FILE - In this Friday, Sept. 16, 2016 file photo, Trust Women's founder and CEO Julie Burkhart stands in the doorway of an operating room at the Trust Women South Wind Women's Center in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Most state abortion bans with exceptions for rape and incest require victims to provide a police report proving the crime, adding an extremely challenging legal barrier that activists say are meant to discourage survivors from pursuing abortions.

As of now, abortion is illegal or heavily restricted in 13 states, with bans pending or on hold in seven others, NPR reported last week. Of these 13, only three states ― Oklahoma, South Carolina and Georgia ― allow exceptions for cases of rape or incest. Mississippi only allows exceptions for rape.

Despite a majority of Americans believing abortion should be legal in cases of rape (specifically, 56% of Republicans and 83% of Democrats, according to a survey released by the Pew Research Center in May), it is challenging to qualify for these exceptions. For example, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) signed legislation in May that only allows abortions for cases of rape and incest that have “been reported to law enforcement.” Georgia and Mississippi’s laws have the same reporting requirement. 

Idaho’s forthcoming ban will allow exceptions for rape and incest as long as the incident is reported to the police, and it is set to go into effect later this month. Utah’s ban is on hold, but would also require that victims report the crime to law enforcement. Wyoming and North Dakota’s bans ― which have been temporarily blocked by the courts ― would allow the same exception without a police report. 

Lauren Hunt ― who is on the board of directors of the Rape Recovery Center, and who filed an affidavit in Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit challenging Utah’s abortion ban ― told the Salt Lake Tribune that she believes reporting requirements are meant to “discourage sexual assault survivors from seeking an abortion.”

“Because this reporting requirement is applied only to survivors who seek abortion, it does not seem targeted at the sexual assault in any way,” Hunt’s affidavit read. 

Sixty percent of rapes and sexual assaults go unreported, according to data from the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network. And of that number, only 24% end in a criminal conviction ― 9% of all rapes. 

Incest is also vastly underreported. A paper published by the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin estimated that only 20% of all incest cases are reported to law enforcement, because the crime is usually initiated by someone the victim loves and trusts. 

Hunt wrote in her affidavit that survivors choose not to report their assault for a number of reasons, including fear of retaliation, fear of not being believed and fear of having to face their abuser in the legal system. 

Rapes are also often difficult to prove, which discourages survivors from reporting the crime to law enforcement. Many people also feel unsafe engaging with police, especially women of color. Black women are nearly four times more likely to have an abortion than white women, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

“We as a society have not made it safe for victims to be able to come forward and communicate what happens to them,” Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill told Utah’s ABC4. 

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in late June, abortion laws have been changing practically every day. Republican lawmakers in Indiana struggled to advance their abortion ban for two weeks due to debates over allowing exceptions for rape, just after a 10-year-old victim traveled from Ohio to the state to end her pregnancy. 

The final bill passed the state legislature on Friday and became law hours later with Gov. Eric Holcomb’s (R) signature.