Julie Makimaa of Holland, Michigan was conceived in rape and born in 1964. She discovered this 21 years later when she met her birth mother. She researched and helped write the book Victims and Victors, about women who became pregnant as a result of rape:
Excerpts from her Capital Hill Briefing:
“An overwhelming number of Americans feel abortion should be allowed for rape and incest. But the information that shapes their views is very one- sided. It presents abortion as the only solution, and that solution is presented without question.
Many pro-lifers have been convinced we need an exception to the right to life for rape and incest. We somehow believe the sacrifice of a few in rape and incest is the price we have to pay to obtain protections for the majority.
The ACLU, in the late 60s and early 70s, searched for rape victims who’d be willing to challenge the laws prohibiting abortion. They were unable to find a rape victim, but they did find Norma McCorvey, who became Jane Roe of Roe vs Wade, who claimed she was a victim of a gang rape by three men and a woman. It wasn’t until many years afterwards that Norma revealed that was a lie. Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee, her attorney, needed an extreme case to make her look pitiable. Rape seemed to be the ticket.
We’ve heard women should not be forced to carry a rapist’s child, that a pregnancy would create unbearable psychological trauma, that the child would be a constant reminded of her rape.
The child is described as less valuable than the rest of us. The children will suffer physical and psychological deformities. Male children will be rapists. They will be criminals. Children carry the evil genes of their fathers. They will never love, never contribute to society, . They will never have normal lives. This is the way the majority of Americans view rape and incest pregnancies.
Out of 164 women who carried to term, 64% of them are raising their own children. These women grew to love their child. They didn’t view it as the evil rapist’s child. They grew to love it as their child.
Of the 28 girls pregnant through incest, 50% of them carried to term. Of these, 50%, 60% are raising their children.
The woman who is pregnant though incest typically is forced into abortion to hide what is going on. The family members are taking her to an abortion clinic because they don’t want to be discovered and she’s put back into the abuse. People forget that for a lot of young girls, the pregnancy is finally the way out, the proof where someone else is brought in and pulls her out of that situation.
Women who carried their children to term grew to love their children, a bond was established with their child. They were victims in the assault, but they chose a higher path. They said “I was a victim, but I want to do something good” to redeem what happened to them, the pain they suffered.
They told us over and over again the most difficult part was the pregnancy but in the years that followed they felt good about the decision they made. They had a child or they released a child for adoption. They gave life to someone who many said shouldn’t be here, shouldn’t be born. But they felt there was some purpose to this life.
[Of the] women who chose abortion, the incest victims were taken by their families to abortion clinics. There was no real choice in that. Because of the reaction of their families, they felt they could not even suggest or voice their feelings for this child. If they said “What if I want to carry this child to term?” people reacted by saying, “What? You love this rapist’s child?” they said the effects of the abortion caused greater trauma than the assault.
The woman who has been a victim will suffer pain. There are days when she won’t want to carry this child to term. But these women over and over have said “Knowing what I know now giving life was a good decision.”
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