64K women and girls became pregnant due to rape in states with abortion bans, study estimates
Pro-choice supporters and staff of Planned Parenthood hold a rally outside the Planned Parenthood Reproductive Health Services Center in St. Louis, Missouri, May 31, 2019, the last location in the state performing abortions, after a US Court announced the clinic could continue operating.
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More than 64,000 women and girls became pregnant due to rape in states that implemented abortion bans after Roe v. Wade was overruled, according to a new research estimate published online on Wednesday.
The research letter, published by JAMA Internal Medicine and headed up by the medical director at Planned Parenthood of Montana, estimated that nearly 520,000 rapes were associated with 64,565 pregnancies across 14 states, most of which had no exceptions that allowed for terminations of pregnancies that occurred as a result of rape.
Texas topped the list, with about 45% of the rape-related pregnancies occurring within the state, researchers estimated. Ninety-one percent of the estimated rape-related pregnancies took place in states without exceptions for rape, according to the researchers.
“Few (if any)” of the women and girls who became pregnant due to rape “obtained in-state abortions legally, suggesting that rape exceptions fail to provide reasonable access to abortion for survivors,” the research letter said.
Twelve states are enforcing an almost complete ban on abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion rights organization. While not banned in Wisconsin or North Dakota, abortion access has been complicated in the two states due to legal uncertainty in Wisconsin and North Dakota’s only abortion clinic moving, the institute said.
The researchers used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Bureau of Justice Statistics and Federal Bureau of Investigation to create their estimates.
The Supreme Court overruled the landmark decision Roe v. Wade in June 2022, bringing an end to decades of precedent. The court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization also ushered in a wave of states restricting or banning abortion.
Since the Dobbs decision, there’s been an increase in patients traveling across state lines to get abortions. During the first half of 2023, nearly one in five people seeking abortions traveled to other states for abortion care, according to research published last December by the Guttmacher Institute.
President Joe Biden has discussed expanding reproductive rights as part of his re-election bid, traveling to Virginia on Tuesday to reiterate his position that protections provided by Roe v. Wade should be enshrined into law. He has repeatedly said that if Congress passes a bill for abortion protections that had been provided by Roe, he would sign it
Source – CNBC
