Texas Gov. Greg Abbott defended his state’s strict new abortion law, saying it doesn’t force rape and incest victims to carry babies because “it provides at least 6 weeks for a person can have an abortion “.
In the signing for Voting bill supported by the GOP on Tuesday, a reporter asked Abbott why he would “force” a rape or incest victim to carry a sexual assault pregnancy to term. The new abortion invoice, which went into effect last week, prohibits abortion when a fetal heartbeat is detected, as early as 6 weeks of pregnancy and long before many women know they are pregnant.
The governor responded that the bill “does not require it at all because it obviously provides at least 6 weeks for a person to have an abortion.”
He also stressed that “rape is a crime and Texas will work tirelessly to eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas by aggressively going out, arresting and prosecuting them and taking them off the street.”
The Texas Department of Public Safety reported that in 2019 there were more than 14,650 rape cases in the state, accounting for nearly a quarter of all reported violent crimes. In the same year, fewer than 3,900 people were arrested for rape and other sex crimes, according to the department.
The bill also allows civilians to sue anyone who obtains, assists someone in obtaining, performing, and aborting up to $ 10,000. However, victims of rape, sexual assault or incest are not likely to be prosecuted, according to the bill.
New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez He told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Tuesday that Abbott’s comments ignore the basic biology behind how and when she becomes pregnant.
“I’m sorry to have to break down biology 101 on national television, but in case no one has reported it before their life, 6 weeks of pregnancy means two weeks of delay for menstruation,” she said. “And with a two-week delay in the period for anyone with a menstrual cycle, it can happen if you’re stressed, if your diet changes, or really for no reason. So you don’t have 6 weeks.”
Regarding Abbott’s comments about the intention to “eliminate all rapists,” Ocasio-Cortez said most rape victims are assaulted by people they know. When it happens, victims can take a long time to show up, and when they do, not everyone wants to “re-traumatize themselves by going to court.”
“This idea that we’re going to end rape,” frankly, the same kind of rape culture and the same kind of misogynistic culture that informed this abortion law to begin with … is horrible, “she said.” … We know that anti-election bills are not about being pro-life. Because if it were to be pro-life, the Republican party would support, frankly, an agenda that helps ensure health care, that helps ensure that people who give birth and do not have the resources to care for ‘a child, they can have this care for a child’.
“None of this is about supporting life. What it’s about is controlling women’s bodies and controlling people who are not cisgender men,” Ocasio-Cortez continued. “He speaks from this place of deep ignorance, and it’s not just ignorance. It’s ignorance that’s hurting people across the country.”
Many shared Ocasio-Cortez’s feelings, saying on Twitter that Abbott’s comments are “an insulting lie.”
The new bill has been criticized for banning almost all abortions in the state. After the Supreme Court last week did not stop the abortion bill, Judge Sonia Sotomayor wrote a biting dissent, saying the law, which is the strictest in the country, bans abortions “months before fetal viability.”
“The law is an impressive act of defiance of the Constitution, the precedents of this court, and the rights of women seeking abortions throughout Texas,” she said. “The Court should not be so happy to ignore its constitutional obligations to protect not only women’s rights, but also the sanctity of their precedents and the rule of law.”