The biggest danger to the lives of pregnant women in America right now is not pro-life laws, but pro-abortion misinformation.
This fact has become increasingly apparent over the past several months as President Joe Biden and the abortion industry push the blatantly false narrative that pro-life laws prevent women from receiving emergency care. Such medical fearmongering has been used to pass extreme pro-abortion ballot measures, elect pro-abortion candidates, and thwart pro-life bills. Tragically, such misinformation leads to confusion among medical professionals about exactly what the laws permit and ultimately harms pregnant women.
Currently, every pro-life law in the country has abortion exceptions for the life of the mother, allowing pregnant women to receive life-saving care when it is needed. This means that every doctor in every state can act when a pregnant mother experiences an emergency. However, with the abortion industry continuing to sew confusion, it has become necessary for states to step in and reiterate that pregnant women can and should receive timely medical care.
South Dakota is leading the way for the rest of the nation with a first-of-its-kind, bipartisan bill that offers clarity on the life-of-the-mother exceptions in the state's pro-life laws. Under the bill, known as Med Ed, the state's Department of Health will create training videos and materials to educate doctors and hospitals throughout South Dakota on their ability—and legal obligation—to provide emergency care to pregnant women under the state's life at conception law.
The Med Ed materials will explain the details of the state's abortion law, the most common medical conditions that threaten the life or health of a pregnant woman, and the standards of care for treating a pregnant woman in a medical emergency. They will also ensure practitioners know they have the ability to use reasonable medical judgement in an emergency.
The bipartisan measure is cosponsored by a Democrat and boasts widespread support from across South Dakota, including from the governor's office, the state's Department of Health, and a local hospital system. This diverse coalition is an obvious contrast to the radical pro-abortion advocates, who are willing to put women at risk to preserve abortion on demand.
Time and time again, the pro-abortion movement proves it is more concerned with ensuring abortion on demand than with protecting women's health and safety by providing accurate information about available care.
In Ohio, the abortion industry spent the better part of last year spreading the lie that women would not be able to receive care for miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies unless Ohioans passed an extreme pro-abortion ballot measure. In Oklahoma, medical misinformation from the abortion industry led doctors to tell a pregnant woman she needed to wait in her car and bleed more before she could receive care. In Florida, a doctor recklessly told a pregnant woman to get on an airplane while hemorrhaging.
Rather than correct pro-abortion lies, too many institutions allow the confusion to persist. Medical groups and hospital systems have failed to provide proper guidance on pro-life laws, even as medical professionals around the nation beg for clarification. Given these failures, it's unsurprising that there are some doctors out there who are afraid to act and protect pregnant women in emergency situations.
In response, states across the nation must follow South Dakota's example by reiterating that current state laws protect the lives of pregnant women.
All medical professionals—and the patients they care for—deserve to know that current pro-life laws allow for timely and necessary care for pregnant women in emergencies.
Women's health is not a political issue. At a time of increasing polarization in our country, it's heartening that South Dakota leaders were able to find common ground in combating abortion law misinformation. Their success serves as a reminder to the rest of the nation that we can all come together and protect women by passing Med Ed laws in more states.
Majorie Dannenfelser is president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Uncommon Knowledge
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