Factcheck: There’s No Evidence Pro-Life Laws Harm Med Schools

National   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Jun 6, 2023   |   4:58PM   |   Washington, DC

A new investigation by The College Fix could not find any evidence – or institutions willing to provide it – to confirm a claim that pro-life laws harm the “quality” of students applying to medical schools.

The conservative news outlet tried to find more information about the claim by Dr. Nicole Scott, director of the OB-GYN residency program at the Indiana University School of Medicine. But no one was willing to provide it.

In September 2022, Scott claimed that a new Indiana law that bans most elective abortions would negatively affect their future medical student pool.

“We are about a week away from entering our recruitment season, which we’ll be reviewing over a thousand applications, interviewing 120 people for next year’s match of 10 OB-GYNs to train here in the state of Indiana,” Scott told WHTR at the time. “We’re concerned this is going to affect the quality of candidates that we receive and certainly the education we can provide.”

The Indiana Legislature was the first to pass a law to protect unborn babies from abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. However, the law currently is not in effect due to a legal challenge.

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Since Scott made the comment, the Indiana University School of Medicine has received applications and accepted students into its program. So, in May, The Fix reached out to ask for information to back up her claim. It did not receive a response, even after several attempts.

The American College of OB-GYNS, which recently refused to debate leading pro-life OB-GYNs, also refused to comment. It referred The Fix to the National Resident Matching Program and the Association of American Medical Colleges, neither of which provided any evidence either.

The lack of evidence is not surprising. Abortion activists are used to saying whatever they want to news outlets without being questioned or fact checked. Some exaggerate and others outright lie about situations to demonize pro-lifers for trying to save unborn babies from abortion.

And they have been doing it for decades. Dr. Bernard Nathanson, a former abortionist and co-founder of NARAL Pro-Choice America, later became pro-life and exposed the lies that he and other abortion activists told. Prior to Roe v. Wade, Nathanson said NARAL often claimed between 5,000 and 10,000 women died every year from dangerous, back alley abortions to make the case for legalizing abortions.

He wrote: “I confess that I knew that the figures were totally false and I suppose that others did, too, if they stopped to think of it. But in the ‘morality’ of our revolution, it was a useful figure, widely accepted … The overriding concern was to get the laws eliminated, and anything within reason that had to be done was permissible.”

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe last year, and the lies persist. Pro-abortion activists claim pro-life laws ban miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy care. They don’t.

They claim Americans will move from pro-life to pro-abortion states, but there is no evidence of this either. Recent U.S. Census Bureau data shows population growth in pro-life states like Idaho, Montana and Florida, and shrinking populations in pro-abortion New York and Illinois. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer even established a new commission this week to study why the population is declining in her pro-abortion state.

Other abortion activists have claimed pro-life laws will hurt business and economies – without evidence, and asserted that women will die unless abortion on demand is legal. But research shows tens of thousands of unborn babies have been saved from abortion as a result of the Dobbs v. Jackson ruling and no women have died.

The truth is that pro-life laws heal and save. But the billion-dollar abortion industry will do everything it can to convince the public otherwise.