It's much the same in the matter of rape as in the matter of AIDS.

The fight against AIDS with its abundant publicity for solutions, serves causes other than that of health.¹ The one suffering from AIDS is sometimes considered less as a person needing care than as someone whom others use to join another battle. The stake in this battle is the massive shamelessness of youth which is abused physically and psychologically; it appears to favor the transformation of the world into an immense brothel.

The same goes for rape. Just as we recently saw with rapes committed in the former Yugoslavia, the fight against rape serves causes other than the violated women. These victims were regarded less as persons who must be helped than as beings used to impose abortion as commonplace.

In both cases, they insist that "we don't have a choice": here we have a "situation of distress", there a "situation of urgency." Freedom, we are assured, has no place here: we must bow before percentages and situations. These situations are so pressing that suddenly everything is permitted.

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¹ See Michel Schooyans, "Jean-Paul II et le sida" (AIDS), in Famille chrétienne n° 801 (May 20, 1993) 14-16.
 

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HELPING RAPE VICTIMS: http://www.inform.umd.edu/CampusInfo/Departments/Counseling/Selfhelp/sh_sxasl.htm
ON THE BEIJING CONFERENCE: http://members.theglobe.com/panindigan/beijingpfaindx.html
HIV AS DEPOPULANT: http://members.theglobe.com/panindigan/aidswar.html
MYTHS & FACTS ABOUT RAPE: http://www.victimservices.org/rapefact.html
THE FIGURE OF WOMAN: http://www.simbahayan.org/teachmag07-MD.html
LIFE BEFORE BIRTH: http://www.simbahayan.org/LBB1-nidation.html
ASSAULT, RAPE, INCEST: http://www.ohiolife.org/qa/qa19.htm
FETAL PAIN: http://www.ohiolife.org/qa/qa10.htm