Why many Republicans now oppose abortion exceptions for rape

Ryan Bomberger was 13 years old when his adoptive parents first told him he was conceived after his birth mother was raped.

He grew up in a devout evangelical family with 15 children, 10 of whom were adopted by his parents, who were committed to providing a loving home for his diverse array of brothers and sisters. “We all had our different stories, and our parents always shared with us the stories of our birth moms – it was a way to honor our birth moms – since we were toddlers.”

But learning about the horrific experience of his own birth mother left him reeling. “You know, 13 is a crazy time for any child, a tumultuous time of life,” says Mr. Bomberger, who, with his wife Bethany, runs The Radiance Foundation, a faith-based anti-abortion organization in Purcellville, Virginia. “So it was shocking. It was painful. It kind of rewrote the narrative I had of myself in my mind.”

Today, however, the narrative of his life has become a focal point in what has been a dramatic shift in the politics of abortion. In the recent past, Republicans and GOP lawmakers who opposed abortion generally made exceptions for cases of rape and incest. But for a growing number of those who have long battled legalized abortion, Mr. Bomberger’s life highlights what they see as a wrenching truth: innocent, unborn lives have value and purpose, even when they are conceived in violence.

“I was loved like crazy by my parents, so finding the truth of my origin didn’t destroy me – it strengthened me and made me realize I have a story to tell,” says Mr. Bomberger, who worked as a creative director in advertising before launching his foundation. “And I found that even more powerful that she went through what she went through, and that I had a birth mom who was courageous enough to give me life and give me the gift of adoption.”

In some ways, this is the inescapable ultimatum of the movement’s focus on the dignity of the unborn. And it has been gaining ascendancy as Republican-dominated states anticipate the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which held that abortion is a constitutional right. This seems even more likely after the publication of a leaked draft of a Supreme Court decision expected in June.

Since 2021, at least 12 Republican-controlled states have passed bills that would severely restrict or ban abortion. Only three include exceptions for rape or incest, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks abortion legislation.

“The humanity of the preborn is not measured on a sliding scale,” says Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, which seeks to abolish abortion. “It either does or does not exist. That’s the key issue. ... We reject shaming children for things beyond their control, and mourn a current culture that tells people conceived in rape that they should not exist, causing them great pain.”

For some who support abortion-rights, however, the growing Republican opposition to exceptions for rape and incest only strengthens their conviction that the anti-abortion movement is more deeply about the role of women in society.

“In the end, what they want is a total ban on abortion, because I don’t think they believe that women are individuals – they think that women are essentially mothers,” says Kimberly Hamlin, professor of history at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. “So they believe fetal rights, fetal personhood should be covered under the 14th Amendment and should trump the rights of living, breathing girls and women.” 

This question was central to the earliest iterations of the women’s rights movement. “It was the quest for bodily autonomy that really brought women to meetings, to organize for reform in the 19th century,” Dr. Hamlin says.  

Women had no power over their bodies, she adds. Men had conjugal rights within marriage, which meant there was no such thing as marital rape. The Comstock Act of 1873 muzzled frank discussions of spousal sexual abuse and made the dissemination of contraceptives illegal. With few exceptions, women were not able to divorce their husbands. 

Even the temperance movement “was really the MeToo movement of the 19th and 20th centuries,” Dr. Hamlin says. “Women have always understood, whether or not they could say it or not say it, bodily autonomy and political autonomy are two sides of the same coin.”

One study of Americans’ attitudes toward abortion, which included in-depth interviews, found 63% who oppose abortion on legal grounds support a rape exception, while 58% who are morally opposed believe abortion may be justified in rape cases. Sociologist Tricia Bruce, who led the study for the University of Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute for Church Life, says that’s closer to half when you look specifically at Republicans who oppose abortion.

The report revealed a desire to delve more deeply into moral discussions over the issue, says Dr. Bruce. Most Americans feel an ambivalence and moral uncertainty that polls don’t necessarily capture, she adds. Republicans were outliers in opposing traditional legal exceptions.

“The kinds of things that people said were, ‘Well, it’s not the baby’s fault,’ ‘We’ll love the baby no matter what,’ or ‘The child has done nothing wrong,’” she says. “Republicans also use language like, ‘Two wrongs don’t make a right.’”

They were also the most likely to express skepticism about a woman’s claim of being raped – that it was used as justification to get an abortion. 

The shift against exceptions for rape and incest has presented a challenge for some Republican leaders, including former President Donald Trump. In 2019 he tweeted: “As most people know, and for those who would like to know, I am strongly Pro-Life, with the three exceptions – Rape, Incest and protecting the Life of the mother – the same position taken by Ronald Reagan.”

In 2019, both House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said they opposed an Alabama law that did not include these exceptions.

States such as Oklahoma have moved to ban abortion entirely, and many in the anti-abortion movement are working for a federal ban that would encompass the entire nation. But for now, most new Republican state laws still give women 6 to 15 weeks of pregnancy to make the decision on an abortion.

That is something of a political compromise. Florida state Sen. Kelli Stargel, a Republican, sponsored the state’s new abortion law, which bans the procedure only after 15 weeks, though that doesn’t reflect her own moral views.

“Having once been a scared, teenage mother myself, I understand the anguish of a woman facing an unplanned pregnancy,” she tells the Monitor via email. “While the challenges surrounding an unplanned pregnancy would certainly be made exponentially more difficult when the pregnancy is the result of the crime of incest, rape, or human trafficking, the human life carried in the mother’s womb is the same. I believe that life begins at conception, and we have a duty to protect innocent life, even in the most difficult circumstances.”

The issue emerged in several of this year’s Republican primaries. During a Republican primary debate for Pennsylvania’s open U.S. Senate seat, candidate Kathy Barnette proclaimed, “I am the byproduct of a rape. My mother was 11 years old when I was conceived, my father was 21. I was not just a ‘lump of cells.’ As you can see, I’m still not just a ‘lump of cells.’ My life has value.”

For many who oppose exceptions to abortion bans, their view is rooted in deep religious beliefs. The Notre Dame survey found that many say, even amid tragedy and heartbreak, God’s goodness can still burst through.

“I meet a lot of rape survivors, and some of our colleagues and some of our friends are rape survivors,” says Mr. Bomberger. “And I didn’t expect there to be this common thread with those who’ve chosen adoption, or those mothers who chose to parent – that the child is the only redemptive part of such a horrific act.” 

“That’s what compels me to share my side of the story,” he says. “I want to say to those who experienced rape, or those who are trying to work out in their minds whether to have an abortion after rape, I’m just saying, I’m the other side of the story – that triumph can come from these moments of tragedy.”

Editor's note: This story was changed to clarify the period of time some states now allow to obtain an abortion.