Last month, Texas outlawed abortions after six weeks with no exemption for instances of rape or incest. Following the implementation of this controversial law, Texas Governor Greg Abbott was asked by a reporter, “Why force a rape or incest victim to carry a pregnancy to term?”
After initially alleging that the question contained false information, Abbott quickly pivoted his response. What came pouring out of his mouth next was nothing short of egregious.
Abbott stated, “Let’s make something very clear: rape is a crime. And Texas will work tirelessly to make sure that we eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas by aggressively going out, arresting them, prosecuting them, and getting them off the streets. So goal number one in the state of Texas is to eliminate rape so that no woman, no person will be a victim of rape.”
By unpacking Abbott’s response line by line, I underscore why eliminating rape is nearly impossible, why Abbott’s approach is deeply flawed, and why his response doesn’t even answer the question at all.
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