Without a total exception for rape, SC Senate needs to reject abortion bill. Here’s why
Being a victim of rape has no end date. It’s a trauma victims live with like a scar. It may heal some over time, but it never fully goes away.
If the trauma lingers, why should rape victims who become pregnant from the attacks be banned from getting abortions after a certain point?
A 12-week deadline in cases of rape is one reason the South Carolina Senate should reject the House’s abortion bill.
As reported by The State’s Maayan Schechter, the vast majority of Republicans and one Democrat in the House passed a bill Tuesday that would ban abortion in almost all cases except for the health of the mother.
First off: Abortion should be legal, and we should live a country where Roe stands. But in a post-Roe country, some South Carolina lawmakers are set on making horrible abortion legislation that they may think is being empathetic toward victims when they’re actually causing more anguish for those going through the aftermath of a rape. This has to be called out before it happens.
Victims of rape experience unimaginable trauma, as the victims, their family, friends, investigators and victims advocates know. It should not be hard for everyone else to also empathize with rape victims. Victims are confused. They might not totally understand what has happened to them. They might not know what to do right away or even within months. Adding the pressure of a deadline to decide whether to get an abortion is unethical.
In many rape cases, women are dealing with such emotional turmoil that they don’t report the rape to police until months later. Any prosecutor or victims’ advocate can tell you this. Lawmakers need to ask this: If a victim can report a rape more than 12 weeks after the attack, why can’t abortions be performed after 12 weeks? There’s no statute of limitation for a rape charge in South Carolina. So why should there be a time limitation on abortions warranted by the crime?
Beyond the deadline, the bill is unethical for another reason. Some women who are raped don’t want to report or go through prosecuting the crime for deeply personal reasons.
Some women might choose not to report a rape for fear of retaliation or to move on with their lives and not have to litigate what they went through. What about these women? In fact, rape is one of the least reported of violent crimes, according to Pew Research Center. A 2020 study showed only about 33% of rape victims reported the crime. These women are no less victims of rape despite not wanting to report it. They shouldn’t have to report a rape and risk further trauma in order to receive an abortion.
Within half of that 12 weeks, many women don’t know if they’re pregnant, according to doctors and advocates, making the moment to come to an abortion decision even shorter. With that shortened period, deciding on an abortion becomes all the more confusing. This further emphasizes the random nature of setting a date for abortions needed after rape and why that time frame should not be legislated, but remain open for victims to decide.
The confusion that can delay both reporting a rape and deciding to get an abortion is worse if the rapist is a relative or close friend. Most rapes are, in fact, committed by someone the victim knows.
The fact is some Republican lawmakers and the one Democrat who voted for the House bill are playing politics with trauma. They’re legislating for an extremist minority that doesn’t believe in abortion for any reason. Those legislators need to show some backbone, develop compassion and consider the victims.
Certain lawmakers should not be shamed for holding deeply personal views against abortion.
But they should be shamed for trying to force those views through legislation onto women who is making one of the toughest choices of their lives.
To penalize rape victims who, in their post-trauma, lost track of the date is beyond the pale. The bill needs to be rejected by South Carolina senators.
This story was originally published August 31, 2022 at 2:12 PM with the headline "Without a total exception for rape, SC Senate needs to reject abortion bill. Here’s why."