Abortion and Rape: status in US states
This was an emotionally challenging blog post to write. I have never been comfortable talking about abortion because it is so personal. I don’t want to judge anyone or touch on a painful area. So many women have had a miscarriage and carry that pain. Some may have pain around an abortion or abortion choices, as well. And then to add rape. I think there is a wide grey area, where it wasn’t a provable-beyond-a-reasonable-doubt rape, but it was an extremely traumatizing and difficult experience. It’s this area that was sitting in the back of my mind and screaming at me every time someone says, “except in cases of rape or incest”. I needed to stop the screaming, so I sat in those places of pain: abortion and rape, and I looked at the laws. And it made me feel much worse.
First the good news: This chart shows the 31 states where abortion is legal. It goes in order by when in the pregnancy abortion is legal until.
To find out how states determine if someone can have an abortion when an exception is made for rape or incest, I used two data sources. First, I went to the Wikipedia page “abortion in state x” and used that to figure out if abortion is legal in that state and until what stage of pregnancy. If abortion was illegal or legal until 6 weeks or detection of a “fetal heartbeat”, I looked for the law and read it. To me, six weeks or detection of the beginnings of a heartbeat is too early for many women to know that they are pregnant if they need to make a choice around that pregnancy. I also included West Virginia because they allow abortion in cases of rape until 8 weeks of pregnancy, with a police report from 2 days before, so early enough that some people may not have realized yet that they are pregnant. Below are the states, and if you click on them, it takes you to their abortion law. I tried to find the text of the Wisconsin law, but couldn’t. The Republican legislature is trying to update the law to keep abortion illegal, but the Democratic governor has been vetoing them because he wants to keep it legal.
· Alabama
· Arkansas
· Kentucky
· Missouri
· Texas
· Wisconsin
In four states exceptions are made for rape and incest. In each of these states, a police report or other documentation of the rape is necessary to get the abortion. Abortion is legal in Georgia until 6 weeks.
Georgia — “The probable gestational age of the unborn child is 20 weeks or less and the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest in which an official police report has been filed alleging the offense of rape or incest.”
Idaho- “If the woman is not a minor or subject to a guardianship, then, prior to the performance of the abortion, the woman has reported the act of rape or incest to a law enforcement agency and provided a copy of such report to the physician who is to perform the abortion; If the woman is a minor or subject to a guardianship, then, prior to the performance of the abortion, the woman or her parent or guardian has reported the act of rape or incest to a law enforcement agency or child protective services and a copy of such report has been provided to the physician who is to perform the abortion; The physician who performed the abortion complied with the requirements of paragraph (a)(iii) of this subsection regarding the method of abortion.”
Mississippi — the law for Mississippi linked here is very confusing. Find-Law wrote a clearer explanation of what it says here.
Oklahoma — “Except as provided by Section 3 of this act, a person shall not
knowingly perform or attempt to perform an abortion unless:….The pregnancy is the result of rape, sexual assault, or incest that has been reported to law enforcement.”
In six states, abortion is legal, because a law has been temporarily blocked by the courts for some reason. In Florida, the State Supreme Court may nullify the current law that allows abortions up to 15 weeks. If the court allows that law to stand, a new law will go into effect which bans abortion at 6 weeks. People who are victims of rape, incest, or sexual trafficking will be able to get an abortion if they have a restraining order, police report, medical record or documentation providing evidence of rape, incest, or sexual trafficking. In Indiana, the law states that abortion is illegal. A victim of rape, incest or sex trafficking has up to 10 weeks to have an abortion and the physician has to provide “All facts and reasons supporting the certification shall be set forth by the physician in writingand attached to the certificate”. In North Dakota, the law’s exception states, “That the abortion was to terminate a pregnancy that resulted from gross sexual imposition, sexual imposition, sexual abuse of a ward, or incest, as those offenses are defined in chapter 12.1–20.” In South Carolina, the law requires an official police report. In Utah, the incident must be reported to law enforcement.
Yes, another blog post should do this for the exceptions around life and health of the pregnant person. I am also concerned about the laws protecting people who have a baby as the result of rape. How do we ensure that they get child support but without having to interact with their rapist? As I mentioned, it was emotionally challenging to do this research, but I do want to know the answers to these questions, so I may attempt to again.
