Woman conceived through rape pleads for life of unborn child

Woman conceived through rape pleads for life of unborn child in Argentina

A 21 year-old Argentinean woman, whose mother is mentally ill and was raped in 1987, has written a moving letter pleading for the life of an unborn child of a 22 year-old woman from Santiago del Estero who is also mentally handicapped and was raped. The child's maternal grandparents are asking permission to have the baby aborted.

"My twin sister and I are today almost 22 years-old and despite all of the misfortunes (as my grandmother says) that we have experienced, we are two warriors of life who are anxious to do something good with our lives, and I think this three month-old unborn baby hopes for the same," the woman wrote in her letter published by Tucuman Noticias.

The woman, who preferred to remain anonymous, said she identified with the situation in Santiago del Estero, but not from the point of view of the law or the woman who was raped, but rather "from the point of view of the baby."

In her letter, she explained that both she and her sister were raised by their grandmother and that her mother is "like a big sister." She recalled that her mother suffered "a lot in her life" and that although she had experienced a lot of problems, she had a happy childhood.

She acknowledged that at different times she wondered why she didn't have a father, until after much insistence as a teenager her mother finally told her the truth: "You don't have a father. I was raped. I didn't tell you before because I couldn't tell a 12 year-old girl that she was the result of a rape and that I was willing to give you both away or give you up for adoption."

"She thought about giving us up for adoption but she never considered abortion. She never considered taking away our chance to live, even though she was mentally ill, she never considered killing us, even though she didn't want us," the woman recalled, saying she loves her mother "because she is my mother" and because "she had the courage to tell me what happened and I can share her pain with her."

She thanked Luciano Pavan, a lawyer from Santiago del Estero, for offering to adopt the baby of the mentally handicapped woman whose parents want to force her to undergo an abortion.

"If the family of the young woman can't or don't want to (take care of the baby) for whatever reason, I am happy to know that there are people who will and who are against abortion," she wrote.

Source: Catholic News Agency
Source URL: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com
Publish Date: February 5, 2009
Link to this article:
http://www.ifrl.org/ifrl/news/090205_6.htm