10-Year-Old Rape Victim Denied Abortion: The Horrific Realities of Abortion Bans

[polly7]

Restrictive anti-abortion laws in states like Texas are forcing women into dangerous situations.

By Nathalie Baptiste / The American Prospect June 18, 2015

In Paraguay, a 10-year-old rape victim is denied an abortion—even though her stepfather is her attacker. In El Salvador suicide is the cause of death for 57 percent of pregnant females between the ages 10 to 19. In Nicaragua, doctors are anxious about even treating a miscarriage. All of these instances are the result of draconian abortion laws that have outlawed critical reproductive care in nations throughout Latin America. If stories like these seem remote to American readers, it’s because they’ve been largely eliminated through widespread access to basic abortion services beginning in the 1970s. But with the Republican Party now chipping away at our right to make our own reproductive health choices, realities like these could become commonplace in the United States once again.

Draconian laws aren’t likely to lead to a reduction in the abortion rate but they do force women to take drastic measures to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. According to the World Health Organization, every year 21.6 million women worldwide have an unsafe abortion. 18.5 million of these unsafe abortions are in developing countries. Complications from unsafe abortions kill 47,000 women each year; these women make up nearly 13 percent of all maternal deaths.

Abortion is illegal (or only permitted to save the mother’s life) in 66 countries, or approximately a quarter of the world’s population. Due to social, political, and religious regions many of the countries with strict abortion laws are in the Latin America and Caribbean region. In El Salvador, Nicaragua and Haiti abortion is prohibited—under all circumstances.

In El Salvador a 1998 law went into affect that made abortion illegal with no exceptions—including rape, life of the mother or incest. Women who are found guilty of having an abortion face two to eight years in prison. Punishment is widespread as well. Anyone found guilty of assisting in the abortion also faces two to eight years in prisons. Doctors and nurses who assist and perform abortions face six to 12 years behind bars.

Full article: http://www.alternet.org/gender/10-year-old-rape-victim-denied-abortion-horrific-realities-abortion-bans

[riversedge]

1. Keeping a Democrat in the Presidency is so

so so important to Women's reproductive health.


....The number of unsafe abortions in the United States is miniscule, for now. But as conservative lawmakers find creative ways to undermine Roe v. Wade, such as waiting periods, mandatory ultrasounds and Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) bills that single out abortion clinics and subject them to stricter laws than other medical facilities—more and more women will be left with few legal methods to end their pregnancies.

Kenlissia Jones from Albany, Georgia, ordered pills online to end her pregnancy. After ingesting them, she gave birth to the fetus in a car on her way to the hospital. She was arrested on charges of murder and illegal drug possession and taken to county jail. The prosecutor dismissed the murder charges, but Jones still faces charges of drug possession. In Georgia 58 percent of women live in a county with no abortion provider.

In Indiana Purvi Patel suffered a miscarriage and put the fetus in a bag in a dumpster. At the hospital, while suffering from heavy bleeding, law enforcement arrived to question her. During the investigation, local police found text messages that indicated Patel had ordered drugs online to end her pregnancy, but a toxicologist testified at her trial that no drugs were found in her blood sample. In March, Patel was sentenced to 30 years in prison for neglecting a dependent as well as six years for feticide. ...........

[AwakeAtLast]

4. Supreme Court picks

You better believe it!

[niyad]

2. the hatred for women and their reproductive abilities is insane, and, ultimately destructive

to a society.

[Novara]

3. The right wing doesn't care if women die.

Women are only incubators to them.