There is an interesting article in the Atlantic (the article itself is kind of old) on the state of abortion laws throughout the country.  It is written from the perspective of what would happen "The Day After Roe" was reversed.

One of the larger themes in the article is regarding which states have different types of exceptions to abortion bans.  One of the ones discussed is for rape.  The problem is, the article never really discusses how a rape exception would practically work.

If a woman could simply go into a doctor's office, say "I was raped and I want an abortion", and that's all it took... well then you might as well forget the ban at all... seriously... what would be the point?  Women who really wanted an abortion would simply say they were raped, whether they actually were or not, simply for the abortion.  It would be a useless ban.

In order for the ban to be effective at all, you'd have to have some sort of follow up.  But that raises all sorts of complications.  Would a rape investigation be required after the abortion, or would an investigation have to be started beforehand?  If afterwards, then you have complications with doctor-patient confidentiality.

If you force an investigation to occur afterwards, how long will it take?  Obviously the maximum time would be 9 months.  But would you really want a raped woman to have to wait until the 3rd trimester before allowing the abortion?  And for those who view 1st trimester abortion differently than 3rd trimester abortion, then you'd actually be encouraging late term abortions.

Would you simply require that there be some physical evidence of a rape, like tearing or bleeding?  How many women would self mutilate to pass the requirement?  And how many false rape accusations would we see as a result of unexpected pregnancies if the requirements were to strict?

So for those who know, can you describe the actual mechanism in place for this sort of exception?  What exactly are the mechanics?  Megan McArdle has a post talking about those who want to see absolutely no exceptions in this post here.