San Francisco Chronicle shared a story about a young girl who was adopted at the young age of five alongside her biological brother, Michael*. Her adoptive mother, Meredith*, was caring, but her adoptive father, Tom*, sexually assaulted her a number of times. She was only sixteen when he raped her, and she became pregnant. She did not tell anyone in fear of being separated from Michael. She was also worried what Tom might do to Michael and Meredith if she revealed the truth. When she was about fifteen weeks pregnant, she turned to Planned Parenthood (without Tom’s knowledge) and received a $550 abortion—free of charge (essentially from the government). “*The author’s name was withheld by The Chronicle and the family members’ names …show more content…
The President of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, speaks on behalf of these particular situations: “…federal funds pay for abortion services…when the woman has been raped, has been victim of incest or when her life is endangered” (Leonard). These victims have been placed into a situation that they had no control over. The least the government could do is to provide free abortions to rid the patients of their horrific remembrance. Many people might think that pregnancies are rather uncommon in sexual abuse, but “the [American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology] study reported a total of 32,101 cases of rape-related pregnancy over the course of the year (in the United States alone)” (Hamblin). Over thirty thousand women are scarred forever with none other than an unwanted baby to remind them of the incident(s). If, perhaps, the baby is born, the mother might not look at that child the same way because the child would just be a constant reminder of the horrific occurrence. As the child grows up, the questions about their father and the truth itself will cause the child to become depressed. No one wants to feel unwanted. Abortions funded by the government are essential to helping these traumatized women. Government funding allows help to be offered for those special victims that have been unfortunately granted a child through such unlawful