With no exceptions for rape or incest, Ohio had enacted a bill limiting all abortions after six weeks in 2019. State legislators moved quickly to ensure that the statute would go into force after the US Supreme Court decision.
The incident has rekindled the discussion about the US abortion prohibition and brought to everyone's attention the US Supreme Court decision last month overturning Roe v. Wade. The episode was cited as proof of the "cruel consequences" of the court's ruling by President Joe Biden. Bidem, criticising the US Supreme Court decision, remarked, "Just picture being that little child." The Washington Post said that the US president said, "Ten years old... raped, six weeks pregnant, already traumatised, was forced to travel to another state."
With no exceptions for rape or incest, Ohio had enacted a bill limiting all abortions after six weeks in 2019. State legislators moved quickly to ensure that the statute would go into force after the US Supreme Court decision. Other than Ohio, 13 other US states have enacted trigger laws that outlaw abortion, some of them even in rape situations. For the time being, the surgery is still permitted in Indiana, but the medical service providers have issued a dire warning.
Democratic-run US states are supporting women who want to fly abroad for abortions in the meantime. On the west coast of the US, the governors of California, Washington, and Oregon announced a united "multi-state pledge" to cooperate in defending patients and healthcare professionals.
Biden earlier stated that the court had not prohibited women from travelling to places where abortion is permitted and that he would do everything in his power to ensure that women's rights to travel, access to medication, and contraception are upheld.