Slate: Rape Exceptions Don’t Work

“Irin Carmon has an excellent piece at Salon decrying, in light of the Akin controversy, the entire discourse around ‘rape exceptions.’

Carmon points out that when rape exceptions have been employed in the U.S., they don’t work. The Hyde Amendment bans federal funding for abortion, with a rape exception, but surprisingly few women that are eligible for government-subsidized abortions actually get the funding they’re entitled to. And what if we were to enact a widespread ban on abortion, with the incest and rape exceptions? The general ban on abortion would mean that finding doctors and clinics who can and are willing to offer the service under the narrow restrictions would become nearly impossible. These aren’t just hypothetical questions. Throughout Latin America, there are abortion bans that have exceptions built in for certain emergencies, but women who legally qualify for the exceptions find that no one is willing to put their necks out for them. The Center for Reproductive Rights has a number of cases of women being denied abortions that should be legal under the exceptions.     L.C. [13 years old] attempted to commit suicide by jumping off the roof of a building next door to her house.     Paulina was 13 years old when she was raped in 1999 and subsequently denied a legally permitted abortion by state health and law enforcement officials.     K.L., a 17-year-old, was pregnant with an anencephalic fetus. Although Peruvian abortion law permits abortion when the life or health of the mother is in danger, K.L. was denied an abortion and had to deliver the baby and breastfeed her for the four days she survived.”

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