Greetings in that Divine and Most Precious Name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
To address the OP issue, if this women committed this in the US she would have equally been convicted, and had a physician directly administered the drugs, they would have been sentenced perhaps to even MORE jail time than the 8 years (which by the way, is indeed a lengthy sentence, lets get off our high horses here, most studies have concluded that 7 years in prison is essentially life in the sense that a person's entire life is destroyed by the experience, their social support systems, their sense of identity, their personal agency to succeed, all if it devastated, so as far as punishments go, several years in prison is harsh enough truly, adding more or less years just becomes petty and overtly vindictive)
To address JamesR comments..
You are a young man, and youth feel readily impassioned. Further you are and American, and whenever Americans have any sense of perceived injustice, their instinct reaction is, "F-word that S-word!" Even if their reaction is a contradiction, they will want to fight both! So when you perceive a supposed injustice against a raped woman, you're reaction is predictably American. However, it is more complicated than this. 9 out of 10 women express regret and even remorse after having abortions. Further, what ever happened to adoption? How are we burdening a woman with a pregnancy she didn't want? Reality is reality. In our self-gratifying world of modernism, we think everything should happen exactly as we'd like or want it to be, instantly and even selfishly. Did the woman ask to get raped? Of course not, that would be disgusting to even remotely suggest. However, life is complicated by the reality that most of what occurs is NOT what we want, and rarely what we'd like, most often is a struggle. We learn to readjust with our struggles through a sense of human dignity. Life is precious, we overcome all struggles in the hopes to spare life. How to live is an entirely different matter, but to give every human being just the chance alone to live their own lives is the key. A woman may feel her life burdened by the circumstance, but she has to deal with her cards as they were dealt to her, such is life. It can't be changed, avoided, rescinded, or revoked. Abortion will not magically solve that problem. The woman still has the trauma and psychological scars of rape, she still was pregnant, she still remembers that. If anything, the trauma that what should have been a blessing to her (i.e. having a child) became a burden might actually make the woman feel even more victimized, more antagonized, more abused by circumstance. However and again, such is life. We have to pick up the pieces of our lives as best we are able. How can a woman know that abortion will somehow make her life any better after a rape just because it seems to make it easier? We and she can't predict the full psychological let alone spiritual impact of that.
Specifically to address JamesR question, if it were my rhetorical daughter we would have to prepare our family for a new member if it were consensual. If she were raped or sexually molested, well, we have the same struggle, but now we have an adoption to pursue, be it within the family or outside. That is reality, we'd have to deal with. Abortion wouldn't lessen the impact or the scarring from this tragedy, if anything, at least in MY OWN family, it would only make it worse. Further and personally, I feel we are even a more horrendous society when we expect and even empower teenage girls to go at this alone in the first place. As has been mentioned, teenagers don't have the sense of maturity and development to be able to fully cope with such trauma and responsibility. This is why we as the adults in their lives need to be mentors, need to be supportive, need to be there at ALL costs. We have to take on these burdens and sacrifices to help our children. We can't pretend that because it is hard for us, that we should let teenagers fend for themselves. Current abortion laws empower teenagers to make these literally life-and-death decisions without any guidance or support from adults in their lives. This has to change.
No children, indeed no woman of any age, should have to make these kinds of decisions without support and love from other people. Human beings are social beings, we NEED other people to live, this is why God made Eve for Adam in the first place. When Cain complicated the matter by killing Abel what was God's response? Was it to kill Cain in retribution? Would that have healed Eve of her motherly pain and grief over the loss of both her sons by circumstance? Would that have healed Cain of his guilt? Would that have resurrected Abel? The truth is Eve was consoled, Cain was absolved, and Abel was resurrected not by judgement or wrath, but by forgiveness, compassion, and love. These are how we solve this same current moral dilemma facing our society.
stay blessed,
habte selassie
