Teen Mississippi Rape Victim Forced to Travel 500 Miles For Abortion, Report Says

The parents of a teenage Mississippi rape victim had to travel more than 500 miles to help their daughter obtain an abortion in Illinois, WAPT’s Megan West reported. The family told the local Jackson anchor that they learned their daughter was pregnant three days beyond Mississippi’s legal limit of six weeks.

The parents, whom WAPT referred to only as “Jane Doe” and “John Doe,” said they did not know that abortion was illegal in Mississippi or that the state’s only abortion clinic had closed until they sought help for their daughter.

“We didn’t (know) until after we was trying to find places that would (provide abortion care), and they told us that if we would’ve known about it at least three days ahead that we could’ve got an abortion in Mississippi,” John Doe said in blurred video footage WAPT aired in a Nov. 22 broadcast. The station reported that authorities have charged multiple individuals for sexual battery for the teen girl’s rape.

“I called my OB, the one who delivered my babies,” Jane Doe told WAPT, her voice distorted in the footage. “And I explained my situation to him. It was the ugliest feeling having to explain to the doctor that delivered your child that she was raped, and then him having to tell you he can’t do anything to help.”

Doe told WAPT that the family decided against traveling to The Pink House West, the New Mexico clinic owned by JWHO’s former owner, because of its distance. The family ultimately traveled more than seven hours to the closest abortion clinic they could find: a Planned Parenthood in Fairview Heights, Illinois.