BREAKING: Child Rape Victims Forced to Flee State for Abortions
AUSTIN, Texas – As Texas women and children continue to languish under the state’s extreme abortion ban which provides no exceptions for rape or incest, the Texas Health and Human Services Department has released data that reveals children under the age of 12 were forced to travel out of state to get medically-necessary abortion care. Children are more likely to face life-threatening pregnancy complications than adult women, at least three of whom have died since the ban after doctors delayed abortion care. The figures likely do not represent the full picture of child rape victims since many states do not report abortion data.
Texas Democratic Party Executive Director Monique Alcala Statement:
“It is unfathomable that families are being forced to spend thousands of dollars to protect their children from the consequences of our state’s horrific medieval policies. Texas Republicans and their perverse prioritization of forced birth is robbing children of their childhoods and throwing families into chaos and desperation. Government coercion of survivors of sexual assault to have children rises to a level of cruelty and violence that is hard to comprehend. And still, the Republican Party that claims to stand for family values continues to ignore the atrocities they have caused, refusing to file any legislation that would protect these children and their families.”
Houston Chronicle: At least 6 Texas children under age 12 got abortions out of state in 2023
By Taylor Goldenstein
At least 100 Texas children aged 17 and younger got abortions in other states during the first year after Texas banned the procedure, including six aged 11 and under, according to the latest state data available.
The total is a nearly ninefold jump in the number of children getting out-of-state abortions from five years earlier and comes as virtually all abortions have ground to a halt in Texas under a ban that makes no exception for fetal abnormality, rape, or incest.
Children typically see more complications during pregnancy than adult women, doctors said, including high risks of premature delivery or preeclampsia, a serious condition that causes high blood pressure.
The rise in out-of-state abortions comes as the overall number of Texas minors accessing the procedure has plummeted.
Plesa filed a bill last session seeking to expand the exceptions to include unemancipated minors who want an abortion but do not have parental consent or judicial approval. It didn’t receive a committee hearing in the GOP-led House, but she said she plans to file a similar bill this session.
Still, many of the minors’ pregnancies represented in the abortion data, and definitely those of the youngest age categories, were likely the result of sexual assault, child welfare advocates said.
Arvallo said the most common themes she hears from clients are that they wish they could be treated in their home communities and that they are afraid.
“Am I going to get in trouble? Is my parent going to get in trouble for helping me get this? Who is a safe person to talk to about this?” they ask her.
Physicians are skeptical teens could get abortions in Texas even if there were exceptions for rape and incest because they are typically narrow and often have difficult-to-meet requirements.