Mississippi rape victim, 13, gives birth after being unable to get abortion

A 13-year-old schoolgirl raped by a stranger was forced to give birth because of Mississippi’s abortion ban, according to a heart-wrenching new report.

The Clarksdale teen – identified by the pseudonym Ashley – gave birth earlier this summer to a baby boy she’s nicknamed “Peanut,” her family told TIME.

Ashley was only 12 last fall when she says a stranger snatched her from her yard and raped her around the side of the house, her mother, Regina, told the magazine.

The then sixth-grader did not tell anyone about the attack and did not learn she was pregnant until January, when she was taken to an emergency room for profuse vomiting.

She was so innocent she did not even know how babies were made, according to her mom.

The family found it impossible to get her a termination because of the bans enforced in Mississippi and most surrounding states following the Supreme Court’s ruling last year overturning the constitutional right to abortion.

Although Mississippi’s ban has an exception for rape, there are no providers left in the Magnolia State, which is already largely classified as a maternity care desert, according to the March of Dimes. 

Ashley’s mom said was not even aware that Mississippi had an exception for rape.

The nearest provider was in Chicago – a nine-hour drive away. Her mom said it was impossible for her to take the time off work and pay for the gas, food, and accommodations on top of the cost of the abortion.

“I don’t have the funds for all this,” Regina told TIME.

“I wish [Ashley] had just told me when it happened. We could have gotten Plan B or something,” she continued.

“That would have been that.”

Ashley’s family kept her pregnancy under wraps. She finished sixth grade online, and will likely start seventh grade the same way, they said.

Even the girl’s three school friends do not know about her baby, she told the outlet.

“We’ve been keeping it quiet, because people judge wrong when they don’t know what’s going on,” Regina noted.

“It’s going to be a little private matter here.”

When asked how she felt when she learned she was pregnant, Ashley said it was “not happy” news.

“This situation hurts the most because it was an innocent child doing what children do, playing outside, and it was my child,” her mom told TIME just two days after Peanut was born.

“It still hurts, and is going to always hurt.”

Attempts to hold Ashley’s attacker accountable have also stalled, even after a family member thought they had identified the alleged rapist on social media, the outlet noted.

There have been no arrests, and police did not collect a DNA sample from Peanut for possible identification until pressed by TIME, the outlet said.

“It’s a pretty high priority, as a juvenile,” insisted Clarksdale Police Chief Vincent Ramirez. 

“Sometimes they slip a little bit because we’ve got a lot going on, but then they come back to it.”