Today the leaders of national and state-based pro-life groups sent a letter to Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Alex Azar calling for an end to abortions during the coronavirus crisis. They are calling on all public health officials to oppose the promotion of abortion amidst our national response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The letter was signed more than 50 pro-life leaders, including LifeNews.com.
“As our country comes together to battle the threat of COVID-19 (coronavirus), Americans are heroically rising to the challenge of social distancing and helping the vulnerable,” the letter reads.
“Unfortunately, there is one clear outlier – the abortion industry, including the largest abortion chain in the nation, Planned Parenthood. In acts of manifest fearmongering and self-interest, they are exploiting the anxiety of women and couples by continuing to promote abortion in communities across the country,” it adds. “By ceasing both surgical and chemical abortions now, Planned Parenthood will free up much needed medical equipment and decrease the demand placed on ER’s due to complications from both medical and surgical abortion. This will protect women who will, without doubt, need follow-up care, including infection treatment and transfusions, from the nation’s emergency care centers and hospitals.”
“While we are in a hectic race to save lives, Planned Parenthood and other powers in the abortion industry remain insistent on taking the lives of innocent unborn children. While surgery centers postpone elective and diagnostic procedures, abortion centers are churning out surgical and chemical abortions and putting women, especially the poor, at risk. Their continued operation depletes sorely needed personal protective equipment and leads to complications that will further overwhelm already overextended emergency rooms,” it continues.
The letter points out how thousands of women very year go to emergency rooms because of abortion complications and, during the coronavirus pandemic, ERs should be focused on helping virus victims as opposed to women injured by an unnecessary elective procedure.
“The abortion industry is compounding one crisis with another. Therefore, we urge public officials to use their broad emergency authority to safeguard against the extreme abortion agenda by … urging the abortion industry to cease operations and join healthcare providers in donating their PPE and other equipment to coronavirus response,” it said.
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The letter outlines ways that public health officials can resist the abortion lobby’s agenda including:
- Ensuring that emergency response funds are not diverted to the abortion industry;
- Urging the abortion industry to cease operations and join other healthcare providers in donating their PPE and other equipment to coronavirus response;
- Ensure that telemedicine abortion is not expanded during the crisis and maintain FDA limits on dispensing of chemical abortion;
- Continue actions to stop illegal mail-order sale of chemical abortion; and
- Promote medically accurate and supportive information for women that counters the inaccurate and exploitative messaging coming from an abortion industry all too happy to use the current pandemic to scare women and families into abortion.
Some states have already stopped abortions or attempted to stop abortions during the coronavirus crisis.
As LifeNews.com reported, pro-life Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton yesterday essentially closed down abortion businesses in the state and warned them that they are subject to a new executive order pro-life Governor Greg Abbott issued Sunday to end all non-essential surgical procedures. Since no abortions are essential, abortion centers essentially should close down.
Several states have issued orders requiring that all non-essential and elective surgeries be stopped. The state of Ohio is one of them, but as LifeNews.com reported, abortion facilities are ignoring Ohio Health Director Amy Acton’s mandate, which went into effect Wednesday. Local pro-life groups called each abortion facility Thursday and confirmed that they still are aborting unborn babies.
Abortion businesses in Ohio are refusing to comply with an order from Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost to stop killing babies in abortions. They say abortions are somehow essential medical procedures that complies with the state’s order to stop all non-essential medical procedures. Yost has issued a letter telling them to get in compliance.
And Louisiana is officially the first abortion-free state in the country. All three abortion centers have closed and are complying with the non-essential order.
Signers of the letter include Marjorie Dannenfelser, President of SBA List; Chuck Donovan, President of Charlotte Lozier Institute; Brad Mattes, President of Life Issues Institute; Carol Tobias, President of National Right to Life; Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council; Greg Schleppenbach, Associate Director of USCCB Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities; Penny Young Nance, President of Concerned Women for America LAC; Donna Harrison M.D., Executive Director of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists; Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life; Kristan Hawkins, President of Students for Life America; Lila Rose, President of Live Action; Jeanne Mancini, President of March for Life; Russell Moore, President of Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission; and Jessica Anderson, Vice President of Heritage Action, among others.
