Rape Exceptions for Abortion Fail Survivors

Health reform did a thorough job of building upon the Hyde Amendment and making certain that federal funding wouldn't cover abortion; in fact, even private coverage probably won't cover it soon. But even this blanket ban has some exceptions (technically): if a woman is a survivor of rape or incest, or if her life is endangered by the pregnancy, she can access Medicaid funds. However, a new study by Ibis Reproductive Health finds that, in practice, even these women are thwarted in seeking coverage of the medical procedure.

More than half of eligible procedures were not reimbursed by Medicaid due to excessive bureaucratic requirements, poorly trained staff, and a lack of accountability; 97% of those that were covered occurred in a single state (of six studied). In some cases, women were unable to access an abortion at all, and in other situations they were forced to delay life-saving treatments for issues such as HIV or cancer. Many reproductive health providers have given up on Medicaid altogether, and women are forced to turn to non-profits for abortion coverage. As Feministing points out, "in practice the ban extends to many women who become pregnant as the result of rape or incest or whose lives are endangered by their pregnancies."

Of course, there's also the issue of proving rape. After all, we can't just take a woman's word for it that she was raped — that would involve actually trusting women. We already have a heavily victim-blaming, "women cry rape" myth-supporting culture that makes it extremely difficult for a woman to seek criminal justice against an attacker. These new findings only reinforce a 2005 study by the National Network of Abortion Funds, which found that the rape exception is virtually non-existent for vulnerable low-income women. And the ordeal inflicted on a rape survivor who has a limited time frame in which to access an abortion, a procedure she'd likely prefer as soon as possible, is a second act of violence.

Photo Credit: MilitaryHealth