Abortion: The Blight on Women’s Health
As of June 24, 2022 the United States no longer offers the universal, unrestricted right to abortion. I’d love to write that elective abortion* is now illegal in all 50 states, but this isn’t the case. The overturn of Roe merely takes the issue of abortion from a federally protected right, to a state level decision. As with any cultural milestone of this magnitude, it has been followed with a flurry of opinion and rumors. It can be challenging to navigate information and find reliable sources. Thankfully, laws and bills are publicly listed on every state’s website, and there are a multitude of pro-life OB-GYNs and lawyers who work hard to provide clarity and resources for this issue (resources will be listed at the end of this article). Yet even with information at our fingertips, the myth that women will die due to the overthrow of Roe because elective abortion is necessary for their health continues to circulate.
The overturn of Roe is not a threat to women’s health. It is in fact, a step in the right direction toward a culture that values all human life. Let us hope that the trajectory of our culture will be the upholding of the design that knits mother and child together in pregnancy, and an embracing of the responsibility that we all have to protect the vulnerable. May we come to see all human life as inherently valuable. I hope we shift as a culture toward seeing motherhood as a uniquely feminine gift worth embracing, protecting, and supporting. But we have a long way to go in changing the cultural conscience. This means pro-life advocates must speak up on behalf of the unborn children who do not have a voice. We must do so with confidence that our position is morally, scientifically, and legally supported. We must be motivated by love for both mother and child, knowing that elective abortion murders children and ultimately hurts women. Because the tide of information shared is heavily in favor of pro-abortion propaganda, relying on falsehoods and rumors, one of the most powerful things we can do on behalf of the unborn is to break our silence and correct falsehoods as they arise.
Mother and Baby: Both Lives Matter
Following the overtun of Roe the most common falsehood circulating social media currently is that life-threatening pregnancy complications will not be treated under pro-life laws. Yet every law passed since the overturn of Roe has held clear exemptions for a threat to the mother’s life (not to be confused with the conflated threat to mental health). Despite the fact that the majority of ectopic pregnancies pose a risk to the life of the mother, and thus would legally fall under the life of the mother exemptions, current laws have written additional exemptions to ensure that there is no ambiguity in regards to their treatment. The Texas Heartbeat Law is among the the most prohibitive law regarding abortion, and it is also the most clearly detailed regarding what these restrictions entail, specifying women receive care for life-saving treatment of ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages, and life-threatening conditions. Occasions wherein a proposed bill has been unclear regarding the exceptions where terminating a pregnancy are allowed have been quickly and resolutely modified. As the law in every state currently stands, a physician is more likely to be sued for not treating an unresolved ectopic pregnancy, than for treating them. As of the writing of this article there is no bill or law that exists that restricts a woman’s ability to procure life-saving treatment in the cases of life-threatening complications, ectopic pregnancies, or miscarriage. Nor has there ever been. Even prior to Roe’s inception. Abortion was illegal in most of the United States, as Alito wrote in the Dobbs decision:
“At the time of Roe, 30 States still prohibited abortion at all stages.”
Yet, with every law in place, when no alternative is possible, abortion procedures to save the life of the mother have always been exempted. These are cases in which the ultimate aim is not the death of the baby, but with the inevitably of both mother and child dying without intervention, one life is rescued (the mother’s). What’s more, following 21-weeks, an abortion to save the life of the mother is never necessary. A baby can be delivered via c-section alive, and life saving treatment can be administered to both mother and baby.
Ethically, the issue of abortion is unambiguous, and pro-life laws have historically proven themselves to consider both the life of the mother and the baby as valuable. The current pro-life laws, and the bills being proposed acknowledge the reality that two lives are involved in pregnancy. Pro-life laws merely require physicians hold to their Hippocratic oath to do no harm in regards to both a mother and her child. In life-threatening cases a competent physician ought to be able to defend that they exhausted all other means of treatment before using abortion to save the life of the mother.
What’s more, despite the current rumors spreading, these life of the mother cases are exceptionally rare. According to a Guttemacher Institute survey in 2004, only 4% of abortions are procured by women for health reasons (even less of this percentage involve life of the mother threats, “health reasons” included minor issues such as morning sickness, and the future stress of childrearing)** and this is a number that has steadily declined since their comparative study in 1984. As a conservative estimate then, at least 96% of abortions in the United States are elective. Meaning, they do not even pretend to be for health reasons.
Yet many are laser focused on the supposed threat to women’s health. But pro-life policies do not threaten women, unless of course you conflate women’s health with elective abortion.
The Destruction of Elective Abortion
Elective abortion is as destructive to women as it is to the babies they carry. The pro-choice ethos, from which elective abortion is born, is deeply corrupt. It pits a woman against her body, leading her to believe she must denounce her body’s natural and uniquely female function as a mother, and pits her against her own child. Elective abortion inverts the natural law of pregnancy. Pregnancy exists as a unique relationship, in which a baby in her dependence upon her mother ought to be fiercely and lovingly protected. The culture of elective abortion tears this distinctive relationship apart even as it tears apart the body of a defensless baby. The pro-choice ethos flourishes through misinformation and preys upon desperate women, promising hope it cannot deliver.
But the aftermath of an elective abortion is not hope, it is one person dead and another wounded; emotionally, spiritually, and often physically. Two studies conducted in Denmark (a country with some of the more permissive abortion laws) found that maternal mortality rates were increased in women who had abortions. Abortion may also put women at risk for later pre-term births, and breast cancer.*** And this does not even mention complications from the abortion itself, such as a septic uterus, a perforated uterus, infertility, and sometimes death. But given that abortions are underreported, and deaths are not accurately catalogued, this is rarely discussed with women who look to abortion as an option.
If we care about women we will care about their children. We need to spend our efforts and resources treating the circumstances that make women vulnerable to the empty promises abortion pretends. Perpetuating the myth that a woman’s best option is killing their own child is barbaric. We must emphasize that life is a gift and arbitrarily taking it is wicked. We must resolutely share the truth that no child’s life is too costly. Only a morally anemic people would suggest otherwise.
Resources
For more resources on abortion laws and medical procedures consult
Recommended Books:
Supremely Wrong: The Injustice of Abortion by Brent Boles, M.D.
Tearing Us Apart: How Abortion Harms Everything and Solves Nothing by Ryan T. Anderson and Alexandra DeSanctis
The Walls are Talking: Former Abortion Clinic Workers Tell Their Stories by Abby Johnson et all.
Embryo: A Defense of Human Life by Robert P. George and Christophre Tollefsen
Defending Life: a Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice by Francis J. Beckwith
What You Can Do
Pro-life Pregnancy Care Centers sprang up on the heels of the Roe decision in 1973 as a way to meet the needs of women in unplanned pregnancies, and to prevent abortions by offering women life affirming alternatives and empowering them to change their circumstances instead of ending the life of their child. Today they outnumber Planned Parenthood 3 to 1. Pregnancy centers offer free services to women and families and help an estimated 2 million people every year. If you would like to help change the culture of abortion, and directly serve women and families, consider donating or volunteering for your local pregnancy care center. You can locate those nearest you here: Care Net and here: HeartBeat International
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Footnotes
*Colloquially and legally we use the term abortion synonymously with what would medically be termed elective abortion. For insurance billing abortion refers simply to the termination of a pregnancy. A miscarriage therefore would be coded as a spontaneous abortion. A medical abortion is the code for an abortion performed for health reasons. An elective abortion then, is the intentional killing of the unborn baby for non-medical reasons.
**“Only a small proportion of women cited concerns about their own health. However, the qualitative results showed that these concerns encompassed not just risks to future health, but also the health burden of pregnancy itself. They further revealed how health concerns are linked to the concept of responsibility: Some women saw the physical burden of pregnancy and its associated health conditions as threatening their ability to fulfill responsibilities to dependents. Others underscored the importance of appropriate birth spacing for their own health and for the health and economic security of their children.” (Reasons U.S. Women Have Abortions, Guttmacher Institute)
***See the book Complications: Abortion’s Impact on Women by Angela Lanfranchi, Ian Gentles, and Elizabeth Ring Cassidy
