As a result of Roe v Wade overturning, a recent study found that 64,000 US rape victims were pregnant in states that did not allow abortions after Roe v Wade was overturned.
It was discovered by researchers that a total of 520,000 vaginal rapes were reported in 14 states that prohibited abortions between July 1, 2022, and the beginning of this year, according to a thorough review of numerous government records, including those held by the FBI and the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Approximately 12.5% of the rapes that were committed resulted in a pregnancy, according to Independent.Â
Thousands of girls and women in states that ban abortion experienced rape-related pregnancies during this cross-sectional study, but few (if any) were able to obtain legal abortions within the state, indicating rape exceptions are not providing reasonable access to abortion for survivors, according to the researchers in the paper, published Wednesday in Jama.
As a result of this study, just 10 legal abortions have been reported in the 14 states where abortion laws exist (Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, and Louisiana) which have abortion laws during this 18-month period.
In fact, only a very few (if any) of the women and girls who became pregnant due to rape were able to obtain abortions legally inside their states, suggesting that rape exceptions do not provide survivors with reasonable access to abortion, researchers said.
Across the United States, researchers warn that state legislation that robs women and girls of their reproductive autonomy is further impairing their ability to make decisions about their reproductive health.
The options that a survivor has when she becomes pregnant in a place where abortion is illegal are two: either she decides to fly hundreds of miles to a place where abortions are legal, or she decides to have the abortion self-managed.
It is as a result that many women and girls are left with no viable option for bringing their pregnancy to term.
“During the 4 to 18 months that total abortion bans were in effect in the 14 states that implemented them in the aftermath of the Dobbs decision, we estimated that 519,981 rapes had been committed, resulting in 64,565 pregnancies,” they wrote.
It is estimated that there are more than ten legal abortions per month occurring in abortion ban states compared to the estimated number of rape-related pregnancies that occurred there in each of those states. Researchers concluded that women who have been raped and are pregnant may not be able to access legal abortions in their home state, even in states where rape exceptions are permitted.
That news is provided by Timenews.
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