In a letter to the editor published by The Washington Post titled “The nuances of abortion“, TCA’s Dr. Grazie Christie writes:

Monica Hesse’s column on abortion rights correctly noted that there is no proof of when life starts in a fetus. It is a belief. Some believe it is at the moment of conception; others, later in the pregnancy. We are all entitled to our beliefs, but that does not entitle us to force our beliefs on others, as some states are doing.

This is particularly egregious when a woman is raped, one of the most devastating crimes a woman can suffer. Banning abortion forces her to confront the memory of it every day for nine months, likely suffer emotional damage for the rest of her life, lose significant income for time lost from work and incur medical costs. This amounts to what conservatives call “a taking,” when the government forces losses on a private person or company. That suggests that compensation is in order, perhaps several tens of thousands of dollars for a woman who has reported being raped and becomes pregnant as a result. Obviously verification would be necessary to prevent fraud.

Congress is unlikely to be able to do anything to protect abortion rights, but legislation requiring states that ban all abortions to compensate victims of rape might have a better chance. Financial compensation won’t cover all the emotional costs a raped woman has suffered, but it would clarify to antiabortionists that their beliefs impose very real costs on the victim, and she should not have to pay them all by herself.

To read more of Dr. Grazie Christie’s opinion piece, go here.