Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
EDITORS:
The following story has moved as this week's Sunday Spotlight, a feature showcasing the best off-the-news enterprise in the AP report:
RAPE AND ABORTION
NEW YORK — Poll after poll over many years has shown that Americans overwhelmingly support legal access to abortion for women impregnated by rape. Yet the issue remains divisive, as evidenced by two current rifts. On the domestic front, the National Right to Life Committee recently cut ties with its state affiliate in Georgia. The affiliate had defied instructions to support an anti-abortion bill in Congress because it included exceptions for rape and incest while seeking to ban most late-term abortions. On the foreign policy front, a coalition of abortion-rights and women's-rights activists is growing increasingly frustrated with President Barack Obama on the issue of providing abortions for women raped in armed conflicts overseas. Despite years of lobbying, the activists have failed to persuade Obama to issue an executive order stipulating that U.S. foreign aid — though prohibited by Congress from subsidizing abortions as a method of family planning — could be used to provide abortions for women raped in wars. By National Writer David Crary. SENT: 1,200 words, photo.
The AP
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
