First of all, take all the motherhood and child-raising elements out of your argument, because there are plenty of folks out there who are eager to adopt babies conceived from rape or incest. No new mother, at least in the United States, is under any obligation to raise a baby she doesn't want.
Second, your emotional torment to last 30 lifetimes is a bit overblown, I think. Arguments depending on a surfeit of drama for their force tend to be bad arguments.
Third, whatever amount of emotional torment is involved in being raped and impregnated must be exceeded by the amount of emotional torment involved in being raped and impregnated and then choosing to murder your own baby. That's not a small thing: I know personally women who have had abortions and then been horrified at themselves in later life.
Okay...now what was your argument again?
Good points, Barak. Hell, I still occasionally feel pangs of regret from accidentally starving a pet tortoise to death when I was eight. I can only imagine how I'd feel if I were responsible for the death of my own offspring.
PS To this day, if I see a tortoise in danger or distress, I stop everything and give it a hand. Countless times I've pulled over on the side of a highway to run out, grab a tortoise, and run him to whatever side he was trying to get to, deep into the rough.
Still don't feel like I've made amends.
