Last year, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott defended his state’s no-exceptions six-week abortion ban by insisting the state was going to “work tirelessly to make sure we eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas by aggressively going after and arresting them and prosecuting them. And getting them off the streets.”
The Associated Press has revisited those remarks, checking in with sexual assault counselors in Texas and—surprise!—Abbott has not yet eliminated rape. Although Texas now has a total abortion ban, going even beyond last year’s six-week ban, with the only exception being to save the life of the mother.
RELATED STORY: Texas governor bizarrely vows to 'eliminate rape' in barely coherent defense of abortion ban
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According to Texas Department of Public Safety data, reported rapes are slightly down this year, along with other violent crimes. But as we know, many rapes go unreported, and in any case, it’s safe to say that a slight decrease in line with decreases in other violent crimes is not because Abbott suddenly got serious about stopping rape.
The Sexual Assault Resource Center in Bryan, Texas, has hired two additional counselors but still has a waitlist of victims in need of help. “We are struggling to keep up with demand,” its executive director told the AP.
It’s not just Bryan. In Houston, a sexual assault hotline got 4,843 calls in 2021. In 2022, it had gotten 4,800 by the end of August.
It doesn’t sound like the rapists of Texas heard that Abbott was planning to eliminate them from the streets and decided their only course of action was to stop raping. Especially since the vast majority of rapes are not committed by strangers out on the street, but by people known to the victims. Sure, those rapists then go out and walk on the street, but that was clearly not Abbott’s implication.
Abbott was never serious, anyway. He was just trying to justify an abortion ban without a rape exception. It’s a policy many Republican politicians back, and have put in place in at least a dozen states. They’re touchy about it, though, because they know it’s a bad look for them. They knew that even before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the depths of the public rage over that decision started to become clear. But that’s the thing about Republican lawmakers. They don’t care about anything except their continued power to take away your rights. And they’ll tell ridiculous lies like “Texas will work tirelessly to make sure we eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas” to maintain that power.
Since Dobbs, women have registered to vote in unprecedented numbers across the country. The first person to dig into these stunning trends was TargetSmart CEO Tom Bonier, our guest on this week's episode of The Downballot. Bonier explains how his firm gathers data on the electorate; why this surge is likely a leading indicator showing stepped-up enthusiasm among many groups of voters, including women, young people, and people of color; how we know these new registrants disproportionately lean toward Democrats; and what it all might mean for November.
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The Associated Press has revisited those remarks, checking in with sexual assault counselors in Texas and—surprise!—Abbott has not yet eliminated rape. Although Texas now has a total abortion ban, going even beyond last year’s six-week ban, with the only exception being to save the life of the mother.
RELATED STORY: Texas governor bizarrely vows to 'eliminate rape' in barely coherent defense of abortion ban
Campaign Action
According to Texas Department of Public Safety data, reported rapes are slightly down this year, along with other violent crimes. But as we know, many rapes go unreported, and in any case, it’s safe to say that a slight decrease in line with decreases in other violent crimes is not because Abbott suddenly got serious about stopping rape.
The Sexual Assault Resource Center in Bryan, Texas, has hired two additional counselors but still has a waitlist of victims in need of help. “We are struggling to keep up with demand,” its executive director told the AP.
It’s not just Bryan. In Houston, a sexual assault hotline got 4,843 calls in 2021. In 2022, it had gotten 4,800 by the end of August.
It doesn’t sound like the rapists of Texas heard that Abbott was planning to eliminate them from the streets and decided their only course of action was to stop raping. Especially since the vast majority of rapes are not committed by strangers out on the street, but by people known to the victims. Sure, those rapists then go out and walk on the street, but that was clearly not Abbott’s implication.
Abbott was never serious, anyway. He was just trying to justify an abortion ban without a rape exception. It’s a policy many Republican politicians back, and have put in place in at least a dozen states. They’re touchy about it, though, because they know it’s a bad look for them. They knew that even before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the depths of the public rage over that decision started to become clear. But that’s the thing about Republican lawmakers. They don’t care about anything except their continued power to take away your rights. And they’ll tell ridiculous lies like “Texas will work tirelessly to make sure we eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas” to maintain that power.
Since Dobbs, women have registered to vote in unprecedented numbers across the country. The first person to dig into these stunning trends was TargetSmart CEO Tom Bonier, our guest on this week's episode of The Downballot. Bonier explains how his firm gathers data on the electorate; why this surge is likely a leading indicator showing stepped-up enthusiasm among many groups of voters, including women, young people, and people of color; how we know these new registrants disproportionately lean toward Democrats; and what it all might mean for November.
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