I was talking to a friend of mine, who also is pro-life.  While she is opposed to abortion, she said that abortion in cases of rape should be an exception, as the victim shouldn’t have to suffer the anguish of being reminded of the rape through pregnancy.   Do you think abortion in cases of rape should be allowable?

This can be a difficult question to address with many people, whether they support abortion or not.  The last thing that we want is for a traumatized victim to be hurt any more than she already has.  But Anglicans for Life does not endorse abortion in cases of rape for that very reason—because the rape victim often reports feeling more traumatized or violated by the abortion than the rape, and because children who were conceived through rape should not be killed just based on how they were conceived.  Additionally, abortion for cases of pregnancy from rape is very rare.  They account for approximately 1% of the 1.1 million abortions occurring annually.  For more resources on addressing abortion and rape, we recommend the Victims and Victors book and Choices4Life.