The reasoning behind these abortion myths?are not based on fact and has nothing to do with women’s health.
In the last few weeks, three states have been doing battle with abortion. No, they haven’t been battling each other. Rather they have been working furiously to get their set of nearly identical bills passed. Texas, North Carolina and Wisconsin are working to pass bills allegedly to make abortions safer. The fact is, the reasoning behind these bills and the abortion myths that they support is not at all based on fact, nor is it to make abortions safer. Many of the old arguments are being made, but there are also new ones. The question is, what are the facts?
- Abortion Myth #10: Abortion clinics are unregulated, and therefore unsafe. While each state has its own rules regarding the regulations of abortion clinics, all of them do have medical professionals who are regulated by each state’s professional regulation board. If a woman would want to sue the clinic, that would include suing anyone who she feels was responsible for her complaint. In this process those professionals could face sanctions or even expulsion from the profession. As for the regulation of the clinic itself, most are done through each state’s equivalent of a department of health. For example, Texas regulates and licenses abortion clinics in the Health Facility Program in the Department of State Health Services.
- Abortion ?Myth #9: Abortion clinics should be ambulatory surgical centers to make abortions safer for women. The fact is, abortions are very safe, and have a very low incidence of complications. According to the Guttmacher Institute, only 0.3% of women seeking an abortion have complications. This is a solution for a problem that does not exist. Making abortion clinics invest thousands of dollars to upgrade to the requirements of an ambulatory surgical center only serves to shut down the clinic. If the clinic is able to afford the upgrade, the costs will have to be passed onto the women. This will only cause women to require more time to raise the money, increasing the number of abortions later in pregnancy. This will cause a rise in complications because the rate of complications increases the further along a woman is. If she can’t get an abortion legally, it will increase the likelihood of her seeking that abortion at a place that is not regulated, and thereby not assured to be safe.
- Abortion ?Myth #8: Doctors should have admitting privileges so they can accompany a woman to a hospital, if she has complications. There are a few problems with this myth. First, hospitals won’t give admitting privileges to doctors for a service they don’t provide, which includes elective abortions. Non-elective abortions are already done in the hospital setting or in an ambulatory surgical center. Second, since many public hospitals receive federal money, they are prohibited from providing elective abortions. Third, hospitals wouldn’t even think about allowing a doctor to have admitting privileges who wasn’t already attached to a department due to liability issues. Since that person isn’t connected to the hospital, they can’t control what they do, and yet they would be liable for the actions. Lastly, if a woman would have a complication, it would require surgical expertise in an area that the abortion doctor wouldn’t be able to assist with in the first place. Again, it’s regulating for a situation that’s highly unlikely to be feasible.
- Abortion ?Myth #7: You shouldn’t have an abortion any later than 20 weeks because a fetus that age can feel pain. Proponents of banning abortion use this myth to further restrict abortion. They claim that there’s scientific evidence of this. The truth is, there’s only one doctor who claims this, Dr. Kanwaljeet “Sunny” Anand. He was cited in a piece in the New York Times from 2008. The problem is that his study of pain was done on newborn babies, and not on fetuses as young as 20 weeks. The youngest age was the equivalent of 22 to 24 weeks, which is in line with age at which the medical community accepts as a viable age (24 weeks).
- Abortion ?Myth #6: If you’re pregnant from rape or incest, 20 weeks is plenty of time to seek an abortion. Unlike restrictions in some states, the Texas abortion bill does not allow a woman to have an abortion past 20 weeks in the case of rape or incest. While the argument may seem logical, the fact is, many survivors of rape can’t even admit to themselves that they’ve been raped, much less think about what they are going to do when they get pregnant. The author of the Texas bill justified the restriction based on a false belief that rape kits prevent a woman from getting pregnant in the first place. Even if a woman is able to get medical help soon after a rape, the rape kit is solely for collecting evidence and has no ability to prevent a pregnancy.
- Abortion ?Myth #5: If a woman has a fetus that’s 20 weeks along, it’s plenty of time to tell if there’s going to be a defect that will cause it to die before it fully develops. While the ability to see a developing fetus has come a long ways in the last 10 years, with 3D now widely available, reality dictates that doctors can’t tell every case of an abnormality in the 20 week timeframe. There are plenty of stories where a woman finds out that the fetus growing inside of her, who she very much wants, will die inside of her. These women and their partners take careful consideration of all the options, and some choose to abort the baby. If a bill restricts this option, it would force women to carry a dead fetus until such time that her body miscarries it. If it makes it full term, she will have to deal with a dead baby, upon delivery. When states makes an exception for the health of the mother, it rarely takes into account the mental anguish that a woman goes through.
- Abortion ?Myth #4: A doctor should be present when a woman takes the abortion pill, RU-486, in case there’s a problem. This is yet another argument that is based on a false premise. First of all, Mifepristone, or RU-486, is one of the safest ways for a woman to end a pregnancy. It is taken early on in a pregnancy (no later than 63 days along) by blocking the production of progesterone. According to RX List, the rate of complication is estimated at 1%. Those who oppose it would dispute its safety based on studies from developing countries. The problem with that is the health of the woman in a developing country is often not as good as a woman from the United States.
- Abortion ?Myth #3: Women seeking abortions want ultrasounds because they want the option of seeing the fetus they are about to abort, and they may change their mind. According to Tracy Weitz of Reality Check, it is true that some women do want the option of seeing the fetus before they have an abortion. However, the assertion gets disproved that it will reduce abortions. In fact, some women? actually become more sure in their decision to have an abortion. The other problem with the argument is that the new laws being enacted are ones that are not choices at all. The new laws mandate this in every case, meaning that it’s no longer an “option” or a “choice”.
- Abortion ?Myth #2: No one should take the birth control pill or the morning after pill. It’s as bad as an abortion because it kills babies. The problem with this argument is that it’s fully an emotional argument not based on scientific fact. While most people understand this isn’t true, there are some ardent anti-choice groups that espouse this as fact. The truth is, both birth control pills and the morning after pill act in a different way as an abortion. In an abortion, the fetus has already attached itself to the uterine lining. Birth control pills and the morning after pill prevent the fertilized egg from being implanted. What these groups don’t want you to know it that since birth control has become more widely available and accessible, the rate of abortion (real abortion, no the kind imagined in anti-choice extremists) has decreased. In fact, it’s been reduced in half as a result. And even if you believed that a fertilized egg was the equivalent of a fetus, there’s a 75% chance that it won’t make it past the first couple of weeks with or without any intervention.
- Abortion ?Myth #1: I think all abortions should be illegal. I don’t want to pay for someone’s abortion because they were promiscuous. This is the number one misconception that many anti-choicers have. What they fail to take note of is the fact that there was a law passed in 1976 called the Hyde amendment. This law prohibits the use of Medicaid funds to pay for elective abortions. While it doesn’t go as far as preventing all abortions (which is what Henry Hyde ideally wanted), it only prevents it for those who are on Medicaid. As a result, poor women are forced to pay for their abortions out of pocket, meaning their abortions are further along. The problem with this lie is that it has caused the defunding of Planned Parenthood clinics that receive federal funds.?That money is being pulled from all clinics, and not just ones that provide abortions. So far, ten states have pulled funding. Of those clinics that do provide abortion services, the money for them comes from a source other than the federal government. Overall, only three percent of clients go to Planned Parenthood to have an abortion. A total of 71% go to receive services to prevent pregnancy. So instead of reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies, these laws will only serve to increase them, and therefore, increase the number of abortions.
So there you have it. You’re armed and ready to fight those abortion myths with facts. No doubt, those who are opposed to abortion will try to manipulate the facts to fit their agenda. We know it won’t stop them from recycling the same old myths, half truths and out right lies. But hopefully it will bring the debate back to reality, and in line with what the majority of people want – to make the choice for themselves bearing in mind the safety of the mother, the crushing decision that comes with abortion, and the ability to have the privacy as Roe v. Wade provides.
