At least two more minors made pregnant by sexual assault were forced to leave Ohio to avoid having their rapists’ babies, reports the Ohio Capital Journal, citing sworn affidavits filed by abortion providers. The affidavits were filed in Cincinnati as part of a lawsuit aimed at stopping the enforcement of Ohio’s strict new abortion law. Initially paused for two weeks, the enforcement delay will be extended to at least Oct. 12.
If true, the affidavits show that a 10-year-old from Columbus was not the only child or teen rape victim forced to leave the state. They describe more than two dozen other instances in which the abortion law put women under extreme duress.
The descriptions include those of three women who threatened suicide. They also include two women with cancer who couldn’t terminate their pregnancies and also couldn’t get cancer treatment while they were pregnant. Another three examples were of women whose fetuses had severe abnormalities or other conditions that made a successful pregnancy impossible. Even so, they couldn’t get abortions in Ohio.
In three cases, debilitating vomiting was caused by pregnancy ‒ so bad in one case that a woman couldn’t get off the clinic floor. Neither could these women get abortions in Ohio. Already having a temporary order restraining enforcement of the abortion law, clinics across Ohio are now seeking a preliminary injunction.
In doing so, they’re arguing that the 2019 law is so onerous that it violates women’s due process rights under the Ohio Constitution.