- A 10-year-old Ohio rape victim had to cross state lines to get an abortion.
- Thousands of children under the age of 15 get abortions each year, data shows.
- Children already faced barriers to abortion prior to the Supreme Court ruling on Roe.
Following an abortion ban in her state, a 10-year-old Ohio rape victim had to cross state lines to acquire an abortion.
Although the case started a social media firestorm, with politicians and outlets claiming her story was false despite there being evidence of such a case, data shows she isn't alone.
In 2020, 52 children under the age of 14 received an abortion in Ohio, according to the Ohio Department of Health. In 2017, the Guttmacher Institute found that 4,460 children under 15 became pregnant. 44% of those pregnancies resulted in an abortion.
"The situation out of Ohio is in no way unique," Katie McHugh, an OB-GYN in Indiana, told The New York Times. "This is a situation that every abortion provider has seen before."
Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, several states like Ohio implemented total bans on abortion, some without exceptions for rape or incest. Many of these states also report providing abortions for children under the age of 15.
- In 2022, two abortions were performed in Texas for kids between 12-13, according to Texas Health and Human Services. Reports have emerged of an 11-year-old incest victim who traveled to Colorado for an abortion, the Times reported. Texas is set to implement a total ban on abortions with no exceptions for rape or incest.
- In 2020, Alabama 25 kids between the age of 10-14 had abortions. One child was 11, and another one was 12, according to the Alabama Center for Heath Statistics. Alabama implemented a total ban on abortions with no exceptions for rape or incest.
- In 2020, the Oklahoma State Department of Health reported 17 abortions between the ages of 5-14. Oklahoma bans abortions except in cases of rape or incest reported to the police.
- In 2021, 27 kids under the age of 15 had an abortion in Louisiana, according to the Louisiana Department of Health. Louisiana has a total ban on abortions.
- In 2020 in Arkansas, 11 children under the age of 15 had an abortion, according to the Arkansas Department of Health. Arkansas has a total ban on abortions with no exceptions for rape or incest.
States with abortion bans also have some of the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the nation.
Although the circumstances surrounding these abortions are not known, data from the CDC shows 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 13 boys experience child sexual abuse in the US.
Lauren Ralph, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco told the Times that children and adolescents already faced barriers to abortion like a lack of access to transportation and the need for parental consent.
"We know that young people already faced many more barriers to accessing abortion prior to the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade," Ralph told the Times. "What will happen with this decision is that those barriers for young people living in restricted states will now multiply."