The Hard Cases
What are the “hard cases” and how frequently do they occur? These cases involving rape, incest, fetal abnormalities, and danger to the life of the mother are most often the subjects of media campaigns to expand abortion laws. Some states have used the hard cases as a rationale to attempt to “enshrine” unrestricted abortion as a singular fundamental human right for women.
These hard cases are real. Now that the people have the legal authority restored to deal with these issues through state and federal legislation, the questions surrounding the hard cases are being debated in all the states.
Rape/Incest
According to the Guttmacher Institute (affiliated with Planned Parenthood) the number of women seeking abortion because of rape is 1%. On an annual basis in America that would be somewhere around 10,000 to 12,000 women every year.
The number of women seeking abortion because of incest is reported by Guttmacher as one-half of one percent. That would be 5,000 to 6,000 women annually.
The accurate reporting of rape and incest as the reason for abortion is almost non-existent. The estimates given by Guttmacher are based upon a single survey of roughly 1,209 abortion patients conducted in 2005. There is no state-based or federal database that has tracked these numbers over the past 50+ years.
Rape is a horrible crime. The rising level of rape and sexual abuse in the United States is a grave concern that is widely underreported to law enforcement and underreported by the media to the public. The statistics on rape are tracked by the FBI and reveal that in 2022 there were 106,521 reported cases of rape or sexual abuse against women. This form of violent crime is difficult to quantify because of the unknown number of unreported offenses and because of the wide legal definition of the term. Relating the instances of rape and abortion, therefore, is a significant challenge for all reporting agencies. For more information please see the FBI's Crime Data Explorer.
The Physical Life and Health of the Mother
During the years of Roe v. Wade, there was not a lot of reporting from state agencies or abortion facilities regarding this particular type of hard case being cited as the official cause for requesting an abortion. However, the CDC does report the number of deaths attributed to pregnancy each year. That is a starting point for assessing the current level of risk that pregnancy poses to the physical life of the mother.
- There were 535 deaths related to pregnancy that year.
- The deaths were recorded during pregnancy, at birth and for a full year following delivery.
- Of the 535 deaths, 47% were reported as occurring 7 to 365 days after childbirth.
- 80% of the total deaths were categorized as “preventable” and largely attributed to health conditions not related to the pregnancy.
It is not possible to determine the number of deaths to mothers that were prevented by terminating a pregnancy through abortion. It is most certain such cases do exist. So far, the statistical records on these cases are not being required, recorded or published by local, state or federal agencies.
Fetal Anomalies/Abnormalities
In 2022, the CDC reported a total of 3,970 infant deaths due to fetal anomalies/abnormalities. There were 3,667,758 live births registered in that same year.
How many abortions occurred in that same year based on a specific diagnosis of fetal anomalies/abnormalities is not determinable based on lack of detailed reporting.