Abortion-rights protesters cheer at a rally outside the state capitol in Lansing, Mich., June 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
A new analysis by the Center for American Progress Action shows the devastating day-to-day reality of state abortion bans.
Republicans claim they want to treat abortion care access as a state’s rights issue, but this neutral-sounding rhetoric whitewashes the grim reality playing out every day in post-Dobbs America.
An estimated 134 rape-induced pregnancies occurred each day in the 14 states with an abortion ban during the period from July 1, 2022 to January 1, 2024, according to a new Center for American Progress (CAP) Action analysis of data published in January. The actual figure is likely higher given that many women do not report being raped, which leads to sexual assaults being dramatically undercounted, Will Ragland, vice president of research for advocacy and outreach at CAP Action, said in an interview.
“The consequences from the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe had a daily impact on women nationwide,” Ragland said. “For all the stories that we see, it’s just scratching the surface of the suffering that was made possible by Trump-appointed Supreme Court justices.”
Abortion and reproductive rights are top of mind for voters heading into the final weeks of the 2024 presidential election.
Republicans’ anti-abortion stance have left them politically vulnerable, so much so that former President Donald Trump has tried to backtrack and cover up his record on the issue. Vice President Kamala Harris meanwhile has made the issue a centerpiece of her campaign, promised to restore reproductive rights nationwide if Congress gives her the chance, and blasted the state’s rights approach being pushed by Trump.
“A bunch of these guys up in these state capitals are writing these decisions because they somehow have decided that they’re in a better position to tell you what’s in your best interest,” Harris said recently on the Call Her Daddy podcast. “It’s outrageous.”
The original study Ragland based his analysis on noted that after the Dobbs decision took away the constitutional right to an abortion, ten or fewer legal abortions occurred each month in each state with a total abortion ban and no exceptions for rape.
Texas had an estimated 54 rape-induced pregnancies each day during the 16 months when its abortion ban with no exception for rape was in effect from July 2022 and January 2024, according to Ragland’s analysis. The figures suggest there is a staggering gap between the estimated need for abortion care and the care that’s actually happening, Ragland said.
“If 134 (rape-induced pregnancies) are occurring daily, then women are not able to get the access to the abortion that they need,” Ragland said. “It’s really inadequate.”
The 14 states with abortion bans included in the study were Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia. Of these, Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi, West Virginia, and North Dakota have bans with exceptions for rape.
Samuel Dickman, one of the authors of the original study, said in an interview that there is increasing evidence that abortion bans with so-called rape exceptions are “completely meaningless” because there is scant evidence that rape survivors are actually getting abortion care.
“If a state truly wants to provide meaningful access to abortion for survivors of rape, it can’t ban abortion for everybody else because we know that so many survivors are not reporting their assault to law enforcement,” Dickman said.
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