Women In Combat; "Rape" The Ultimate Challenge To Catholics

I was watching a documentary on the Congo and the wars to control the minerals used in cellphones. The mass killing, gross exploitation of the miners and the country as  whole, the vice and corruption, the terrible lack of basic facilities were inhumanities almost beyond comprehension.

What was beyond comprehension was the use of terror as a political and military tactic. This was used against women and children primarily. Children, if not killed outright, were dragooned into guerilla forces and forced to under go a harsh regime of training-in reality utter brutalization. Women,were subjected to the most reprehensible dehumanization possible.

The documentary, which was not a propaganda piece as the results of this deliberate program of cowing communities into submission was clearly visible without any commentary, interviewed women who, in their will to live and grow, provided the  only spark of humanity.

The "rebels' if they didn't kill women outright cut of their hands and raped them. The program visited an hospital which specialised in reconstructive surgery as many women also had their genital slashed and it was there that a significant problem which may well arise for American women in combat surfaced.

One woman was carrying a two year old child which was the result of her having been raped. She, the mother, was as positive for the future as could be expected under the circumstances-allowing for the fact of course that she was in the sanctuary of the hospital. The child was smiling, was well fed, physiacally perfect and appeared innocent of any circumstances surrounding its life. It could, if given the chance, lead a happy and successful life.

This situation could well arise for American servicewomen in a front-line combat situation. If, for example, a woman was taken captive in e.g. the Middle East and was raped and held in captivity for three or more months and then was rescued what would her attitude to the unborn child she was carrying? If she was a devout Catholic would she carry the child to full term or would she abort it?

If the child was passed the stage where an abortion was legal/practicable safe would she keep it or put it our for adoption?  If the latter case she would have to carry the mental and moral responsibility for her actions. That is not a judgement, it is a reality as in all these scenarios we are dealing with a life.

There have been many reasons advanced against having women serve in front line situations but the four letter word "rape" and its consequences, have not been raised or certainly addressed by those ultra-feminists who seem to want to push their barrow, no matter what the consequences might be for the  women involved and their unborn or born child subsequent to a rape, in a combat situation.

This might be a matter for the Catholic hierarchy to weigh in on now before the consequences of women in combat becomes a moral issues after the fact.