REAL CLEAR HEALTH – Politicians and activists have lately been beating a new drum on the health risk to women posed by ectopic pregnancies. But dispensing politics and medical misinformation together can have dangerous side-effects that threaten women’s health and safety.
In a bout of hypocrisy, abortion supporters falsely claim that women with ectopic pregnancies will be denied care due to abortion restrictions while advocating for dangerous chemical abortion procedures that put women with ectopic pregnancy at risk.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, for example, falsely claimed that women will not be able to receive treatment for ectopic pregnancies in states that outlaw abortion. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer claimed that “pregnant women could lose their lives because there will be no exception for the life of a mother if there’s a dangerous complication in the pregnancy.” The Senate Majority Leader should know better, and perhaps he does.
Never in my 14 years as a pro-life obstetrician have I been unable to treat patients for ectopic pregnancies or other potentially fatal conditions, and I won’t be in the future regardless of where abortion laws land. In fact, experts point out that not a single state law prohibits treatment for medical emergencies like ectopic pregnancies.
This false argument is but one in a slew of misinformation that abortion advocates use to needlessly frighten women over access to treatment. And they do so while hypocritically hailing dangerous healthcare “solutions” such as self-administered chemical abortion.
When groups such as the Society for Family Planning, endorsed by the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine, advocate for self-managed chemical abortions without in-person screenings for ectopic pregnancy, blood type, and coercion or intimate partner violence, they actively endanger the lives of those they claim to be helping.
To diagnose ectopic pregnancy, which occurs in 1 out of 50 pregnancies, an in-person exam is required. The danger in missing this diagnosis is that the symptoms of a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, abdominal pain and bleeding, are the same as the normal effects of a chemical abortion. Women believing their ectopic pregnancy symptoms are normal side effects will stay at home while losing precious minutes and hours that could lead to significant morbidity or even death.
Even more egregiously, self-administered chemical abortion pills are marketed to women living in low-resourced and rural communities with reduced access to medical care. Women experiencing hemorrhages in need of blood transfusions or emergency surgery, for example, could have trouble accessing hospital services in these areas. At the same time, rates of self-administered chemical abortion are higher in this demographic than many other groups, according to the Society for Family Planning.
I have seen first-hand the effects of delayed care during my years working in rural Kenya as the only OB/GYN for over 300,000 people. I saw women die from preventable causes simply because of the distance and conditions they had to traverse in order to access a hospital with surgical services and transfusion capabilities. With our current healthcare deserts in this country and a nationwide blood shortage, we, as physicians, should not advocate for practices that actively endanger our patients.
Given their dismal track record on women’s health, why has the abortion industry decided to speak out with such fervency against the dangers of ectopic pregnancy now, one might wonder. Ectopic pregnancy was not a prominent media talking point until after the Supreme Court issued its Dobbs decision and yet their calls for dangerous self-managed abortions began long before that.
Abortion advocates have embraced fear mongering as a last, desperate straw to achieve their ultimate policy goal still unsupported by most Americans: abortion without restrictions up until the moment of birth.
Clearly, pro-abortion activists want to frighten women into believing that unlimited access to abortion is the only way to save women’s lives. But peddling misinformation about serious medical conditions is a dangerous way to score political points. American women deserve better.
Christina Francis, M.D., CEO-Elect of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
