Let’s look at the numbers, shall we?
Did you read the new study that was just published in The Journal of American Medicine about the incidence of pregnancies resulting in rape in red states that no longer allow abortion after the repeal of Roe vs. Wade? The numbers are staggering.
In Texas alone, where Governor Abbott declared that the simple solution to avoid unwanted pregnancies due to rape or assault was that he was going to abolish rape in the state, there have been over 26,000 pregnancies resulting from rape since the Supreme Court’s decision. The numbers prove he failed miserably.
It’s one thing to state that you are going to try to eliminate rape, but it’s quite another to implement strategies to do so. And what has Abbott done? Well, nothing, really. Simply speaking something into the universe won’t make it happen. You have to have a plan.
The numbers are so high that it makes me wonder if the $10,000 bounty in reporting aiding abortion has created an incentive for men to assault women. I mean, think about it. A man rapes a woman, gets her pregnant, and the criminal stalks her for signs that she is pursuing an abortion. He reports her and, voila, he makes bank because he committed a crime. And she is literally paying the price.
Yes, I’m aware that the Texas bounty law, SB 8, which also outlaws abortion after 6 weeks before many women detect pregnancy, prevents convicted rapists from reporting their victims. The key word here is convicted. And who is to say that they don’t get one of their buddies in on the deal?
Although I can’t find any evidence to support this frightening possibility, I am not the only author who has concerns about this theory. The main way abortion is reported currently is via healthcare providers. People who can get pregnant should also be mindful of their digital footprint, as it can be used to prove that they are seeking an abortion.
Astonishingly, Texas alone accounts for nearly half of the total number of over 65,000 pregnancies resulting from rape in states where access to the procedure is illegal now that Dobbs has been decided. And that’s just the cases that were reported.
According to RAINN, the total number of completed rapes each year in the United States is over 460,000. One in 6 women in the U.S. has been a victim of rape or attempted rape. Do the numbers surprise you? I’m shocked that it’s not higher.
As a survivor myself, I am a member of a rather large sorority. My time in trauma treatment was enlightening, as most of the women I encountered also had sexual assault as part of their story.
If men think taking ownership and power over a woman’s body is simply something we can “get over,” they are wrong. The experience is excruciatingly traumatizing. And forcing women to carry out pregnancies imposed upon them is simply cruel.
I can’t imagine enduring a physical attack on my body and then being forced to carry the spawn of my rapist. I don’t know if I could survive such an injustice. Yet this is the life for thousands of women in the U.S., and only since abortion rights were revoked.
If that wasn’t bad enough, the quality of maternal care in the U.S. trails significantly as compared to other Western nations. Even worse, maternal mortality rates in the U.S. are rising, not improving, with 24 deaths per 100,000 births reported in 2020, with non-white mothers suffering the most. Note that this increase occurred prior to the Dobbs ruling. One can only speculate that now that abortion isn’t necessarily a given right if a woman’s life is in danger due to pregnancy that these numbers will climb further.
If you thought that the Dobbs decision wasn’t going to be that big of a deal, you were wrong. If you think your state is exempt from the possibility of outlawing access to abortion because you happen to live in a blue state, your rights are more precarious than you thought.
I live in Virginia. The only thing keeping our Republican governor from accomplishing his goal of passing a 15-week abortion ban is our Democratic majority in the state house. The veil of protection is thin.
2024 is a pivotal year in our democracy. We have to protect our right to access full reproductive healthcare.
People with uteruses are not breeders. We are human, contributing members of society. Bodily autonomy is a basic human right. Denying people this right means that our government deems us less than human.
Vote to protect human rights, not to send us back to the 1950s.
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Have you heard about this study yet? I first became aware of this by listening to a story about it on NPR. My heart aches for all of these assault survivors who didn’t ask for this.
As always, I hope you all are safe and healthy.
Anne the Vegan 