I have viewed Ms. Melissa Barcroft’s TV presentation and her Guest Opinion in the Missoulian on Tuesday, May 27. I share her grief and I pray for her recovery from this tragic event.
However, I wish to propose to her a different opinion, a different set of options and results.
Ms. Barcroft indicated that she was only 14 at the time of this incident. Just guessing her birthdate, in the 2002-2004 time frame, from state statistics, there were 756 reported rapes in the state of Montana. If national data is correct, 96 percent or 726 of the males involved were never convicted of the crime of rape. Why is this possible? One reason, the primary source of information, DNA, is not available due to the absence of the child plus failure to immediately report the incident.
Due to the laws in our state, rape and incest are rarely reported by the abortion clinic.
She also indicated that the survivors of the rape receive more abuse than the male involved. At the age of 14, if the male involved is a young adult, the situation is viewed as a rape as any girl under 16 cannot legally give her consent to an older male.
I am not able to determine from Ms. Barcroft’s presentations and possibly due to her state of mind at the time, if the male was reported and criminally charged.
She states a concern that a “personhood bill” would grant all fertilized eggs full legal and constitutional rights. I assume that Ms. Barcroft took geometry in high school and memorized theorems. She also knows that in mathematics, the answers are absolute. There are very few variables to math solutions. A theorem that comes to mind is: “the whole is equal to the sum of the parts.” Life cannot exist without the first step at conception, a fertilized egg.
Reviewing Ms. Barcroft’s text and herTV presentation, I note that she was probably coached and edited by members of the pro-choice community. These individuals offer one point of view. If she had the opportunity to view a website such as “Abortion Alternatives Montana,” she might have at least considered other options.
The information that she has provided is clearly intended to bolster voters to support Senator John Walsh in his re-election bid for the Senate. Senator Walsh is a commissioned military officer who took an oath. “To protect and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic.” Our country is clearly in a war of cultures, the Culture of Life versus the Culture of Death. Since 1776, in 238 years, our country has experienced 1.1 million deaths of patriotic men and women in wars, expeditions and confrontations. Our country experiences the loss of more innocents, 1.3 million annually, than in all of our military conflicts. Since 1973, in 41 years, the United States has lost an estimated 56 million innocents. This position of Senator Walsh in support of the Culture of Death speaks to his moral and ethical convictions. Without abortion, the population of our country could possibly be 366 million instead of the present 310 million. Imagine the moral outrage if an enemy of the United States had caused a cataclysmic event which would have reduced the U.S. population by 15 percent.
I sincerely pray for Ms. Barcroft and all rape victims. I pray also for the innocent child who received the most grievous choice, death! And I pray that the perpetrator of this vile and evil event is, or was, punished to the full extent of the law!
Jim Van Sickle
Stevensville