Abortion supporters have long used the argument that abortion should be legal because raped women should not be forced to give birth. In a poll released in November, nearly nine in 10 respondents said they would support access to abortion in cases of rape or incest.
Now, a research paper led by an abortion doctor affiliated with Planned Parenthood finds that more than 60,000 pregnancies occurred in pro-life states in the wake of the landmark event Dobbs decision. This conclusion used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Montana physician Dr. Samuel Dickman, who authored the research letter, told NPR that he “routinely” sees patients who tell him they became pregnant as a result of rape. He added that he believed it was “only a fraction of the true number.”
“There are certainly many more rape victims who end up pregnant and who, for completely understandable reasons, do not want to reveal this fact to a doctor they have just met,” he told the outlet.
Dickman is the medical director of Planned Parenthood in Montana and a plaintiff in multiple lawsuits challenging the state’s abortion bans, NPR noted.
At Dickman’s research letterhe and his colleagues estimate that 64,565 pregnancies resulted from rape, in which abortion is prohibited (via NPR):
To arrive at the number of nearly 65,000 pregnancies caused by rape, researchers first estimated the number of rapes that occurred in states with abortion bans during the period the bans were in effect – periods that vary by state.
“We used the best available research and data that we know of to determine the percentage of women of reproductive age who have experienced – and the terminology here is terrible – vaginal rape,” Dickman explains. “The basis was a survey that [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] conducted that we believe is probably the most accurate estimate not only of the number of sexual assaults reported to law enforcement, but also those that were not reported to law enforcement.”
They then used Bureau of Justice Criminal Victimization Statistics and the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports to estimate the number of vaginal rapes of women ages 15–45 that occurred in these 14 states during the period of abortion bans. The number they arrived at was about 520,000 rapes.
Finally, they calculated, based on CDC data, that 12.5% of these attacks would result in pregnancy. “It’s hard to come up with these numbers – there is no systematic collection of data at the health care professional level to answer the question of what the pregnancy rate is among people who have been victims of full vaginal rape,” admits Dickman. “It’s the best we could do.”
On the Jama network websiteDickman and the rest of the study’s authors acknowledged that “there is no current, reliable state-level data on completed vaginal rapes.”
Still, Dickman told NPR he was “appalled” by the findings and that these women need “meaningful access to abortion.”
The issue of abortion in cases of rape escalated in 2022 when news broke that a 10-year-old Ohio girl had crossed state lines into Indiana to obtain an abortion. Townhall told how the man who impregnated the baby was an illegal immigrant and the mother’s boyfriend.
Predictably, in the wake of this fresh “research,” pro-abortion lawmakers and left-wing news outlets disseminated the study in support of their radical pro-abortion agenda.
“It’s heartbreaking. Women across the country are being forced to bear a rapist’s child,” wrote Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) on X. “This atrocity is a direct result of the Republicans’ extreme abortion ban. We must continue to fight to restore Roe everywhere.”
It’s heartbreaking. Women across the country are being forced to bear a rapist’s child.
This atrocity is a direct result of the Republicans’ extreme abortion ban. We must continue to fight to restore Roe everywhere. https://t.co/3ErcxqWvLv
— Tim Kaine (@timkaine) January 25, 2024
Tennessee Democrat Gloria Johnson, a Democrat running for U.S. Senate against Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn, called the results “barbaric” and said GOP-led pro-life laws allow a rapist to choose the mother of his child.
The number of women who have been revictimized by GOP legislators is astounding. Allowing a brutal rapist to choose the mother of his child, yet preventing a brutal rape victim from choosing not to carry her rapist’s child is barbaric. https://t.co/aceBPkWAT5
— Rep. Gloria Johnson (@VoteGloriaJ) January 24, 2024
