Americans are rightly shocked by the news of a 10-year-old rape victim who had to cross state lines to lawfully terminate her pregnancy. The girl's home state of Ohio outlawed abortion in the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the recent Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade (1973). So the girl's doctors referred her out of state for the medical procedure that saved her from grievous physical injury and possible death. Making matters worse, the law-abiding Indiana doctor who performed the abortion had her judgment questioned by her state's grandstanding attorney general, who raised the specter of legal action against the doctor.
The whole sorry affair should remind us of one key reason why Roe was decided in the first place: to protect doctors.
