no idea what my life would have been like, had I not had those abortions. Those children were innocent---but it took years for me to accept them as such, for most of my life I viewed them as an abhorrent product of the evil of my father and felt that they weren't even accepted by God. I was many years after returning to God that I finally accepted them as innocent children before God. Sad to say, had I had to raise them I would most likely have destroyed them emotionally.

 

[Dave-W]

Exception for pregnancy by rape or incest.

Why??

The only exception should be if the mother’s life is in peril, which means both she and the baby would die without it.

 

[JacobKStarkey]

This "why" has been explained above, and it is not your judgment that counts.

 

[Gary K]

He is not supporting abortion in those cases, he clearly says it is up to the individual. I had 3 abortions--they were my fathers and the first was at the age of 12. I had no choice in the matter. I knew a young man that had a horrible relationship with his mother. He could never understand why she was soo very distant from him and, in fact seem to hate him. He was informed by his grandmother, finally, that he was the product of rape and every time she looked at him, she was taken back to that scene. It is not his fault, and she had no right to make him feel like that, but she tried and could not get past that trauma. I have no idea what my life would have been like, had I not had those abortions. Those children were innocent---but it took years for me to accept them as such, for most of my life I viewed them as an abhorrent product of the evil of my father and felt that they weren't even accepted by God. I was many years after returning to God that I finally accepted them as innocent children before God. Sad to say, had I had to raise them I would most likely have destroyed them emotionally.

Thank you for speaking out. I can relate what I know has happened to others, but what I say cannot have the impact of personal experience. My life as a kid must have been very similar to yours, only from a male's perspective. I have been sexually abused myself, only mine was by a relative of the same sex. I tell you there is no way, if I was capable of becoming pregnant, that I could have treated a child that came out of that kind of emotional pain as it would have deserved to have been treated. It would just have been more of what God speaks to in Exodus 20:5, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. In other words, the continuation of multiple generations of abuse. Verse 6 is also true too. If we love God He will provide the healing to stop the evil in it's tracks. However most kids have who undergo a lot of abuse have no idea of what it is to walk with God. Their ideas of God at that time are so distorted at that time that there is no way they could love Him.

The effects of abuse upon the human mind cannot be understood by anyone who hasn't actually lived them. Those people on this thread saying rape and incest should not be mitigating circumstances as to abortions have no idea of what they are talking about. To me it it show their lack of the ability to walk a few miles in the shoes of their fellow man. They are in effect saying who cares if that child's life is destroyed by the abuse he will suffer. They would far rather he spend a lifetime of pain and suffering rather than, as Job said, that he might be as if he had not been.

Congratulations on having allowed God to heal you to the extent He has. To be able to speak out about the abuse a person has suffered takes a courage that can only come from emotional healing. It takes a very close walk with God for that to happen. I know by my own experience. Only daily walking with God can bring that type of healling about.

 

[EastCoastRemnant]

Exception for pregnancy by rape or incest.

That is between the woman and the Lord.

That's mans standard not God's... God can can use all things for His Glory.

 

[EastCoastRemnant]

Why??

The only exception should be if the mother’s life is in peril, which means both she and the baby would die without it.

That would fit in the same category as self defense for killing someone.

 

[JacobKStarkey]

That's mans standard not God's... God can can use all things for His Glory.

That is certainly an interpretation about 'mans standard.' That does not change that it is between the woman and God.

 

[EastCoastRemnant]

That is certainly an interpretation about 'mans standard.' That does not change that it is between the woman and God.

If I kill a man it is also between me and God. That statement says nothing to the morality of the issue. Do you have an opinion on whether me killing someone else if right or wrong?

 

[JacobKStarkey]

If you are killing a human being, yes, I have an opinion on that.

Killing a human being is not the equivalent of terminating a fetus.

Terminations of pregnancies caused by rape, incest, or in case of danger to the mother are indeed justified morally and legally and ethically.

 

[EastCoastRemnant]

If you are killing a human being, yes, I have an opinion on that.

Killing a human being is not the equivalent of terminating a fetus.

Terminations of pregnancies caused by rape, incest, or in case of danger to the mother are indeed justified morally and legally and ethically.

That's your opinion... why is one life more valuable than another?

 

[JacobKStarkey]

If you are killing a human being, yes, I have an opinion on that.

Killing a human being is not the equivalent of terminating a fetus.

Terminations of pregnancies caused by rape, incest, or in case of danger to the mother are indeed justified morally and legally and ethically.

That's your opinion... why is one life more valuable than another?

That is your mere opinion, when, in fact, the examples I gave are enshrined in the law. They are good ethics and morality.

A fetus is not the equivalent of a human.

They are not a difference of degree but of kind.

 

[Dave-W]

This "why" has been explained above, and it is not your judgment that counts.

I would say it does.

I am the product of a date rape.
You are saying I should have been aborted.

I think my judgement should have a say in that.

 

[Dave-W]

A fetus is not the equivalent of a human.

In the eyes of US law that is true.

But what about God's eyes?

 

[EastCoastRemnant]

In the eyes of US law that is true.

But what about God's eyes?

Amen!! I was going to reply that just because something is legal doesn't make it moral.... same sex marriage anyone??