Rape and Abortion: How My Life Was Saved

I should’ve been aborted.

Years ago a nationwide report determined 1% of abortions are due to rape-related pregnancies. Abortion advocates today use those tragedies to advocate for another travesty: violently ending the unborn child’s life because of the biological father’s evil act.

The Bomberger Family, in 1983, with 13 children (10 adopted)

I am the 1% used to justify 100% of abortions. I was conceived in rape but adopted in love. Because of a courageous birth mom and loving adoptive parents (yes, my real parents), I am proof that triumph can rise from tragedy.

But I wasn’t a life worth saving. At least that’s what I’ve been told as a guest lecturer on college campuses, such as Harvard. I regularly read it in blatant abortion advocacy pieces that somehow pass for journalism today. Over the last week, major news media outlets unquestionably, and seemingly enthusiastically, published so-called research exploiting the tragedy of rape to promote the lethality of abortion. “Rape-Related Pregnancies in the 14 US States with Total Abortion Bans” is a “research letter”, published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (aka JAMA), riddled with conflicts of interest and wishful thinking. Its lead author – Samuel L. Dickman – is a Planned Parenthood abortionist who profits from killing those conceived in rape as well as in any other circumstance.

The editorial falsely claims that an estimated 64,545 rape-related pregnancies resulted in states that have banned abortion. But, like Roe’s constitutional “right” to abortion, these numbers are literally made up. Dr. Michael New, an Assistant Professor of Social Research at The Catholic University of America with a doctorate in statistics, describes the JAMA article this way: “To call those figures an exaggeration would be an understatement. The article is frankly one of the worst and most misleading pieces of advocacy research that I have ever encountered in my years as a social scientist. Furthermore, the fact that this article appeared in a prestigious peer-reviewed journal grants it legitimacy and credibility that it absolutely does not deserve.”

The acronym of JAMA would be better described as “Just Ain’t Medical Anymore.” The radically pro-abortion American Medical Association once banned Black physicians from its organization. It once touted cigarette smoking as healthy. It once affirmed that hospital admitting privileges were a basic standard of care until its pro-abortion advocacy led it to dismiss the safety protocol (but just for abortionists). Now, the AMA demonizes pregnancy medical clinics (licensed by the state), which help victims of rape and millions of others, as “unethical” because they advocate for life. These are the clinics that provide over $350 million in free services and material support to women and families in need. In contrast, the AMA advocates killing the most vulnerable patients in the womb. That’s unethical. But history demonstrates that truth doesn’t matter to those willing to advocate for legalized abortion on demand.

It reminds me of when NARAL lied to legalize abortion. They claimed 10,000 women died each year before Roe. NARAL co-founder, Dr. Bernard Nathanson, admitted they just made it up:

“We fed the public a line of deceit, dishonesty, a fabrication of statistics and figures. I confess that I knew the figures were totally false. But in the ‘morality’ of our revolution, it was a useful figure, widely accepted, so why go out of our way to correct it with honest statistics?”

The lie that children conceived in rape are not worthy of life is dehumanizing. Imagine reading article after article about how you’re merely a statistic that should’ve been violently eliminated. My twelve siblings (Black, White, mixed, Vietnamese, Native American, able and disabled) would disagree. My parents who adopted ten of their thirteen children would disagree. The hundreds of teens I’ve mentored over the years and the thousands of students I’ve been able to inspire in colleges and universities around the world would disagree. Most importantly, my incredible wife, Bethany, and our four amazing children – two of whom were adopted – would passionately disagree.

This isn’t about how great I am. I’m not. It’s about how great Love is. It’s about how great Truth is. My family wouldn’t exist had I been snuffed out by the injustice of abortion. Contrary to what I’ve been called by a pro-abortion politician, I’m not the residue of the rapist; I’m the resilience of my birth mom.

Victims of sexual violence need authentic healing, not abortion huckstering.

Why don’t abortion advocates ever seem to talk about punishing the rapist? Nothing in Dickman’s “research letter” mentions lessening rape by reporting it but deceptively implies that abortion bans increase it. According to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN): “Perpetrators of rape are often serial criminals.” So, why wouldn’t we do everything we can do to prevent other women and girls from being sexually assaulted? Dickman told NPR that his patients “routinely tell him they became pregnant after rape.” Did he report any of those crimes? Why has Planned Parenthood been sued repeatedly for failing to report rape?

Because it’s good for business. They abort. They don’t report. But abortion activists will use rape as a cover to justify the nearly one million induced deaths caused by abortion each year in America. Don’t be fooled. Adding a rape exception to pro-life legislation never appeases those who want unlimited, taxpayer-funded, unaccountable abortion. They reject anything less. They’ll contort and distort their way to propagandize for Roe 2.0.

Fear is bondage. Faith is freedom. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, even in cases of rape. I’ll keep fighting for the most marginalized among the marginalized. Because that was once me.