The devastating impact of total abortion bans following the overturning of Roe v. Wade is laid bare in a new study pointing to more than 26,000 rape-related pregnancies in Texas alone.
As first highlighted in a report from The Houston Chronicle, the study, released Wednesday via the American Medical Association’s peer-reviewed JAMA Internal Medicine medical journal, focuses on what’s defined as “rape-related pregnancies” in states with total abortion bans. These states include Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.
The study, available here, shows that Texas saw 26,313 estimated rape-related pregnancies during the ban period. The second-highest state was Missouri with 5,825 estimated rape-related pregnancies. All told, researchers estimate there have been at least 64,565 rape-related pregnancies during the four to 18 months that bans were active in the aforementioned 14 states.
Just five of those states have exceptions in place for rape. However, even with those exceptions in place, the associated requirements more often than not deter victims from taking action.
While study authors mention “limitations” to these estimates, the overarching point is clear. As explained in the study, led by Dr. Samuel Dickman, the medical director at Planned Parenthood of Montana, even states with so-called exceptions are failing their citizens:
“Nonetheless, the large number of estimated rape-related pregnancies in abortion ban states compared with the 10 or fewer legal abortions per month occurring in each of those states indicates that persons who have been raped and become pregnant cannot access legal abortions in their home state, even in states with rape exceptions.”
Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022. In a statement at the time, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose alleged affair was front and center in last year's impeachment trial, made some predictable remarks about how the state expected to proceed.
"Today, the question of abortion returns to the states," Paxton, who was ultimately acquitted, said. "And in Texas, that question has already been answered: abortion is illegal here. I look forward to defending the pro-life laws of Texas and the lives of all unborn children moving forward.”
The ensuing bans have spurred legal action across the country, including in Kentucky, where two class-action lawsuits were dismissed just last month.
