How NY’s abortion law makes pregnant women more vulnerable to abuse

Last week, an expansive pro-abortion bill was passed in New York, which removed virtually all protections for preborn children, including those who survive abortion attempts, and essentially legalized abortion until the moment of birth. While there is an emphasis on the late-term abortion aspect of the new law, little attention has been paid to how this law will affect women who are being abused or are victims of violence.

Beth Rahal, the former Pregnant on Campus coordinator for Students for Life, has been making a series of Facebook posts exploring different facets of the New York law. One post in particular focused on how the Reproductive Health Act will affect abuse survivors and survivors of violence.

READ: Four myths about New York’s new abortion law… and the truth

“If a person slips a pregnant woman an abortion-inducing drug, he/she will not be charged with the harm to or death of her child,” Rahal wrote. “If a person attacks a pregnant woman, he/she will not be charged with the harm to or death of the child. If a pregnant woman is in a car accident and her fetus/unborn baby dies, there is no justice for that child lost. If a woman dies in a criminal abortion, it is no longer required for a coroner to investigate. This is a grave injustice for women and families. And it is completely tone deaf to all of NY’s prior efforts to raise awareness of and reduce domestic violence.”

Women facing domestic violence are frequently coerced into abortions, and women who have abortions are at a higher risk of domestic violence afterwards. Abortion does not address this, as even abortionists admit, but rather, allows it to continue.

Abusers frequently use abortion as a tool to cover up their crimes, as Live Action’s Aiding Abusers report outlined.

Sex Abuse Cover Up at Planned Parenthood - Recorded Cases

READ: If you’re against New York’s abortion law, then you’re against Roe v. Wade

Despite the widespread emphasis on preventing sexual abuse and violence against women, the complicity of the abortion industry continues to go largely unnoticed. New York’s Reproductive Health Act will only further allow this to flourish, removing protections for both women and their preborn children, from repealing laws requiring coroners to investigate “deaths caused by suspected criminal abortion,” as well as laws punishing criminals whose violent crimes result in the unwanted death of a preborn child — even though 38 states have fetal homicide laws.

This is just another example of how the abortion industry and its defenders are failing women, yet again. Women whose children are murdered in acts of violence deserve justice. Abusers should not be able to use abortion to cover up their crimes. But pro-abortion extremists would rather see abortion be as widespread as possible than do what is best for women and children.