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Wednesday, June 17, 2015
7 Month Pregnant Gang Rape Victim From India Didn't Really Want an Abortion by Rebecca Kiessling
7-month
pregnant gang rape survivor denied a late-term abortion by the Gujurat high
court in India. With those kinds of news
stories, we regularly see organizations like Amnesty International and Planned
Parenthood International utilizing such stories to demand the legalization of
abortion through all nine of months of pregnancy – not only for rape, but for
any reason. Rape is just the key to open
wide the abortion door.
The ritualistic test involves the tantric interrogating the rape victim, then testing her veracity “by taking a pinch of barley seeds from a bag and asking her to say whether the number of seeds in his hand are even-numbered or odd.” She is then repeatedly subjected to this process, including with a 10kg stone upon her head, which must remain in place until the tantric is satisfied that she is telling the truth. This ritual can reportedly take months to complete, under the belief that a Goddess will reveal the truth. If in the end, the rape victim passes the test, then no one can banish or condemn her; if not, then she is considered “impure” and is ostracized from the community, along with her extended family members.
BIO: Rebecca
Kiessling is an attorney and international pro-life speaker, conceived in
rape. She’s the founder and president of Save
The 1 and co-founder of Hope
After Rape Conception.
But what if
you learned the rest of the story? What
if there is more to these stories than is initially being reported? This
particular pregnant rape survivor’s treatment is amongst the worst I’ve ever
read or heard, and it completely demonstrates why abortion is not the answer,
and how we need a complete cultural shift worldwide in how pregnant rape
victims are treated, and how a child conceived in rape should be welcomed and accepted.
According
to the petition for abortion, the married 24 year old from Botad, India and
mother of two other children, alleged that her husband had abandoned her and
wanted her to terminate the 28-week pregnancy at any cost. But two months later and ready to deliver, her
husband stands by her and she now says that part of her wanted to keep her
unborn child, but her fate and the baby’s was in the hands of 100-200 people
from her community. So as with most
pregnant rape survivors, she didn’t really want the abortion to begin with, but
was under pressure from those close to her and from her community!
Her in-laws
have shunned her, and because her husband is standing by her, he is now outcast
from his own family. To make matters
worse, their community is requiring her to go through a “purification ritual”or
test with a tantric – a type of high
priest known for black magic. Tantrics
have administered “justice” in the community long before the courts and police
were ever established.
Her own parents are supporting this
purification test out of fear for what will happen to them and their two other
yet unmarried children once she gives birth to this child conceived out of
rape. If the tantric doesn’t clear her,
then her siblings will never be able to marry. The ritualistic test involves the tantric interrogating the rape victim, then testing her veracity “by taking a pinch of barley seeds from a bag and asking her to say whether the number of seeds in his hand are even-numbered or odd.” She is then repeatedly subjected to this process, including with a 10kg stone upon her head, which must remain in place until the tantric is satisfied that she is telling the truth. This ritual can reportedly take months to complete, under the belief that a Goddess will reveal the truth. If in the end, the rape victim passes the test, then no one can banish or condemn her; if not, then she is considered “impure” and is ostracized from the community, along with her extended family members.
Not only
does she have to endure this grueling process within her community, she is
also currently seeking help from the Chief Minister of a law enforcement agency
because she says that the local police is protecting her primary rapist who
held her captive for 250 days – 8 months, because he is wealthy and influential. Thus far, she has not been able to obtain
justice through law enforcement. Not only has he not been arrested, but she and
her mother received threats from his bodyguard.
When
denying the abortion in mid-April, the High Court judge did grant her and her
family police protection.
In addition,
the Court appointed a “Collector” to “ensure that proper medical facilities are
provided,” that “the child is delivered safely” and “shall also see to it that
after the delivery, the child is looked after well and is not abandoned in any
manner. If necessary, the Collector can
avail of the services of any NGO or any other government social organization in
any manner.”
The language
from the High Court is encouraging;
however, India has a deplorable track record in obtaining any justice
for rape victims. In fact, in February
of this year – while she was in captivity, the Supreme
Court of India sparked international outrage when it ruled that there is no
such thing as marital rape in India – a nation where daughters are sold to
the highest bidder because dowry is still practiced and marriages are commonly arranged. In the case at-hand, the rapist obtained her
thumb print on a notary, and used a tantric to pronounce her married to the
rapist, since they were well aware of the recent high court ruling. None of those involved – from the notary to
the tantric to the multiple rapists – have been arrested or even sought and
named by the local police.
Yet, while
the rapist and his accomplices run free, many would argue that the innocent
child should have been punished by being put to death. The relevant law in India is the Medical
Termination of Pregnancy Act (MTPA) which does not permit abortion beyond 20
weeks, on the grounds that late-term abortions are dangerous for a woman’s
health. Gujurat High Court Justice J B
Pardiwala cited the fact that her life would be in peril with a 28-week
abortion, then added the following: “A child in her womb by a woman as a result of conception
through an act of rape is not only extremely traumatic for her but humiliating,
frightening and psychologically devastating and as a human being, more particularly in the Indian
society, she becomes an object of scorn and ostracisation. This is very unfortunate.”
But this
Justice recognized that abortion is not the answer, and as cited above, he took
the necessary steps to see that she would have solid health care, and that the
child would be nurtured and protected.
Therein lies the solution.
Can you imagine
if instead of enacting laws with rape exceptions, legislators instead passed
laws providing for special medical care for the delivery of rape-conceived
children, and for the appointment of someone like the “Collector” in India who
would ensure that these children and their mothers are properly cared for and not
ostracized or abandoned? That’s the
answer. Punish rapists, not babies and
their rape survivor mothers. Protect
babies and their mothers – not rapists.
How hard it that to understand?
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