Abortion: Rape and Incest

I have often found myself embroiled in abortion debates. To put it mildly, I am pro-choice, and I consider it a duty to try and convince the anti-abortion side that their position is misguided and injust.

Normally, I start off every argument by seeking to find a common ground, discussing the principles that apply to that common ground, and then expanding those principles to encompass other situations. My normal common ground is the case of abortion when a woman has been raped. Once the anti-abortionist agreed that an exception needed to be made there, it was often easy to move the discussion to more interesting cases.

But... sometimes the common ground is harder to find.

A surprisingly large number of people believe that abortion should not even be allowed in the case of rape or incest. While that article is pretty light in terms of real arguments, others really take a strong stance:

Allowing abortion for cases of rape or incest effectively blames the preborn for another's (i.e. the father) crime. Killing a preborn because his or her father is a rapist is no more justifiable than killing the rapist's mother or father (perhaps even less so, in that, plausibly, a parent could have in some way influenced, caused or contributed to the son's actions. The preborn child has not yet been created; no causal influence, and therefore culpability, is possible). The perpetrator alone should be punished; punishing the preborn makes him or her a scapegoat and the second victim

Many other sites present the same viewpoint:

The unborn entity is not an aggressor when its presence does not endanger its mother's life (as in the case of a tubal pregnancy). It is the rapist who is the aggressor. The unborn entity is just as much an innocent victim as its mother. Hence, abortion cannot be justified on the basis that the unborn is an aggressor.

I honestly don't know where to begin with this. It is impossible to discuss ideas of autonomy or relative rights with an individual who can't even acknowledge that forcing a woman through an unwanted pregnancy after she has been raped is somehow wrong.

I need to find a common ground situation. The common ground of "mother's life is in danger" doesn't work since the anti-abortionists simply classify that as self-defense and allow the abortion there while still restricting it everywhere else. I think that's my mental job for the next 24 hours.

Why do I care? Bush is going to win the next election, and I honestly believe that some serious anti-abortion work is likely to be initiated south of the border. I have to start gearing up mentally for the battle, and for me, it starts here.