At least eight states have enacted or are in the process of enacting abortion bans that have no exceptions for rape or incest. These include Arkansas (link) , Louisiana (link) , Alabama (link) , Ohio (link) , South Dakota (link) , Kentucky (link) , Tennessee (link) , and Missouri (link) .
These laws are even harsher than the some in the severely anti-woman countries of Latin American.
Recently an 11 year old Argentinian girl (called Lucia to protect her identity) made international news. She had been raped by the 65 year old boyfriend of her grandmother. According to the law in Argentina, women and children impregnated by a rapist are allowed to have an abortion. Abortion is also allowed when the life of the pregnant woman or child is in danger. So Argentinian “pro-lifers” switched to the Kavanaugh/Trump Administration method of obstruct and delay in order to coerce her into giving birth.
In 2017 the Trump Administration attempted to prevent an asylum-seeking teen from having an abortion that had already been pre-approved by a judge. They forcibly blocked her from leaving a detention center. The ACLU took the case to court and won. The Trump Administration then appealed to a court where Kavanaugh imposed another delay, which was also overturned. The teen eventually got the abortion to which she was legally entitled (link) .
Like the Trump Administration, the government in Argentina found various ways to push Lucia, who was already in around the 18th week of pregnancy into more and more dangerous territory. She wasn’t big enough or healthy enough to manage an advanced pregnancy and could have easily died trying to give birth. Finally, doctors from outside the hospital were called in to perform a procedure called a hysterotomy, which is similar to a Cesarean section. Hospital doctors had refused to perform an abortion, due to “conscience.” The girl survived (link) .
How would she fare in the states are hoping to eliminate the rape and incest exceptions and those that are severely limiting the threat to life exception?
Women and girls in many countries have lived under these misogynistic regimes for years or decades. The suffering of these women is not hypothetical. We know what will happen here because it has already happened there.
And it is beginning to happen here in the United States.
Arizona, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Texas—all prohibit abortion in public facilities, except when the pregnant woman’s life is in danger (link) . Some caregivers in these public hospitals are waiting until a pregnant woman runs a fever, which indicates that she has already become septic. Only then will they classify her condition as life threatening and provide an abortion (link) .
In their frantic spate of legislation, opponents of Roe have revealed exactly what kind of world they want. Fortunately, much of it will have no immediate effect.
Inadvertently they are moving the debate to a place that favors the supporters of Roe. Hardly anyone in the general public thinks there should be an absolute ban on abortion that has no exceptions for rape and incest. Nor would they want a casual approach to a threat to a pregnant woman’s life.