In the
debate over the rape exception for abortion, there’s another consideration
that’s typically ignored. Some women falsely accuse men of rape. Some convicted
“rapists” have been subsequently exonerated based on DNA evidence.
You
could have a situation in which a teenage girl becomes pregnant through
consensual sex, then accuses the boy of raping her because her parents would be
furious if they thought she was fooling around. So this is her way of shifting
the blame.
Hence,
it’s entirely possible that in a certain percentage of cases where the mother
says she was raped, which (allegedly) justifies abortion, that, in fact, that’s
a smokescreen.
I
realize that it’s controversial to raise this issue, but controversy is a
two-way street. If abortion proponents are going to stress the issue of rape,
then they open the door to examining all the factual as well as ethical
assumptions which underlie that issue.
In
addition, it’s no worse to falsely blame a woman than it is to falsely blame a
man. Now, in our current political climate, it’s okay to talk about violence
against women, but you’re not supposed to talk about railroading innocent men. A
blame-men-first mentality. Yet we need to push back against that unjust, sexist,
feminist double standard.
Would love to see both sides express the truth as it is. But that usually gives way to emotional pride and years of being fed these Planned Parenthood half-truths that to them are full truths and 100% certainties. And there are those on the "right" who have the same "brainwashed" half-truths.
ReplyDeleteYour posts always try to bring in all aspects, and that's what we need, and that's what I pray for.
Keep on.
And Lord help us through this hurricane of Yours here on the east Coast of the USA. Amen.
"In addition, it’s no worse to falsely blame a woman than it is to falsely blame a man."
ReplyDeleteI think it is worse, actually, because this kind of crime is not committed by either gender equally, with women more often being victims, from what I understand. I don't have the hard, statistical data to back up that statement, however. In one sense, it's no worse, because false accusation is false accusation. But in another sense, that I gave above, it is. I hate to confess to a "blame men first" attitude, but I suppose I must.
To be imprisoned on a false accusation, or simply have your reputation and your career ruined, is less bad?
DeleteThat's yet another context of false accusation. From a moral context, false accusation is bad. From a victim context, falsely blaming a man is not as bad as falsely blaming a women, since fewer women than men are victims (from what I've read). The contextual example you give would be from a legislative penal context. It's because of things like this that I am not sure that true equality for the sexes will ever be possible in our culture.
DeleteThere's more to what makes something relatively bad than frequency. The decree of harm is another consideration. How much harm is done to a man falsely accused?
DeleteIf a man is falsely accused, he can lose his wife (divorce), kids (denial of custody), job (indeed, be unemployable). If he's unjustly convicted and imprisoned on a false charge, he loses his freedom. Even if he's later cleared, he's lost years of his life he can never get back. So I don't know why you think that's not as bad as falsely blaming a woman.
DeleteBut legal penalties apply to anyone who is convicted of the crime, and those penalties may or may not be applied equally. I'm not a woman, so I can never know personally, but I think this particular crime is especially humiliating for the victim (both male and female, but again, I believe females are more often victimized). So falsely blaming a woman of rape is a bit like calling wolf (by virtue of frequency), and that's part of what makes it bad in my mind. I guess what it comes down to is this, that equal treatment for both sexes isn't yet feasible or wise in our culture, because equality between the sexes does not yet exist. It isn't unfair to be harsher towards one gender than the other, in reference to the frequency of victimization, because it's a balancing corrective. But, I suppose this is mostly just my opinion.
DeleteThe legal penalties for a woman falsely accusing a man of rape are hardly comparable to the legal penalties for a man falsely accused (and convicted) of rape. Indeed, when was the last time a woman even faced a perjury charge?
DeleteLikewise, although innocent men can be convicted of rape, women cannot be convicted of rape, since women can't really rape men (unless one concocts a very kinky, far-fetched scenario). So women don't face the same legal jeopardy in that respect.
Amazing how sin affects existential epistemology. Perhaps the antithesis of 1 John or the validation of Romans 1?
ReplyDelete