UPDATED: I can not believe that Animal Rights on this weblist is rated as a higher importance than the rights of an unborn human being. Now don't get me wrong, I love animals but the life of children should be more important. Concerning the issue of rape and abortion: "Studies conducted by Planned Parenthood's Guttmacher Institute
indicate that two consenting and fertile adults have only a 3 percent chance of
pregnancy from an act of intercourse. They also indicate there are factors
involved in a rape which further reduce these chances for rape victims. The
Guttmacher Institute says 14,000 abortions per year are due to rape or incest,
which amounts to just over 1 percent of all abortions. Other studies show that
pregnancies due to rape are much rarer than is generally thought, perhaps as
few as one in a thousand cases. Furthermore, since conception doesn't occur
immediately after intercourse, pregnancy can be prevented in the great majority
of rape cases by medical treatment that removes the semen before an ovum can be
fertilized. So where does the misconception come from that many pregnancies are due to
rape? Fearful young women will sometimes attribute their pregnancies to rape,
since doing so gains sympathy and avoids condemnation. The young woman called
"Roe" in the famous Roe v. Wade case who elicited sympathy in
the court and media because she claimed to be a rape victim years later
admitted she had lied and had not been raped at all. Pro-choice advocates often divert attention from the vast majority of abortions by focusing on rape because of its inherent (and well-deserved) sympathy factor. Their frequent references to rape during discussions of the abortion issue leaves the false impression that pregnancy due to rape is common. The intent is to get people to structure laws in light of rare cases rather than common ones." ORIGINAL MESSAGE: Yes, women should have rights, but so should babies. Who gives one's life more value over another? With the exception of rape and incest, I believe women have the right to not get pregnant, if they choose to get pregnant or fail to protect themselves, what gives them the right to kill an infant?