The president of the far-right anti-abortion and anti-choice organization Americans United for Life stunned Democratic lawmakers Thursday by claiming that a ten-year-old girl forced to travel to Indiana to obtain an abortion after being raped did not actually get an abortion – suggesting that due to the specific circumstances in that case it does not qualify as an abortion.
“I believe it would probably impact her life and so therefore, it would fall under any exception and would not be an abortion,” Catherine Glenn Foster told U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA).
“Wait,” a stunned Congressman Swalwell replied. “It would not be an abortion if a 10-year-old with her parents made the decision not to have a baby that was the result of a rape?”
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Foster, formerly an attorney for the anti-LGBTQ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom, responded by saying: “If a 10-year-old became pregnant as a result of rape and it was threatening her life, then that’s not an abortion. So it would not fall under any abortion restriction in our nation.”
Congressman Swalwell made certain to have her remarks declared “disinformation,” with another attorney contradicting Foster by stating: “there is no exception for the life or the health of the mother in the Ohio law.”
Swalwell turned his questioning to Sarah Warbelow, the Legal Director for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and asked, “Did you just hear some disinformation?”
“I heard some very significant disinformation,” Warbelow replied. “An abortion is a procedure. It’s a medical procedure that individuals undergo for a wide range of circumstances, including because they have been sexually assaulted, raped in the case of the 10-year-old. It doesn’t matter whether or not there are statutory exemptions. It is still a medical procedure that is understood to be an abortion. Beyond that. I think it’s also important to note that there is no exception for the life or the health of the mother in the Ohio law. That’s why that 10-year-old had to cross state lines in order to receive an abortion.”
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