Should a Woman be allowed to abort a child conceived through Rape?

In response to commentary on social media earlier this week made by a well known and popular clergyman, I'm throwing my hat in the fray and making my submissions on this subject matter hoping this would stimulate a larger discourse for the benefit of society.

I am going to base my submission on two premises.

First, Rape is sacrilegious.
And this is for want of better lexis to describe it. It is a dreadful phenomenon, not worthy of mention among sane mortals. It ranks among the highest forms of abuse and corruption with violation of dignity known to man. I share the belief along with many others in our society that those found culpable of these 'crimes against humanity' should not be sentenced to death by firing squad, but should be made to die a special way, a slow but painful death to serve as a lesson to others on how not to treat a fellow man. A curse, divinely ordained, definitely follows anyone who engages in this.

Secondly, I am neither pro nor anti-abortion. This is a subject I don't intend to dabble into, especially as it is now more a tool for political exigencies than it is for moral and humane discourses.

I'll rather just go as straight to the point as possible.

There is no excuse for rape. No justification warrants the attendant psychological and physical trauma alongside the medical incapability that rape victims have to go through. Add that to the attendant consequence of an unplanned and 'unwanted' child, which accrues at times, to a teenage mother with so much possibility in her future and a innocent outlook of the world who is now forced to chart another course of unbroken promises and unrealized dreams.

Yet, two wrongs do not make a right. The forced removal of an unwanted and unplanned child has no basis in morality. When we abort a child, we terminate life. In simpler terms, we commit murder. We do not give the unborn foetus a good fair chance. We terminate dreams and mar futures. And in aborting an unborn child conceived in 'unusual' circumstances, we commit an almost equal crime to the culprit who is the source of this bizarreness. We, in our attempt to correct the mistake, demote ourselves to the same altitude to which the monsters descended.

Children are the heritage of the Lord, so says the holy books and no one should reserve the singular right to terminate life, all the more so, that of a child who has done no one no wrong save the mode of his conception.

History abounds of a good number of supposed 'illegitimate' children, some of whom were born out of 'unfortunate' unions, who however went on not just to make a name for themselves, but to become major pillars on our path to civilization and modernization. I dare say that the world would have been deprived of these inventions if their progenitors had taken the 'less honourable' path of terminating their lives.

We may never tell! The greatest inventions which have the singular ability to improve our world, the cures to our deadliest medical challenges and the strongest influences on our world, if they were given the chance at life, might have just had their lives forcefully terminated as a result of our accordance of the rights to appropriate lives to ourselves.

I'm going to conclude by quoting from a former Vice President of the Nigerian republic who said "...there is no excuse for rape! What if that raped woman was your sister of daughter? Would you still make excuses? No religion supports rape! We must condemn this rising culture of rape and sexual violence in our country."

As a footnote, the government would need to get involved in this discourse by principally, enacting laws with stiffer penalties capable of deferring would-be felons of rape. The government should also collaborate with the society on ways of eradicating discrimination against victims and ensuring their re-integration into society without the unnecessary resultant stigma. More importantly, as the incidence of rape increases by the day, we must continue to speak out against it.

So, over to you. I want to hear from you. In your own opinion, Should a woman be allowed to abort a child which is conceived through rape?