This recently bubbled up again:
You can find the study
here.
CNN reported at the time:
Tens of thousands of pregnancies have resulted from rape in
states where abortion is not a legal option, researchers estimate in a
new study.
In the study, published Wednesday in the journal JAMA
Internal Medicine, researchers from Planned Parenthood, Resound Research
for Reproductive Health and academic institutions across the US used a
combination of federal surveys on crime and sexual violence to estimate
that there were about 520,000 rapes that led to 64,565 pregnancies in
the time since abortion bans have been enacted in 14 states – ranging by
state from four to 18 months ago.
Other research
has found that there have been fewer than 10 abortions each month in
states with bans, suggesting that most, if not all, victims were not
able to get abortions in the states where they live, even those where
the law allows exceptions for rape.
“Restricting abortion access to survivors of rape can have
particularly devastating consequences,” the medical journal’s editors
wrote in a note
about the new research. “Whether these survivors of rape had illegal
abortions, received medication abortion through the mail, traveled to
other states, or carried the child to birth is unknown.”
And:
“Like many exceptions written into abortion bans, an
exception for rape victims may appear to be a reasonable solution but in
practice can create more trauma and danger for patients who have
already experienced a traumatic event,” said Dr. Sami Heywood, an ob/gyn
in Illinois and fellow with the advocacy group Physicians for
Reproductive Health who was not involved in the new research.
“No other health care is reserved only for people who can
prove a crime took place. That’s not an ethical way to practice
medicine. It is cruel to force people who have already been victimized
to jump through legal and logistical barriers that cause further harm.”
But as we've seen in most other MAGA forced-birth realities, the cruelty is the point.
And if you want to take a peek into a possible future, Project 2025 lets you have it, right between the eyes:
Because liberal states have now become sanctuaries for abortion tourism, HHS
should use every available tool, including the cutting of funds, to ensure that every
state reports exactly how many abortions take place within its borders, at what
gestational age of the child, for what reason, the mother’s state of residence, and
by what method. It should also ensure that statistics are separated by category:
spontaneous miscarriage; treatments that incidentally result in the death of a child
(such as chemotherapy); stillbirths; and induced abortion. In addition, CDC should
require monitoring and reporting for complications due to abortion and every
instance of children being born alive after an abortion. Moreover, abortion should
be clearly defined as only those procedures that intentionally end an unborn child’s
life. Miscarriage management or standard ectopic pregnancy treatments should
never be conflated with abortion.
That last point is moot, however, as there are those who would not allow any sort of abortion (or abortion adjacent) health care procedures to be utilized to protect the life of the pregnant woman.
But you'll note how "small government" GOP has now shifted to a group now
requiring added levels of HHS/CDC surveillance of half of the population's most basic biological realities.
Why? Because to them, the women don't matter. Not enough, anyway.
Or as was stated so much more wisely than I ever could:
[A woman's right whether or not to bear a child] is something central to a woman's life, to her dignity. It's a
decision that she must make for herself. And when Government controls
that decision for her, she's being treated as less than a fully adult
human responsible for her own choices. Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg at her Senate Confirmation Hearing, 1993
The cruelty is the point - to keep 'em in their place.
