Hours after the high court’s ruling, Ohio banned all abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, the point at which many don’t even know they’re pregnant. The new law meant a 10-year-old who had been raped and was six weeks and three days pregnant could not get an abortion in the state, according to a report from Indianapolis Star. Instead, the girl had to travel to neighboring Indiana to access an abortion, one of many who are now forced to cross state lines to get abortion services. And even that may soon cease to be an option for pregnant women in nearby states like Kentucky and Ohio with restrictive abortion laws. In late July, the Indiana Legislature will hold a special session to consider further abortion rules. “It’s hard to imagine that in just a few weeks we won’t be able to provide that care,” Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indianapolis-based obstetrician-gynecologist who treated the 10-year-old, told the Star. The 10-year-old’s story has sparked outrage across the country, with abortion advocates arguing that the GOP can’t claim to be focused on protecting life when it forces child abuse victims to carry their pregnancies to term. “The GOP platform: Government by mandate for 10-year-olds,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom he said on Saturday. “The relentless sanctimoniousness with which anti-abortion activists claim the moral high ground while forcing 10-year-olds and rape victims to remain pregnant against their will is perverse and repulsive,” said legal commentator Mark Joseph Stern. added on Twitter. On Sunday, South Dakota Rep. Kristi Noem, considered a rising star in the Republican party, defended abortion laws, including the South Dakota law that would have meant the 10-year-old from Ohio would have to have her baby. Ms. Noem said the girl’s “horrifying” story would keep her up at night, but that ultimately states like South Dakota, which ban all but life-saving abortions, are doing the right thing. “What I would say is that I don’t think a tragic situation should be perpetuated by another tragedy,” Ms. Noem told CNN. “There is more that we need to do to make sure that we really live a life that says every life is precious, especially innocent lives that have been destroyed like this 10-year-old girl.” When pressed by presenter Dana Bash on whether forcing a child to have a child was considered a medical risk to the mother, Ms Noem was noncommittal. “That situation, the doctors, the family, the people closest to her are going to make the decisions there for that family,” he said. Abortion bans in some states are absolute, with no exceptions for victims of rape, incest and abuse. But critics say it’s not just GOP extremism that the 10-year-old’s story reveals. They argue that it also underscores the urgent need to use the full power of the federal government to restore access to abortion. The Biden administration has pledged to things like maintaining already legal access to postal medication-based abortion services, but has done nothing to change the new status quo. Instead, many top Democrats backed away from urging party faithful to go to the polls in November because, as Mr. Biden put it, “This fall, Roe is on the ballot.” Some argue that this is the left-wing equivalent of Republicans asking for “thoughts and prayers” after gun violence: the appearance of care, but the absence of action. “The 10-year-old girl in Ohio deserves someone to fight for her,” former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner tweeted Saturday. “10-year-old girl denied abortion services in Ohio. 10,” she continued. “So no, I’m not okay with the federal Democratic Party’s response being just ‘vote in November.’ People in my state can’t wait until November and 10-year-olds can’t vote.” Instead, she called on the Biden administration to give the green light to abortion clinics on federal lands and to pressure prisoners in the Senate to follow her calls to create an exemption from the filibuster to pass a law codifying Roe.
