That research, published Wednesday in JAMA Internal Medicine, also shows that the Lone Star State accounted for the largest share — 45% — of rape-related pregnancies tallied by U.S. states since that time. Texas is the most populous U.S. state with an abortion ban that includes no exception for rape or incest.
Since states began banning abortion care in the wake of the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, 519,980 reproductive-aged girls and women have been raped, according to the JAMA study. Of those, 64,570 — or more than one in 10 — have become pregnant.
The new analysis flies in the face of a defense Texas Gov. Greg Abbott gave of the lack of a rape exception in the state’s ban. In the weeks after the prohibition was enacted, the Republican governor said the state would “elminate all rapists from the streets.”
Clearly, that hasn’t happened — and critics have pointed out that it’s unlikely to ever play out.
The new research also appears to blow up another argument Abbott made in defense of the ban. In September 2022, the governor said rape victims can access emergency contraception such as Plan B pills to prevent pregnancy — a claim women’s health advocates said ignored the difficulty poor and uninsured women have in accessing such medication.
Indeed, the JAMA study found that few abortions were recorded in the 14 states that enacted total abortion bans since Roe v. Wade was overturned. That even included the five states with bans that purported to include rape exceptions.
“Politicians use the idea of abortion exceptions to provide political cover, but those so-called exceptions don’t actually help pregnant survivors get the care they need,” study lead author Dr. Samuel Dickman — a researcher at the City University of New York’s Research Foundation and the Chief Medical Officer at Planned Parenthood of Montana — said in an emailed statement.
“Rape survivors who become pregnant deserve to make informed, personal decisions about their pregnancy, and state-level abortion bans — even those with exceptions — don’t allow them to do that,” Dickman added.
While some pregnant rape survivors may be able to travel to states without abortion bans or obtain medication to end their pregnancy, research shows that many have no practical way to obtain care, the authors also said.
“Sexual assault is unfortunately a common experience, and many survivors have also endured intimate partner or family violence — circumstances that create additional barriers complying with the legal reporting requirements for an in-state exception or obtaining out-of-state care,” Dr. Kari White, executive director of Resound Research for Reproductive Health, said in a statement. “Survivors who need abortion care should not have their reproductive autonomy further undermined by state policy.”
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This article appears in Jan 24 – Feb 6, 2024.