In Mississippi, a 13-year-old girl gave birth after being raped, because she could not get an abortion
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In the American state of Mississippi, where abortion is prohibited, a 13-year-old girl gave birth after being raped. The girl Ashley, whose real name is being withheld for the sake of anonymity, will soon be in the 7th grade, reports Time and The Guardian. The child became a mother at such an early age, because abortion is prohibited in her home state, and the procedure in Chicago is too expensive for her family. In the fall of 2022, Ashley was raped by a stranger in the yard near her house. She didn’t tell anyone about it for several weeks, not even her mother. But the woman guessed that something was wrong. Read also: The Court of Appeal passed a verdict in the high-profile case of the rape of a girl in Transcarpathia. Illustrative photo: belchonock/Depositphotos Ashley loved to go outside to dance for her TikTok, but suddenly she refused to leave her bedroom. When the girl turned 13 in November, she was in no mood for a holiday. “She just said, ‘I’m in pain.’ She was crying in her room. I asked her what happened and she said she didn’t want to tell me,” said the mother, who is withholding her real name and calling herself Regina. Ashley found out about her pregnancy after her mother took her to the hospital due to uncontrollable vomiting. When a blood test showed that the child was pregnant, the hospital contacted the police. The hospital referred Ashley to an OB/GYN at Clarksdale Women’s Clinic. Previously, the girl could be sent for an abortion to clinics in Memphis or Jackson, but after the Supreme Court of the United States overturned the decision of Roe v. Wade (which gave the constitutional right to abortion), termination of pregnancy is prohibited in many states. The closest clinic where an abortion could be legally performed was located in Chicago, Illinois. But Regina could not pay for the procedure, travel and leave from work to take her daughter there. The girl did not terminate the pregnancy, because Regina did not know that there is an exception for rape in Mississippi. The state of Mississippi does allow termination of pregnancy due to rape only if the crime has been reported to law enforcement. An abortion can also be performed if there is a threat to the mother’s life, but the procedure for obtaining a permit is unclear. And in January, the New York Times reported that Mississippi had only made two abortion exceptions since the ban went into effect. It will be recalled that on June 24 of last year, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned the decision that gave women the constitutional right to an abortion. After that, some conservative states banned abortion. Some of them even prohibit the termination of pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. Read also: “Carried a dead fetus for almost a week”: a woman who was refused an abortion died in Poland
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