Across the country, abortions are up. The data show an increase of 11% between 2020 and 2023. Medication abortions are up 10% from 2020 to 2023, and they now comprise 63% of abortions.
Still, the media and Democratic politicians claim that women are dying from abortion bans and that President-elect Donald Trump is to blame for their untimely deaths. But even a cursory glance at these claims reveals the truth. And despite what one thinks of Trump, the truth doesn’t point to him as the culprit.
Since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision was handed down in June 2022, the abortion industry and its proponents have charged Trump with causing harm to girls and women of reproductive age. They view a changing abortion landscape as detrimental to women. Reality doesn’t line up with their desired narrative. But this doesn’t mean they’ll stop trying.
Miscarriage and abortion are not the same thing. Miscarriage is an unexpected, unwanted end to a pregnancy. Most of the time, it is a result of chromosomal abnormalities. A woman often passes the fetal tissue naturally. Sometimes, a procedure known as a D&C (dilation and curettage) is necessary to evacuate the uterus of any remaining material.
Abortion, on the other hand, is the targeted ending of a growing unborn life. It is a violent end resulting from a decision, not a natural occurrence. Conflating the two is one of the most disturbing and oft-used tactics of the pro-choice crowd. If we hold a sympathetic view of a woman suffering a miscarriage, surely we’ll apply the same to a woman who has undergone an abortion, the logic goes.
This is how the pro-choice crowd operates. That’s why clearly separating the two is necessary in discussions about abortion. Just as important is the fact that women are legally allowed treatment for complications following either a miscarriage or an abortion.
Last week, ProPublica published yet another article that points to abortion bans as deadly for women. The headline proclaims, “A Third Woman Died Under Texas’ Abortion Ban,” as if the ban is the reason for her death. It is not. Porsha Ngumezi died at a Texas hospital in June 2023. Her pregnancy of 11 weeks had ended in miscarriage; she was bleeding profusely and passing alarmingly large blood clots. Ngumezi needed a D&C, but doctors delayed. She died before the procedure could take place.
“The 35-year-old’s death was preventable, according to more than a dozen doctors who reviewed a detailed summary of her case for ProPublica,” the nonprofit group reports. “Some said it raises serious questions about how abortion bans are pressuring doctors to diverge from the standard of care and reach for less-effective options that could expose their patients to more risks.”
The abortion laws in Texas do not prohibit treatment for miscarriage. Again, miscarriage is not abortion. In fact, a review of abortion bans from KFF shows that “all of these bans have an exception to prevent the death of the pregnant person.” Ngumezi died as a result of gross incompetence on the part of doctors and hospital staff. The same goes for Amber Nicole Thurman, who died in an Atlanta hospital in 2022 after doctors failed to do a D&C following an incomplete abortion. ProPublica blamed abortion bans for her death. During her presidential campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris did, too. Yet it would not have been illegal to treat either woman.
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These preventable tragedies are not a result of Trump, Republican voters, the Supreme Court, or abortion laws across America. Women, whether post-abortive or amid a miscarriage, are allowed treatment under the law. If medical professionals feel they are not permitted to treat these women, it is based on emotion, not fact. And those feelings are largely there because pro-choice activists and politicians on the Left continue to preach these lies.
It is a shame that women of reproductive age are being used as political pawns. We will surely see more stories like this with misplaced responsibility and deadly consequences. Those who are eager to view Trump as the ultimate evil will believe anything. Lies about abortion bans and post-Dobbs America are far more harmful than the bans themselves.
Kimberly Ross (@SouthernKeeks) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog and a contributing freelance columnist at the Freemen News-Letter.