The "Hard Cases"
"You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother's womb. I praise you, so wonderfully you made me."
-Psalm 139
The hard cases: rape, incest, health of mother, and severe disability. You've heard them if you've ever debated the issue of abortion. They are difficult to counter and, sometimes, make you reconsider your Pro-Life viewpoint. However, none of them ever justify killing an innocent human being.
First, I'll attempt to explain the weakness in the rape and incest arguement. Both of these are horrible crimes that leave women scarred, emotionally and physically. Even if it was acceptable to punish the child for the sins of the father, wouldn't it make since to give him or her the same sentence? Rarely, if ever, does a rapist get the death penalty. Plus, an abortion won't make the incident go away. In fact, it actually can make it worse. Carrying the pregnancy to term can show that something good could come out of the tragedy.
Health of mother is another one of the 'hard cases'. This one, however, never needs to result in a direct abortion. For example, in an ectopic pregnancy, the baby attatches itself to the falopian tube, it is unlikely either mother or child will survive. The doctor should do everything in his power to save both parents. If the child dies in the process, it is an indirect abortion and not a sin.
Finally, there is the case of severe disability to the child. I guess the best way to explain this one is to give you a true-life situation.
The father is sick with syphilis, the mother has TB. They have four children. The first is blind, the second is deaf, the third is deaf, and the fourth has TB. She finds herself pregnant again. Given the extreme situation, would you consider recommending abortion?
If you said yes, you just killed Beethoven.
For one thing, these five cases account for about 3% of all abortions in America. The rest are purely for convenience. Also, Roe v. Wade was based on two of the hard cases: rape and health of mother. The woman, "Roe", said she had been gang raped. Later, she had admitted it was a lie. A lie that killed one-third of Generation X and the Millenial Generation.