Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS

State abortion laws aren’t killing women, but the constant drumbeat of erroneous information about these laws, promulgated by the abortion industry, is misleading too many women into making dangerous choices about their reproductive health care.

For example, an inaccurate article published by ProPublica claimed that a 28-year-old Georgia woman, Amber Thurman, died of sepsis in 2022 after being denied care at a hospital whose staff feared violating the state’s 6-week abortion ban. Thurman was nine weeks pregnant with twins, which was three weeks beyond the state’s six-week ban. As a result, she opted for the controversial and dangerous chemical abortion method – mifepristone and misoprostol. Although the babies were killed, she experienced a common side effect of these drugs which is their failure to expel the fetal remains from Thurman’s body. This led to a life-threatening infection.

ProPublica claimed that doctors at Piedmont Henry Hospital delayed performing a dilation and curettage (D&C) procedure out of fear of violating state law protecting unborn life after six weeks of pregnancy.

However, the abortion law wasn’t why doctors delayed treatment because once an unborn child has died in the womb, performing a D&C afterward to eliminate the fetal remains is no longer considered an abortion. It becomes a standard medical procedure designed to prevent infection in the mother.

Unfortunately, pro-abortion forces distorted this story and used it to further their political agenda by making it look like the hospital denied Thurman care because of the abortion law.

As a result of this kind of misinformation, women like Candi Miller, a 41-year-old married woman with pre-existing medical conditions became pregnant against her doctors orders. She was past Georgia’s six-week abortion ban and because she was misinformed about the conditions of the ban, felt she had no choice but to consume the dangerous abortion drugs which she obtained online. She died at home after an incomplete medical abortion, never knowing that the law specifically includes exceptions for cases such as hers.

Both of these women died because of the distortions about state abortion bans that are being widely trumpeted by the mainstream media.

Thankfully, pro-life advocates such as Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America are calling for justice for women like Amber and Candi and are condemning dangerous misinformation spread by the abortion lobby and Democrats such as Vice President Kamala Harris to score political points.

“We mourn the senseless loss of Amber, Candi, and their unborn children,” said SBA Pro-Life America’s State Policy Director Katie Daniel. “We agree their deaths were preventable. But let’s be absolutely clear: Georgia’s law and every pro-life state law calls upon doctors to act in circumstances just like theirs. If abortion advocates weren’t spreading misinformation and confusion to score political points, it’s possible the outcome would have been different,”

They are calling upon state attorney generals to take action against this kind of deadly misinformation.

Unfortunately, the political class in the capital aren’t setting a very good example of how to protect women’s reproductive health. Last week, a hearing was held by Senate Democrats, under the very political title “Chaos and Control: How Trump Criminalized Women’s Health Care” in which they doubled down on the talking point that the overturning of Roe v. Wade was causing the deaths of women across the country.

Not everyone who testified at the hearing supported their agenda, however. Dr. Christina Francis, an OB-GYN along with several doctors from the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, testified that pro-abortion misinformation is what’s killing women, not state abortion laws.

During the hearing, Francis called the hearing “an attempt to redirect the public’s attention away from the true danger to women’s health, unregulated and dangerous abortions.”

Speaking with the Catholic New Agency (CNA) afterward, she said the most important takeaway from the hearing was that misinformation about abortions laws has real impacts on both physicians and their patients.

“Even though state-level pro-life laws offer clear exceptions allowing physicians to intervene in pregnancy in medical emergencies, and even though these laws do not prosecute women for seeking induced abortions, false narratives to the contrary are sowing fear and confusion among physicians,” she said. “It’s misinformation about these laws that may have cost these women their lives.”

Specifically, some pro-abortion Senators at the hearing asserted that many state abortion laws violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTLA) which requires all federally funded hospitals with emergency departments to provide care to patients in need.

“As a result of Republicans’ years-long crusade on women’s reproductive freedoms, women in America are facing the prospect of losing yet another pillar of reproductive care, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act,” said committee chair Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon.

Wyden went on to make the false assertion that Thurman died because doctors delayed treating her until it was too late.

However, this is patently false. As Rep. Rich McCormick, R-GA told Fox News, “We never deny a woman an abortion because it’s going to harm her in some way. She will always be protected.”

McCormick, a physician who served as emergency department head in a Navy deployment in Afghanistan, continued: “You have every right to an abortion, even with that heartbeat law. So, let’s make that very clear right now. When they say there’s no exceptions, there’s never any law in any state where there’s no exceptions. That doesn’t exist. That’s simply not the way it works. The mother’s life is always protected.”

As CNA reports, the testimony of Heather Hacker, a Texas-based attorney who has represented the state and Texas Right to Life in several cases and is deeply familiar with state-level pro-life laws, confirmed McCormick’s statement.

“Regardless of the state, laws restricting abortion do not prevent physicians from treating ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages, or women suffering life-threatening complications, including complications from abortion,” she said.

“There is a lot of misinformation and confusion surrounding the law regarding the medical treatment of pregnant women and abortion restrictions. But the confusion is not because of the law, which is clear,” she continued. “To the extent that this has been reported by the media, it is incorrect. To the extent that doctors have claimed that their hands are tied in treating patients in these circumstances, they are mistaken. And to the extent that women believe that any law will prevent them from receiving lifesaving care, they are sadly misinformed.”

Another aspect of the story that is being lost in abortion-politics is the dangers of chemical abortions.

Louis Brown, executive director of the Catholic health care advocacy group the Christ Medicus Foundation, told CNA that chemical abortion drugs “so imperil the health of women that it is shocking that these drugs are available.”

He said: “The abortion industry is engaging in lies and deception because its dangerous chemical abortion drugs and largely unregulated abortion procedures are harming the health and safety of pregnant moms,” he said. “The Catholic and pro-life community need to continue to reject the abortion industry’s immoral lying that is confusing and potentially causing harm to pregnant moms.”

Abortion proponents brag about having achieved dominance over the issue of abortion in the current political cycle. But acquiring this dominance via the manipulation of women’s opinions through fear-mongering and misinformation, some of which have resulted in deaths, is not a success. It’s a disgrace.

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