Nearly 65K rape victims likely got pregnant amid U.S. abortion bans: analysis

Thousands of rape victims across the United States likely got pregnant in the span of less than two years, research suggests, as several states have moved to impose total abortion bans following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling.

An analysis published in the JAMA Internal Medicine journal on Wednesday estimates roughly 65,000 rape-related pregnancies occurred between July 1, 2022 and January 1, 2024 in 14 U.S. states where total or near-total abortion bans were in effect.

Out of these, the majority (91 per cent) were reported in states that make no abortion exceptions for rape cases, but nine per cent also occurred in states that have this exception in place.

To make the estimates, the researchers used national data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on rapes from 2016 to 2017.

They adjusted for the fraction of survivors who were female individuals aged 15 to 45 years using data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and further adjusted for the percentage of rapes that are vaginal.

“Thousands of girls and women in states that banned abortion experienced rape-related pregnancy, but few (if any) obtained in-state abortions legally, suggesting that rape exceptions fail to provide reasonable access to abortion for survivors,” the researchers wrote.

Dealing a major blow to women’s reproductive health rights, in June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe. v Wade ruling that guaranteed the constitutional right to abortion.

Since that landmark ruling in the case called Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, several states have imposed bans or restrictions on abortion.

Nine states have complete bans with no exceptions for rape: Alabama, Arkansas,