“Although induced abortion is often referenced as health care, a critical examination shows that there is little objective evidence that this statement is true,” states Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI), a research organization for science, data, and medical research on the value of human life.
Recently, Dr. Ingrid Skop thoroughly discussed what has become a politically fiery topic, including induced abortion and its relevance to healthcare, in the report, Is Induced Abortion Healthcare? Through evidence-based research, Skop, an OB/GYN and vice president and Director of Medical Affairs for CLI, provides data to reveal induced abortion is anything but healthcare.
Many proponents of abortion proclaim it is synonymous with healthcare in efforts to promote their narrative and in turn, synchronize the rhetoric to be shared repeatedly by those supporting the mission of expanding abortion. The idea behind this strategy is to eliminate the critical thinkers, the asking of questions, and the evaluation of abortion data and research, to promote a false narrative in favor of increasing abortion nationwide.
The first acknowledgment required prior to assessing the impact of abortion is the reality of the object of the discussion.
Skop explains, “Abortion is not healthcare; rather it is the intentional ending of an unborn child’s life that uses medical procedures to kill rather than heal, often harming his or her mother in the process.”
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When medical organizations rise to the occasion to utilize their prestige, training, and knowledge to share their unwavering political and personal support of abortion as healthcare, their words do not correlate with the reality of abortion revealed through evidence-based data and research.
Skop provides a factual, non-biased medical explanation:
“Induced abortion is defined as an action taken to terminate a pregnancy with the intent that the unborn child dies and that a live birth does not result, as contrasted with treatment of an intrauterine demise (spontaneous abortion) when an embryonic or fetal loss has already occurred. Although the medical interventions to resolve the pregnancy are other the same, the differences in intent in performing the intervention are dramatically and morally different.”
We are currently facing a time in history where the personal and political beliefs of some are being imposed on others through an entire organizational structure.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) is viewed as a prestigious organization and looked to by a vast number of medical professionals for guidance and support in their areas of medical practice. These same medical professionals are often misled and unaware of the current values ACOG holds and esteems as significant priority.
Skop shares the reality of this organization in the report:
“ACOG feels so strongly about abortion as necessary health care that it opposes the conscience rights of its members to decline to refer for a life-ending procedure to which they are morally opposed. ACOG’s Committee Opinion on “The Limits of Conscientious Refusal in Reproductive Medicine” (2007, Reaffirmed 2019) states that “conscientious refusals should be limited if they constitute an imposition of religious or moral beliefs on patients … Physicians […] have the duty to refer patients in a timely manner to other providers if they do not feel that they can in conscience provide the standard reproductive services that patients request.”
To provide contrast and clarity to the abortion versus healthcare discussion, Skop shares the definition of healthcare, “the field concerned with the maintenance or restoration of the health of the body or mind.”
If all biases and personal opinions are discredited, I think we can all agree abortion does not provide restoration of the health of the body or mind in any way. With a life being ended in an abortion process, that life is not restored.
Skop proceeds to bring forward to concern for the mother in the case of abortion:
“Obstetrics is the medical field concerned with the care and delivery of pregnant women. The preservation and maintenance of pregnancy, along with prenatal care and delivery of babies, are forms of health care based on this definition. Disrupting the normal physiological process of pregnancy and ending an unborn human’s life, at least in cases of elective abortions (i.e., the vast majority), is thus the antithesis of health care for pregnant women. Moreover, abortion comes with a variety of significant health risks, both physical and mental, for women.”
As abortion supporters carefully select their wording and share their rhetoric and narrative repeatedly in hopes it will be accepted as truth by those uninformed of abortion and by faithful abortion supporters, it is worth noting that abortion rates in our country are increasing, along with accessibility. Those proclaiming the false narratives of abortion are also often not the ones being impacted by these same words they share.
“Abortion also disproportionately impacts the Black community. Although Black Americans comprise only 14% of the population, 41.5% of abortions end the lives of Black children. Finally, abortion is often promoted to vulnerable women in crisis. They are led to believe that ending the lives of their unborn children is the only or preferred solution to their complex social, financial, and relationship problems,” Skop states in response to the data from National Population by Characteristics 2020-2023.
Many women who have had a previous abortion will share they did not desire or choose abortion yet felt there was no other option for their circumstances.
As these same women are exposed to the rhetoric and false narrative of the abortion supporters, they may believe these words about the abortion procedure being safe, private, available in the privacy of your own home, as true.
Yet, they are anything but true and in turn, place women in dangerous situations.
“As the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has progressively removed safeguards governing the use of the abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol, one must examine the ways in which these actions contribute to the impossibility of a woman obtaining adequate informed consent. Removal of the in-person prescribing requirements allows prescribing without in-person counseling (when prescribed via telemedicine) or even verification that the person requesting the drugs is a woman seeking abortion (when prescribed via online ordering),” shares Dr. Skop.
This decision of removing safeguards alone places women in danger. Anyone can order abortion drugs. They can be ordered by a boyfriend, friend, an abuser, or a trafficker.
This action also eliminates the medical care and evaluation that is necessary prior to an abortion procedure.
One necessary evaluation women need is the confirmation the pregnancy is intrauterine with an accurate assessment of gestational age through an ultrasound examination. Without this information, failed abortion attempts could increase, and women could also be in the position of thinking they are aborting an 8-week embryo when they are in their 14th week of pregnancy.
Other women could have an ectopic pregnancy and when the pain and bleeding begin after they have taken mifepristone and misoprostol, they could assume it is an expected response from the abortion procedure when they are actually experiencing a potentially life-threatening ruptured ectopic pregnancy.
As the rates and risks of abortion are considered, it is worth noting the reporting of abortion cases and adverse events is entirely voluntary in the United States at this time. These reports are voluntary while the other metrics of public health are tracked and required to be report to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, notes Skop.
The research and data made available in Is Induced Abortion Healthcare, through the Charlotte Lozier Institute reveals the facts surrounding abortion as it exists today.
Abortion is an “action taken to terminate a pregnancy with the intent that the unborn child dies and that a live birth does not result,” and is not healthcare.
