Get Raped — Give Birth to the Rapist’s Child
That’s the way it is in America now
Picture the scene — a young woman is attacked and raped, an utterly appalling crime in anyone’s eyes, surely.
She becomes pregnant. Her torment can be eased to an extent by having an early abortion, thus allowing her to start getting her life back together. She will at least be able to hide what happened to her from public gaze, before the pregnancy becomes visible. Surely that is the very least that can be done for her. Does society not owe that to a victim of appalling violence?
Not in today’s America, apparently.
With the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade being overturned by the Supreme Court — for which Donald Trump proudly claims credit — 14 US states have now declared that abortion is illegal within their jurisdictions in virtually all circumstances, with rape not being one of the allowed-for exceptions.
It has now been estimated that 65,000 raped women in those states who have become pregnant will, as a result of this change in the law, now be forced to take the pregnancies through to birth.
The nationwide figure may be much higher than that, given that many rape victims do not report the crime to the police, which is a requirement in those states that do allow abortions in the case of rape.
The consequences are appalling, particularly as regards the mental health of the affected women. Many rape victims live in poverty and have been subjected to sexual and physical abuse from partners that they cannot afford to leave.
The psychological impact of being forced to bear an unwanted child is bound to be considerable.
The woman has not only been raped physically by her abuser but virtually by the state, which has compounded her misery.
Surely nothing can justify this state-sponsored brutality of innocent victims of crime.
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