Evidence keeps piling up to disprove the false claims that pro-life laws somehow ban medical care for ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages.
For the past several months, the lie has been spreading on social media and in the news, making women afraid to seek medical care because of the pro-life laws that now are being enforced in about a dozen states.
Doctors, Catholic medical groups, pro-life leaders and research organizations have been working hard to refute the lies. Now, there is new research showing that pro-life state laws include very clear exceptions for ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages.
The research comes from Daniel Gump, a technical writer, software developer and pro-life advocate. He recently conducted an in-depth analysis of state abortion laws to check abortion activists’ claims about ectopic pregnancy and miscarriage treatments.
His research, which attorneys have verified, found wide-spread explicit exceptions in abortion bans that allow for these medical treatments.
When it comes to miscarriages, Gump said laws that ban or restrict abortion only “apply when the unborn child is alive during the act (induced abortion), but often those outside the medical industry erroneously conflate similar procedures performed after the unborn child has already died of a miscarriage (spontaneous abortion) …”
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To avoid any possible confusion or misinformation by the pro-abortion movement, “many state legislatures have added clarifications to criminal abortion statutes that define post-miscarriage treatments to be outside the scope,” Gump continued.
According to his analysis, 35 states have language in their abortion laws that specifically allows miscarriage treatments. Although the others do not, all pro-life laws implicitly allow miscarriage treatment because they only ban the killing of unborn babies in abortions.
Gump found a very similar situation with the laws and ectopic pregnancies, a potentially life-threatening condition in which the unborn baby implants somewhere outside the womb, often in the fallopian tube.
Much like with miscarriages, “ectopic pregnancies are not treated with induced abortions, but often those outside the medical industry erroneously conflate the two,” according to his research.
Gump discovered that 21 state abortion laws have language specifically clarifying that treating ectopic pregnancies is allowed.
Notably, pro-life laws always allow exceptions if the mother’s life is at risk, and this includes for ectopic pregnancies even if the condition is not specifically mentioned in the law.
Gump’s new research adds to evidence from doctors, pro-life leaders, LifeNews.com and other publications refuting the false claim.
After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in a historic ruling June 24 and states began protecting unborn babies from abortion again, millions of impressionable women and girls heard from celebrities like Halle Berry and Meghan Markle that pro-life laws put their lives in jeopardy and ban life-saving pregnancy care, according to The Federalist. Politicians like Hillary Clinton and the mayor of San Francisco, writers at ABC News, NBC News, the Daily Beast and others spouted similar claims.
“My heart is breaking that women are being made to feel fearful by the misinformation that’s out there,” said Dr. Christina Francis, a leading pro-life OB-GYN, earlier this summer. “As a pro-life OB/GYN who’s practiced my entire career in hospitals that do not allow abortions, I have never been prevented from safely treating an ectopic pregnancy.”
Pro-life doctors and hospitals have and will continue to treat women suffering from miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies, said Francis, of the American Association of Pro-Life OB-GYNs.
She said treating ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages or other life-threatening conditions in pregnancy are not the same as elective abortions, which is what pro-life laws prohibit. Even the U.S. Food and Drug Administration states that chemical abortions, or abortion drugs, cannot treat an ectopic pregnancy, Francis continued.
“I’ve never needed to perform an elective abortion, and yet I’ve been able to take care of women with ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages throughout my career,” she said.
The Charlotte Lozier Institute also published a fact sheet that explains the facts about miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies and abortion laws.
The truth is women’s lives matter to the pro-life movement, too. Many pro-life leaders have had miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies and abortions themselves, and they know the heartache of losing a child. The pro-life movement is based on the fundamental belief that every human life is valuable and deserving of human rights, and that includes every mother, every father and every child.
