Rape and the Abortion Question --

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Should children conceived of rape be treated differently than other children?

[snip] Should the children conceived from rape be looked at differently than those conceived otherwise? Megan Barnett of Aberdeen doesn’t think so.

Megan was a 19-year old working on plans for the rest of her life when she was raped in 2004, subsequently becoming pregnant from the rapist.

Megan was spending a July evening with her cousin in Sioux Falls when the incident occurred. She and her cousin had invited a number of people to her cousin’s house for a get-together, but the only person who showed up Doug Easterday, the young man who several months later was convicted of raping Megan.

Megan says that when her cousin drove her to the emergency room, medical personnel offered her emergency contraception, but she declined even though she already had a feeling she was pregnant because of her Catholic beliefs that it would be wrong.

Megan found out about two weeks later that she was indeed pregnant, first with a home pregnancy test and later confirmed at the doctor’s office.

“At first I was angry that all my plans that I had were suddenly up in the air,” Megan said. “I felt cheated. I was never the kind of person to run with guys, get drunk and stuff like that.”

She said that she was upset that even though she had tried to live a good life, this had happened to her. She was angry about all the decisions she would suddenly have to make, and what people might think of her as an unwed mother.

Yet Megan says she never regretted not taking the emergency contraception. “When I felt the baby, it really became real for me,” she said.

“I hadn’t given it [abortion] much thought before this happened,” Megan said. “I grew up in small community and didn't know anyone who had an abortion or anything like that, and I just didn't think about it much. But my religion classes taught me that it was the wrong decision.”

Megan said that even though more than one person counseled her that abortion would be acceptable for her, that no one would blame her if she did, still it was never an option for her. “Yeah, it’s somebody else’s baby,” she responded. “But it’s my baby, too.”

She says her family was very supportive throughout everything, reassuring her that she had nothing to be ashamed of and not pressuring her into any decisions.

She now has a beautiful two-year old daughter named Maria that she loves very much. When asked if looking at Maria ever makes her think of her rapist, Megan replied, “I’ve never had that problem at all. I just think of her as my baby. I don’t think of her as having anything to do with him.” [snip] Dakota Voice