The Republican governor’s terribly thought-out solution to sexual assault victims was offered during a radio segment that will air Sunday on local radio program Lone Star Politics, The Dallas Morning News first reported. “We want to support these victims, but also these victims can have immediate access to health care, as well as report it,” Mr Abbott said, perhaps not realizing that this solution overlooks the fact that, as recently as 2016 , nearly 80 percent of rapes and sexual assaults go unreported, according to the Department of Justice. “With immediate access to health care, they can get the Plan B pill that can prevent pregnancy in the first place. As for reporting him to law enforcement, that will ensure that the rapist is caught and prosecuted,” the GOP governor clarified. Before the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade came down in June, the Lone Star State still had some of the nation’s most restrictive due process rules. In the fall of last year, Texas passed a bill banning the procedure in most cases after six weeks — when heart activity can first be detected by clinicians in the fetus — making the ban colloquially referred to as heartbeat account. Mr Abbott, who faces a government challenge from progressive Beto O’Rourke this fall, has been called out by his Democratic rival for ineffective policies on tackling crime and the state’s reproductive rights. “Greg Abbott signed the most extreme abortion ban in the country, with no exceptions for rape or incest,” campaign spokesman Chris Evans said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News. “The rape arrest rate has nearly halved since he took office as he allows over 3,000 untested rape kits to gather dust in state crime labs.” Mr. O’Rourke’s campaign spokesman’s accusation about the state’s pending rape kits proved true based on a recent investigation conducted by the Dallas Observer. In the local paper’s findings, they revealed that at the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), there are currently 3,510 kits being tested across the state. That list, the publication noted, does not include the two separate pending cases from Dallas County, which are not part of DPS. In one of these backlogs, with kits dating back to 1996, there are 1,000 idle kits, and in the second, from 2011 to 2019, there are about 900 kits. Even aside from the governor’s suggestion that the key to stopping unwanted rape pregnancies would be to report sexual assault, health experts balked at his solution that Plan B could be the only solution to stopping them. unwanted pregnancies at the source. Emergency contraception, particularly in a state where Medicaid does not cover it for low-income people, is not widely accessible. In addition, Plan B is not completely effective in preventing unwanted pregnancies, and is suspected to be even less so if you are overweight. According to a 2016 study, people with a BMI of 30 or higher had a significantly lower level of EC levonorgestrel in their bloodstream than people with a lower BMI. In addition to effectiveness, access to emergency contraception is a major barrier that the governor did not elaborate on during his remarks on the radio program. Public health experts warned in the same Dallas Morning News article that doctors and medical providers may be wary of even discussing Plan B with patients, fearing it could violate the new state law that includes broad wording suggesting that lawsuits could be brought against people who aid, abet or perform abortions. The Texas governor conceded at one point in the abortion ban debate. That is, he wanted to clarify the language around the new state laws to make it clear that when a person’s life is at risk during a pregnancy — such as during an ectopic pregnancy — there may be exceptions. “We need to give more clarity about what we are doing to protect a mother’s life,” Mr Abbott said. “There seems to be ambiguity out there about protecting the life of the mother. This is of utmost importance, whether it is what is called an ectopic pregnancy, or it may be some other problems that mothers face. “Doctors need to know all the different things they can do to save the mother’s life.” Mr. Abbott and Mr. O’Rourke will face off in the November midterm elections for Texas governor.
