Abortions banned | Nearly 65,000 pregnancies resulting from rape in 14 states

Nearly 65,000 pregnancies resulting from rape have been recorded in American states where abortion has been banned since the ruling was overturned. Roe v. Wade.

This was revealed this week by a new study published in the medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

Based on a combination of federal surveys on sexual violence, researchers estimated that 520,000 rapes have occurred since 1^er July 2022 in the 14 states where abortion is now banned.

“We estimated that 519,981 complete rapes were associated with 64,565 pregnancies during the 4 to 18 months that the bans were in effect,” the study said.

Overall, the vast majority of pregnancies (91%) occurred in states with no exception in cases of rape, including Texas.

The study does not allow us to know in what proportions the victims were refused an abortion, underwent illegal abortions or even carried the child until birth.

However, these data demonstrate that “rape-related exceptions do not provide reasonable access to abortion for survivors,” the researchers believe.

As a result, victims may be forced to travel – often hundreds of miles away – to a state where abortion is legal or to have an abortion themselves. However, many of them have no other recourse than to carry their pregnancies to term.

In the summer of 2022, the United States Supreme Court overturned the ruling Roe v. Wade, a nearly 50-year-old precedent that guaranteed the constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy, causing shockwaves across the country. Since then, several states have tightened the right to abortion, some banning it outright.