The subversive message of Claudia Cardinale: from rape, if allowed, a wonderful child will be born, without guilt. «Not for a moment did I think of getting rid of my creature», she said.

---

 

Claudia Cardinale died on September 23, 2025 in Nemours, France, at the age of 87.

Not only a legendary name of Italian and international cinema, but also that of a woman whose personal life is marked by a troubling testimony, very troubling.

After a rape suffered when she was very young, she chose not to have an abortion. She did not answer violence with more violence. And the birth of Patrick was the most beautiful thing that ever happened to her.

 

Claudia Cardinale, the rape and the non-abortion

Born in Tunis in 1938 to a Sicilian family, Cardinale emerged in the Fifties and Sixties as an icon: she worked with directors of the caliber of Visconti, Fellini, Sergio Leone, and starred in films that became classics such as The Leopard and Once Upon a Time in the West.

But behind the lights of the big screen lies a wound that remained secret for years: around the age of 16-17, a man in Tunisia raped her.

She herself told about it in 2017 to Corriere della Sera with these words: «It was terrible, but the most beautiful thing is that from that violence my wonderful Patrick was born».

Cardinale indeed recounts that «although it was a very complicated situation for a single mother, I decided not to have an abortion. When that man learned of my pregnancy, he reappeared, demanding that I abort. Not for a moment did I think of getting rid of my creature!».

She found support in her parents and sister Blanche and «together we decided that my child would be raised within the family». For years she presented him as her younger brother.

 

The subversive message of Claudia Cardinale

Claudia Cardinale’s testimony is dangerous because she had the courage to affirm a forbidden truth: from a rape a child is born without any guilt, a creature that has a right to life and that will become wonderful.

From evil a precious good can bloom and terminating a pregnancy is by no means the only solution, not even in the most extreme cases such as those of sexual violence.

 

Activist Lila Rose: “Abortion is never the solution”

This is the “scandalous” message that another courageous woman is communicating to the world, we are talking about Lila Rose, young American activist and influencer, founder of Live Action and followed by millions of people.

Mainly women, who find in her the reasons to always choose life and from her association financial and material help to make this choice.

A few days ago she was invited to Yale University to debate abortion with former nun Frances Kissling, former president of Catholics for Choice, an abortion-rights organization in opposition to the Catholic Church.

After two hours of discussion the audience was asked to vote who had convinced them more, and 60 to 31 chose Lila Rose herself, leaving the organizers shocked.

It is certainly not Rose’s first debate, who for years has confronted feminists and figures from the pro-choice world, where she is often challenged on extreme cases such as sexual violence.

Her message is always the same, exactly what Claudia Cardinale decided to follow in her life: