The Safe Alliance in Austin, Texas, helps survivors of child abuse, sexual assault and domestic violence. Before Texasâ new abortion law took effect, the organization counseled a 12-year-old who had been repeatedly raped by her father.
, chief public strategies officer for the Safe Alliance, said the girlâs father didnât let her leave the house.
âShe got pregnant,â Nelson said. âShe had no idea about anything about her body. She certainly didnât know that she was pregnant.â
The girl eventually got help, but if this had happened after Sept. 1, when the state law took effect, her options would have been severely curtailed, Nelson said.
In Texas, abortions are now banned as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. Known as SB 8, the new law represents the nationâs most restrictive ban on the procedure currently in effect. According to a recent Texasâ law is unpopular across the political spectrum.
Notably, the law makes no exceptions for victims of rape or incest, which runs counter to public opinion. For decades, Americans consistently have favored exceptions to strict abortion bans â even in Texas. Social workers in the state said that is causing serious harm to sexual assault survivors.
While many people donât realize they are pregnant until after six weeks, Nelson said, the time frame is a particular problem for those who are repeatedly raped or abused. To cope with the trauma of the abuse, she said, they often grow numb to whatâs happening to their bodies.
âThat dissociation can lead to a detachment from reality and the fact that sheâs pregnant,â Nelson said. âAnd so, there again, she is not going to know that she is pregnant by six weeks and sheâs not going to be able to resolve that pregnancy.â
, a social worker in Austin who has worked with sexual assault survivors, said not having the option of terminating a pregnancy will make recovering from an assault harder.
âThe impact of finally coming forward and then being told there are no options for you is devastating,â said Faulkner, who directs the Texas Institute for Child & Family Wellbeing at the University of Texas-Austin.
Being forced to carry a pregnancy to term can be harmful financially, psychologically and, sometimes, physically. For survivors, Nelson said, that burden further strips away agency after their sense of safety and control has already been violated.
âAnd so, when you have something like SB 8,â Nelson said, âwhat it is doing is, itâs further taking control and power away from the survivor right at the moment when they need that power and control over their lives to begin healing.â
Faulkner said itâs important to give sexual assault survivors options on how to move forward in their lives. She said SB 8 âclearly is taking away any choice that they have.â
, a professor and sociologist who studies abortion policy at the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health at the University of California-San Francisco, said that, despite prevailing public opinion, most of the anti-abortion bills introduced across the country in recent years have not included exceptions for rape or incest.
âWhat we have seen over the years is a dramatic escalation,â she said. âI think what Texas shines a bright spotlight on is what disdain we have for the needs of women and girls, or people who can get pregnant even if they donât identify as female.â
The history of abortion exceptions is complicated. Joffe noted that toward the end of the 20th century it was more common for states to include exceptions for rape and incest. She said the trend to eliminate exceptions for rape and incest started about 10 years ago, after the tea party gained power in Congress and in many statehouses. As some legislatures became more politically conservative, anti-abortion groups gained influence in the lawmaking process. Meanwhile, as some state legislatures have increased restrictions on abortion, public views have remained quite stable in the sentiment that abortion should be allowed in cases of rape and incest, Joffe said.
âThe kind of restrictions we are seeing are the product of growing power in state legislatures of the anti-abortion movement,â she said.
In 2019, a coalition of anti-abortion groups sent letters to national Republican Party officials following the passage of a controversial abortion law in Alabama. In it, groups to âreconsider decades-old talking pointsâ regarding exceptions for rape and incest.
In Texas, the growing power of hard-line conservatives in the state has helped anti-abortion advocates successfully push for more restrictive laws.
John Seago, legislative director with Texas Right to Life â an influential anti-abortion group that pushed for SB 8 â said the political shifts in the Texas legislature have made it easier to enact stricter abortion laws.
âIn the last 10 years, in Texas, our Republican majority has been growing,â he said. âAnd kind of right around 2011 and/or 2013 we were really having enough votes to pass strong legislation.â
By âstrongâ Seago means not having to compromise on things like allowing abortions when severe fetal abnormalities are detected. Texas dropped those exceptions a few years ago. And now that the new law in Texas makes no exception in cases of rape or incest, Seago said, itâs more consistent with the underlying philosophy that groups like his hold.
âWe are talking about innocent human life â that it is not their crime, it was not their heinous behavior that victimized this woman,â he said. âAnd so, why should they receive the punishment?â
The problem of pregnancies arising from sexual assault is not a small one. One study estimates that women in the U.S. have become pregnant following a rape.
This story is part of a partnership that includes ,Ěý and KHN.