Some state abortion limits allow rape, incest exceptions

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to throw out Roe v. Wade last month and an Ohio 10-year-old having subsequently been forced to leave her home state in order to obtain an abortion after police say a man raped her have drawn new attention to how some state restrictions on abortion allow exceptions in cases of rape or incest.

The girl's pregnancy was apparently too far along to permit an abortion in Ohio, where there are not exceptions for rape and incest, so she instead received an abortion in Indiana.

The dilemma that the child and her family faced, and similar decisions playing out quietly in communities across the country, have been made more common and more consequential in the wake of the high court's decision.

While many states with abortion access limits in place do have exceptions for victims of rape or incest, that's not the case in about a dozen states — most of them located in the South.

WHAT HAPPENED IN OHIO

The girl's mother notified child welfare authorities on June 22 she had been attacked, a detective testified this week at a court hearing for the 27-year-old man accused of raping her. An Indianapolis physician said the girl underwent an abortion in Indiana on June 30.

Ohio had been among the states that had abortion bans or nearly total bans on the books before the Roe v. Wade decision was issued on June 24. In its wake, an Ohio judge lifted a stay on the new law, which does not allow abortions after cardiac activity is detected.

The Ohio abortion law permits abortion when a woman's life is threatened or if she faces a serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.

AROUND THE COUNTRY

The high court decision revived some previously dormant state laws and also put into place more recent...