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Editorial: Abbott failed to 'eliminate rape.' His Plan B isn't enough.
Greg Abbott's abortion law has no exception for rape, incest or life of the mother. To remedy the lack of a rape exception, Greg has promised to eliminate rape in Texas. Greg lied about eliminating rape. This promise was stupid even for an idiot like Greg
Link to tweet
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/Editorial-Abbott-failed-to-eliminate-rape-17435965.php
The ripple effects from the Supreme Court’s seismic decision to overturn Roe v. Wade have forced anti-abortion candidates to reckon with energized voters who woke up one day with fewer constitutional rights.
Abortion activists have already played a key role in primary races, including in unlikely places such as Kansas and Alaska. The success of pro-choice candidates has forced some Republicans to contort their previous statements on abortion to seem less extreme. Most notably, several now claim to support exceptions to abortion restrictions such as in instances of rape or incest or situations that put the mother’s life in danger.....
Abbott has doubled down — supporting an abortion ban with no exceptions for rape and incest — a calculated gamble showing he’s willing to prioritize the extreme demands of his base over the views of the majority of his constituents, who strongly support at least some abortion rights. While he’s backed off of his far-fetched vow to “eliminate rape” in the state of Texas — a hasty response to a reporter’s question about how the abortion ban would affect sexual assault victims — his latest attempt to address the issue is almost as cringe-worthy.
“We want to support those victims, but also those victims can access health care immediately, as well as to report it,” Abbott said during a segment on Lone Star Politics. “By accessing health care immediately, they can get the Plan B pill that can prevent a pregnancy from occurring in the first place.”
We’ll give Abbott credit for coming back to reality. Perhaps it dawned on him that ending rape just wasn’t feasible, what with Texas leading the nation in rape offenses in 2020 and the clearance rate for rape arrests dropping by nearly half over the course of his tenure. Or maybe he considered the state’s enormous backlog of untested rape kits, which have left thousands of victims in limbo as they await justice.
Yet telling rape victims to go out and get a pill that’s only effective within 72 hours of conception reflects Abbott’s fundamental misunderstanding of the effects of trauma.
Abortion activists have already played a key role in primary races, including in unlikely places such as Kansas and Alaska. The success of pro-choice candidates has forced some Republicans to contort their previous statements on abortion to seem less extreme. Most notably, several now claim to support exceptions to abortion restrictions such as in instances of rape or incest or situations that put the mother’s life in danger.....
Abbott has doubled down — supporting an abortion ban with no exceptions for rape and incest — a calculated gamble showing he’s willing to prioritize the extreme demands of his base over the views of the majority of his constituents, who strongly support at least some abortion rights. While he’s backed off of his far-fetched vow to “eliminate rape” in the state of Texas — a hasty response to a reporter’s question about how the abortion ban would affect sexual assault victims — his latest attempt to address the issue is almost as cringe-worthy.
“We want to support those victims, but also those victims can access health care immediately, as well as to report it,” Abbott said during a segment on Lone Star Politics. “By accessing health care immediately, they can get the Plan B pill that can prevent a pregnancy from occurring in the first place.”
We’ll give Abbott credit for coming back to reality. Perhaps it dawned on him that ending rape just wasn’t feasible, what with Texas leading the nation in rape offenses in 2020 and the clearance rate for rape arrests dropping by nearly half over the course of his tenure. Or maybe he considered the state’s enormous backlog of untested rape kits, which have left thousands of victims in limbo as they await justice.
Yet telling rape victims to go out and get a pill that’s only effective within 72 hours of conception reflects Abbott’s fundamental misunderstanding of the effects of trauma.