Undead sexist cliches: Rape is God’s way to give some lucky woman a beautiful baby

I can understand why some pro-lifers oppose abortion in case of rape. I think they’re completely wrong, but I can understand that they’re operating from a principle—albeit a horrible principle that if a woman who gets a baby inside her, even against her will, she has absolutely no rights.
What I find disgusting is the guys (or women) who insist that since having the baby is God’s will, that proves it would be wrong to abort it. Come on, are you giving back God’s wonderful present.
Case in point: Rick Santorum. While he admits that being impregnated by rape is “horrible” he also thinks “the right approach is to accept this horribly created — in the sense of rape — but nevertheless a gift in a very broken way, the gift of human life, and accept what God has given to you.”
At least Santorum admits that it’s a horrible way to get a child. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback believes the baby is “a beautiful child of a loving God, that we ought to protect in all circumstances in all places”
Sorry guys, getting raped is not a gift from God. If it was, I’d start worshipping someone else. Santorum’s “horrible,” when paired with “what God has given to you,” ranks with rape apologists who insist rape is really, really bad but, come on, sluts who dress like that have it coming.
As a Christian, I accept that we live in a world where a good God allows horrible things to happen. I’m not sure there’s any other way to have a physical world of cause-and-effect and people who have free will.
I do not believe, however, that God causes horrible things to happen. I do believe he does things beyond my comprehension, but rape isn’t one of them: I comprehend it perfectly well. It’s evil. Brutal. Vile. If God arranged women’s rape just so she can have a child, he’d be too—but he doesn’t. So the argument that rape victims shouldn’t abort because it’s against God’s will cuts no ice with me (quite aside from the fact it has no place in a secular system of laws).
On a secular level, arguing that rape is somehow a beautiful thing just trivializes the hell the victim went through. If a woman chooses to bear her rapist’s child, that’s one thing. But forcing someone to bear it? And then babbling about how you’re really giving her a beautiful gift?
Santorum also makes a point I tangled with in an early And column: Stopping women from aborting their child is for their own good: “you can make the argument that if she doesn’t have this baby, if she kills her child, that that, too, could ruin her life. And this is not an easy choice, I understand that.”
So his solution is to take the choice away from her in the conviction he knows best (after all, he knows exactly what God wants. She’ll thank him some day.
By this logic I could justify banning marriages: Plenty of people regret that they tied the knot, why not save them from themselves? Somehow I don’t think Santorum will go for it.
I’ve got to wonder, are Santorum, Brownback and others of their ilk completely insensitive to what rape victims go through? Or are they completely clueless about it? Or are they desperately trying to convince themselves that they’re really doing the right thing?
I don’t really care. Even if they’re acting from good intentions that doesn’t excuse them. Though it will net them a job paving roads in the next world, or so I hear.