Since the Supreme Court gutted Roe. v. Wade two weeks ago, Daily Kos has done a number of stories on how the future might play out, from examining how ectopic pregnancies will be treated, the effect of limited access to clinics, the increased violence abortion providers are facing, and being unclear on the legal ramifications for people who seek abortions in states where the procedure is now banned. But real-life consequences are already here for one 10-year-old girl.
Following the SCOTUS ruling, a story of one child in Ohio has made its way across social media, being shared not only in the U.S. but internationally. According to the story published by the Columbus Dispatch, a 10-year-old rape victim was forced to travel from Ohio to Indiana for an abortion due to Ohio’s six-week abortion ban.
Ohio’s abortion ban, which does not allow exceptions for rape or incest, prohibits all abortions from six week’s conception, or earlier if “fetal heart activity” is detected. The law was a “trigger ban,” which was passed to take effect shortly after Roe was overturned.
Indiana-based abortion provider Dr. Caitlin Bernard said she received a call from a child abuse doctor in Ohio asking if Bernard could see their 10-year-old patient, who was six weeks and three days pregnant. Because abortion is still legal in Indiana, Bernard was allegedly able to help the 10-year-old rape survivor.
The story isn’t unheard of. A similar story from Brazil, in which another 10-year-old rape victim was denied the right to an abortion, made headlines days earlier. As both stories went viral online, social media users are noting how America is moving in the direction of many countries it once criticized for lacking basic human rights.
But Bernard was able to provide that girl care now, Indiana too is on its way to discuss a possible abortion ban later this month, WFYI reported. “It’s hard to imagine that in just a few short weeks we will have no ability to provide that care,” Bernard told the Columbus Dispatch.
The news comes alongside that of several clinics moving across state lines nationwide in order to stay open and provide services. Most recently, Whole Woman's Health, one of the leading abortion providers in Texas, announced Wednesday that it is closing down not one but all four locations due to Texas’ near-total ban on abortion. However, while the clinics are closing in Texas, they plan to relocate to New Mexico to continue services.
The announcement follows the Texas Supreme Court blocking an order that would allow clinics to provide abortions by letting the state's 1925 pre-Roe ban—which makes performing the procedure punishable by 10 years in prison—be civilly enforced. The ban had been temporarily blocked; the state’s trigger ban has also not yet become active, but abortion providers are preparing to relocate.
"While we continue to do everything in our power to fight for abortion rights and access, Texas has banned abortion entirely throughout the state in response to the fall of Roe," Whole Woman's Health said on a GoFundMe page set up to raise relocating funds.
"Abortion access in the South will only get worse as the damage done by this awful ruling continues to compound, and more conservative states pass abortion bans. We are stepping up to ensure everyone has a trusted independent abortion provider as nearby as legally possible.” The organization noted that relocating to New Mexico will allow them to treat patients from not only Texas but “Oklahoma, Arizona, and elsewhere in the South where safe, legal abortion care is restricted."
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According to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research group, at least 26 states are “certain or likely” to ban or limit abortion due to the overturn of Roe v. Wade, while 16 states have laws that protect the right to abortion. This link shows how far patients in each state have to drive to access reproductive care.
In addition to how pregnancies will be impacted and how many clinics will now have to move out of state, the reversal of Roe v. Wade may also result in fatal consequences for pregnant cancer patients. According to experts, doctors may be unable to treat some cancer patients with chemotherapy for fear of breaking abortion laws, since chemotherapy treatment may end pregnancies, Business Insider reports. So while chemotherapy may save lives, the risk of ending a pregnancy for a pregnant cancer patient may lead to doctors stopping treatment—even when chemotherapy is the only viable option for saving the patient’s life.
"This ruling calls into question giving treatment that may cause termination of pregnancy (even if intended to treat cancer)," Dr. Stephanie Blank, president of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology, told Business Insider. She noted that chemotherapy and radiation therapy can, in some cases, affect a fetus and raise the risk of miscarriage. Additionally, she noted that some cancers, like cervical cancer or gestational trophoblastic disease, are not possible to treat without ending a pregnancy.
That’s not all, though. Most of the states that are actively banning abortion also lack benefits to support the birth of children, including paid family leave, universal pre-K, tax credits aimed at helping families, and medical assistance. An analysis by HuffPost found that at least 23 states set to restrict or ban abortion following the SCOTUS ruling lack some sort of benefits.
“In the absence of federal action, overturning Roe will be especially devastating in the states poised to ban abortion,” Osub Ahmed said, associate director of women’s health and rights at the Center for American Progress. “Most of these states have failed to develop policies or invest in programs that support mothers and their families, setting up women forced to continue a pregnancy for failure.”
