The abortion misinformation that has been rampant since the Dobbs ruling overturned Roe v. Wade is having a tangible negative impact on human beings.
Since Dobbs, abortion proponents have floated false narratives such as that women will die from ectopic pregnancy if abortion is restricted, when abortion has never been the treatment for ectopic pregnancy, that women will be denied care for miscarriage or other conditions, and that they will be prosecuted for seeking abortion.
The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) heard from one of its members who is seeing women in her practice who have fallen victim to the false abortion narrative.
“A member has told us that her patients fear that abortion laws would prevent her from treating their life-threatening pregnancy complications,” the group posted on Twitter.
“I am now seeing 1-2 patients a day with high anxiety, crying, etc. because they think they will die if they have an ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage, or previable preeclampsia,” The doctor had stated. “None of this is true. The misinformation is out of control.”
Further, the fact is, none of the new laws the states that have written regulating abortion affect the health or life of women, nor criminalize it for the mother.
There are many examples where pro-abortion advocates are offering false narratives in regard to abortion laws which serve to confuse the public and make women fearful.
AAPLOG’s anecdote indicates, sadly, that this is having an effect.
The AAPLOG website offers solid medical information in relation to changes in healthcare since the Dobbs decision. The group has also posted a resource which specifically addresses the myths currently being promoted by abortion advocates across the media and in social media outlets.
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One AAPLOG member countered the pro-abortion narrative of fear with his decades of experience practicing medicine, responding in a conversation with Pregnancy Help News.
Dr. Kim Hardey, has 41 years of OB/GYN experience, and was a board-certified OB/GYN for 35 years.
Hardey was formerly the chief of the OB/GYN/Pediatrics Department of Lafayette General Medical Center in Lafayette, La., and currently practices at Acadiana OB/GYN clinic serving as medical director of two pregnancy help centers in the state.
As a licensed physician, Hardey is accountable for his counsel.
“Abortion was never part of healthcare until the last 50 years,” Hardey said. “Before that it was done electively, it is in no way essential. It does not aid in the longevity or health of the mother.”
Touting abortion as healthcare and now claiming that women somehow no longer have access to “reproductive healthcare” has become a standard platform of abortion propaganda.
“They want to make it seem like getting your tonsils out, they want to make it mainstream but it is not, and it is certainly not essential,” said Hardey.
Abortion centers are more like factories where a nurse may talk with the patient to determine how far along she is in the pregnancy, he said. Therefore the abortion advocacy narrative of the law ‘interfering with a decision between a woman and her doctor’ wears thin in Dr. Hardey’s mind.
The doctor has no relationship with the patient in most abortion scenarios, he said, “Except the few minutes it takes the doctor to terminate the pregnancy.”
Hardey is very concerned about the fear being promoted since the Dobbs decision. He noted that in his over 40 years of practice he has never seen a patient die from any of the conditions or scenarios used by the abortion lobby to frighten women since Dobbs.
There are no moral issues with treating a non-viable pregnancy. If it is either a miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy, those can be treated without violation of any moral code. The problem begins when the baby is alive and the indication of the procedure is that the mother just chooses not to be pregnant, Hardey said.
“No woman should be concerned about carrying a pregnancy any differently than would have been before the Dobbs decision,” Hardey told Pregnancy Help News.
Every news report claiming that women will be unable to receive treatment for pregnancy situations that put them at risk is malpractice, whether committed by the news outlet or the medical personnel who participated in providing fodder for the report. And it is the wanton spreading of fear, which hardly serves women.
“There’s something about the government saying its legal that makes a person think it’s a moral choice," Hardey said. "The states that have chosen to be pro-life aren’t saying you can’t leave and go to another state if you want to, that’s up to you. We just don’t want it in our state."
Hardey reflected on the root cause of the focus on creating fear.
“If you get enough fear, it may change the way people vote, that’s what they’re hoping," he said. "That’s just a poorly informed electorate.”
Over the years Hardey has counseled at least 500 women in unplanned pregnancies who were at risk for abortion. He estimated that approximately 90% of them continued with their pregnancies and they managed quite well with having chosen life.
“My experience has been that almost all of these women were in an acute crisis,” he noted. “They were pregnant, didn’t want to be, saw no way out but things change and a few weeks later, by the time they deliberated and the boyfriend kind of came around or their parents came around.”
“Abortion is a response to a pregnancy (with the woman) feeling that she has to solve this immediately. She has to get rid of this problem because in her mind it’s going to totally ruin her life and it’s actually not true,” Hardey said.
Hardey believes the overturn of Roe is an opportunity for women to be empowered to make better choices.
“The government’s decision to allow states to decide whether they would like to have abortion or not is a great move in the right direction for freedom for women because abortion doesn’t free women or empower women," he said, "it enslaves women.”
“And so making it legal like they did 50 years ago actually deceives a woman into thinking this is a good, logical choice or solution to her problem,” Hardey added.
For Hardey, it is very clear that abortion is not the answer to any problems, and no matter whether the label abortion advocates want to tag it with, herding women toward the procedure via fear is not in keeping with healthcare.
