10-Year-Old Rape Victims Having Babies? Louisiana Republicans ABSOLUTELY FINE With That!

'Pro-life.'

Louisiana Republicans spent a chunk of time this week rejecting bills that would have eased restrictions on abortion in especially horrific cases. Abortion has been illegal in the Pelican State (yes, the Pelican State, look it up) since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade , but state Democrats were hoping to pass some bills that would make the laws slightly less cruel.

They failed.

First, Republicans rejected a bill that would have allowed rape and incest survivors to get abortions — and then they rejected a bill allowing child victims of rape and incest to get abortions. Like, they were literally presented with the quandary "What, specifically, do we think should be done when a 10-year-old is raped and gets pregnant" and their answer was "Definitely force that 10-year-old child to carry a child for nine months and then give birth."

They gave this idea actual thought, and they decided that a freaking clump of cells was worth making a 10-year-old walk around pregnant for several months, potentially being asked by nosy people "Why are you, a 10-year-old child, pregnant?" and having to answer that with "Well, my dad raped me and I am being forced by the state to give birth to his baby."

Oh right, and then there is all the dying. Girls who give birth before the age of 15 are five times more likely to die giving birth than those aged 15 to 20. All the data we have about maternal mortality among girls (not women) under 14 is from developing nations, because until now, it wasn't something we had to deal with here.

Until now.

Following these horrific and cruel votes, Democratic lawmakers "deferred" other bills that would have simply fined doctors who perform abortions rather than sending them to prison, as well as a bill that would have provided exemptions for those with ectopic pregnancies or fatal fetal anomalies and another that would have clarified that miscarriages were not abortions. This means that those who have ectopic pregnancies in Louisiana will kinda just have to die or doctors will have to risk actual prison time in order to treat them. This means that people who have miscarriages will not be able to get treatment for said miscarriages and may have to just die of sepsis. Because of how very pro-life these people are.

Via NOLA.com :

"We're seeing more and more of those types of votes, split straight down party lines, regardless of how many people we have in the room saying Louisianans support exceptions for rape and incest," said state Rep. C. Denise Marcelle, D-Baton Rouge, who sits on the criminal justice committee and supported the exemptions.

In a statement, [Democratic Governor John Bel] Edwards said he was "deeply disappointed" by the vote.

"Louisiana is a pro-life state, which I and many others are proud of," he said. "But being pro-life can also include having basic empathy for women and young girls who are the victims of rape and incest."

You know, I'm gonna say that, for the most part, it actually cannot. Especially when you are very okay with just letting people die rather than allowing them to get the medical treatment they need. Especially if you are a Republican in Louisiana, since that means you very likely to also support the death penalty . If you oppose abortion but support the death penalty, if you oppose abortion so much that you would rather see a woman die from an ectopic pregnancy that cannot actually produce a live baby, your opposition to abortion has a whole lot less to do with being "pro-life" and a whole lot more to do with hating women.

Let's be clear — in reality, rape and incest exceptions are functionally meaningless. The amount of hoops one has to jump through in order to get an exception negates any actual usefulness, and besides, they do reinforce the idea that it is okay to punish people who have consensual sex by forcing them to give birth against their will.

What the lack of exceptions does say, however, is that Louisiana Republicans are not even trying to hide their viciousness. They have absolutely no qualms about saying "Go fuck yourselves" to rape and incest survivors and that? That should scare the crap out of all of us. It should scare us that Democratic lawmakers in the state know their colleagues well enough to say "Yeah, no way would they go for a bill that allows women who have miscarriages get treatment for those miscarriages instead of dying of sepsis." Because that is terrifying.

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