This 10-Year-Old Rape Victim Is Forced To Travel From Ohio To Indiana For Her Abortion, And It’s Heartbreaking
Story Highlights:
In a case that starkly demonstrates the negative consequences of the SCOTUS decision to abolish federal abortion protections, a 10-year-old rape victim in the US state of Texas was denied an abortion.
The devastating effects of the US Supreme Court’s abortion decision have come to light in the case of a 10-year-old Ohio child rape victim who was six weeks pregnant, ineligible for an abortion in her home state, and forced to fly to Indiana for the surgery.
Three days after the court struck down a federal right to an abortion and three days after Ohio’s six-week “trigger ban” went into effect, the girl’s story came to light.
ABORTION-PROTEST
On June 25, 2022, a day after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which invalidated the right to an abortion, was made public, protesters gathered in front of Los Angeles City Hall in downtown Los Angeles. On June 25, pro-abortion activists dispersed around the nation for a second day of demonstration in opposition to the Supreme Court’s shocking decision as conservative state after conservative state moved quickly to outlaw the operation.
Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Indianapolis, reported getting a call asking for assistance from a colleague who handles child abuse victims in Ohio. Indiana’s lawmakers have not yet banned or restricted abortion, but they are likely to do so when a special session of the state assembly convenes later this month .
“It’s hard to imagine that in just a few short weeks we will have no ability to provide that care,” Bernard told the Columbus Dispatch.
However, the case of the 10-year-old girl has forced prominent anti-abortion political personalities to strike a balance between upholding abortion regulations and the rights of women and girls, particularly abuse victims.
South Dakota’s Republican governor, Kristi Noem, said on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday that she found it “incredible” that “nobody’s talking about the pervert, horrible and deranged individual that raped a 10-year-old.” Noem has been mentioned as a potential running mate for Donald Trump in 2024.
Nowadays, in South Dakota, performing an abortion is illegal “unless there is appropriate and reasonable medical judgement that performing an abortion is necessary to preserve the life of the pregnant female.” The law as it stands in South Dakota does not include an exemption for cases of incest or rape.
