When Texas' new abortion law made no exceptions for rape or incest, the governor defended it.
Lindsey is still helping rape victims one year later.
According to the executive director of the Sexual assault Resource Center in Bryan, the numbers have remained high. She has a waiting list for victims despite hiring two more counselors.
She said that they were struggling to keep up.
The constant caseloads in Texas are an example of how Republicans have struggled to defend zero-exception abortion bans that are unpopular in public polling, have caused uproar in high-profile cases and are inviting political risk heading into November's elections. A year after Texas' law went into effect, at least a dozen other states have similar laws.
A new law in West Virginia allows rape and incest victims to get abortions only if they report the crime to law enforcement. The proposed ban was scuttled by South Carolina Republicans.
The Republican state senator ripped into her male colleagues on the floor of the Senate.
Lindsey Graham allowed exceptions under the proposed national abortion ban. The proposal has virtually no chance of passing, with even GOP leaders not immediately backing it, reflecting how Republicans have struggled to navigate the issue of abortion with voters.
A majority of voters think that their state should allow abortion in certain circumstances, including rape, incest or if the health of the pregnant person is at risk. Republicans see it as a line with some people.
After Republicans made big gains with more conservative Hispanic voters in 2020, the issue of immigration has become a new political battleground.
She said she knows people who don't have abortion for any reason. I have other ones that are similar to that.
When Abbott said in September that Texas would work to eliminate rapists from the streets, the blowback was immediate. Critics said it wasn't detached from reality. The sexual assault hotline in Houston has answered almost 4,800 calls so far this year, putting it on track to surpass last year's volume.
If an abortion would save a mother's life, it was not allowed in Texas.
A law signed in June aimed at coordinating and expanding sexual assault resources was one of the things Abbott has done to eliminate rape.
To prevent heinous crimes before they happen and to prosecute any criminals to the full extent of the law, Governor Abbott has fought against de funding the police and led bail reform efforts.
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, more than 15,000 rape crimes have been reported in the state since the law took effect. It was consistent with a decline in other violent crime figures throughout the state.
The number of rape victims that crisis centers in Texas accompany to hospitals for exams is back to normal. In the past year, the Women's Center in Fort Worth has made more than 650 visits to counsel victims undergoing exams compared to the previous year, according to the assistant director of crisis services.
Only a small percentage of sexual assaults are reported to police. According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, about 8 out of 10 sexual assaults are committed by someone known to the victim.
We are not talking about a lot of rapists on the street. Donna Howard co-authored the bill that created Abbott's task force.
The senior director of The SAFE Alliance in Austin said it was admirable for Texas to work on rape prevention. She said that it was important for the state to respond to sexual assault.
That's right.
The reporter was from Dallas.
That's right.
The Associated Press has more coverage of the abortion issue.
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