On July 24th, 2022, Texas officially banned abortion as a result of the overturning of Roe V. Wade. Their new law is that abortion is allowed only if the mother’s life is in danger, even in cases of incest or rape.
Since then, Texas has had 26,000 rape-related pregnancies. This uprise in rape-related pregnancies is seen in many other states like Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and even Kentucky. All of the listed states have an abortion ban with minimal exceptions.
This ordeal occurred when people began allowing their morals and religious views to taint political legislation. Now that abortions have been illegalized, many women and young girls can no longer get the help they need in dangerous situations.
The prime example of this is a Missouri woman named Mylissa Farmer. She went into labor only 18 weeks into her pregnancy, which means the child’s organs haven’t even fully developed yet and was at risk of infection if she didn’t get an abortion. Yet, she was still denied because the fetus still had a heartbeat.
In December, women rallied outside of the Texas Supreme Court because they delayed a woman named Kate Cox’s emergency abortion. Her fetus had been given a fatal diagnosis that was threatening her life, yet Attorney General Ken Paxton wasn’t releasing an appeal. It’s situations like this that prove that Texas has no care for the women who are carrying these fetuses.
With the increasing number of rape-related pregnancies in Texas, women and young girls now must carry the burden of a child they didn’t want. The main excuse for this to be ok is that they can put them up for adoption, but the issue with this is Texas has no room left in its foster care system. Dating back to 2022, they began sending foster kids out of state to facilities that have room for them. And many of these facilities aren’t safe for children to be living in.
They’re forcefully bringing children into a world where they’ll live in impoverished conditions for most likely a majority of their childhood. And at the same time, they’re forcing children, to give birth to children.