The topic of abortion is making a huge appearance this election year, but political speeches often distort the realities on the ground.  Misinformation and carefully-crafted language can make it easy to think that a vote for abortion is a vote for the empowerment of women while a vote against it endangers women’s health, dignity, and welfare.  Today Cinthia interviews two women who are involved in the ongoing battle for the lives of babies in the womb and for legislation that truly protects the health of women and girls.

[A note here:  We know that this topic can be deeply painful for many people, but avoiding it only causes more harm and pain.  If abortion is part of your story, please know that there is help and healing available and that God longs to pour out His mercy on us.  You can grieve; you can heal both from what has been done to you and from what you have done.  Please reach out to safe people for assistance.  Look for a safe, healthy pastor, therapist, or ministry that walks people through these journeys on a regular basis; many pregnancy resource centers have support groups or counseling available for those who have had abortions.]

Emily Erin Davis is the Vice President of Communications for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.  She is an international communicator, author, and humanitarian who is also the mother of two children born from unplanned pregnancies by the time she was 22 years old.  She recalls being pressured to have abortions in each case, though she was able to withstand that pressure and have both children instead.  Davis confronts the idea that abortion is empowering to women.  She reports that the majority of surveyed women who have had abortions report that their abortions were inconsistent with their own values, with many reporting force or coercion having been used to influence them toward abortion.  Davis indicates that abortion coercion is a reality not being openly discussed, one that is highly relevant to the question of whether individual women’s choices are actually the ones being protected by abortion laws.  The majority report having had abortions for non-emergency reasons that had more to do with a lack of financial or emotional support than with a desire to choose abortion.  “This isn’t even the first choice of women,” says Davis.  “The pregnancy is not the problem.”  She states that women “want lifelines, not life-enders.”  Meanwhile, of women surveyed who considered abortion but chose instead to give birth, Davis reports that the percentage who now state they love these children and are glad they did not abort is in the “high nineties.”  She states that women with unplanned pregnancies often fear that “your life is over” because of the pregnancy, but that this is not the case.  “You are going to get through this,” she states, emphasizing that there are resources available and people who want to help.  “This is not the end for you or your child.”  She also notes, “Nobody complains that they did not have an abortion.”

Davis emphasizes that abortion is a human rights issue.  She reports that the United States is one of only seven countries in the world to allow elective abortion past 20 weeks of gestation, making us a “global outlier” and “a pariah” in the eyes of most countries in the world and categorizing us with countries such as China and Vietnam that are known more generally for human rights violations.  Davis is especially attuned to this concern since she grew up in Taiwan, where her father counseled many who had experienced the carnage of China’s abortion laws at that time; she recalls that girls, as well as boys with any kind of prenatal defect, were targeted for abortion at that time and place, though the specific targets of abortion can, she says, “change with the cultural wind.”

Davis indicates that misinformation about the laws on ballots is prevalent right now.  For example, women in Ohio were recently told that they needed to vote for abortion legislation as a way of ensuring they would have access to miscarriage care, though this was untrue.  She says that parental consent and notification laws, conscience laws that protect doctors, etc., are being targeted by proposed laws around the country, particularly the “Women’s Health Protection Act,” which strips any and all protections against abortion (e.g., restrictions on the availability of abortion at any point in pregnancy, parental consent and notification laws, conscience laws for doctors, etc.).  U.S. funding is also being channeled toward Planned Parenthood and away from pregnancy resource centers.  Davis states that Biden, when asked to identify when human life begins, stated that this was “a Republican trap” and that he did not have to answer that.  Davis asks, “At what point does the child in the womb receive human rights?  At what point are they worthy of protection?”  Pelosi referred to abortion being important for our nation’s economy.

Davis encouraged voters to pursue education about this topic and to know where representatives and other politicians stand; she explained that sbaprolife.org has information on each federal candidate, including stances and voting records.  She encouraged those who are pro-life to “lean into these uncomfortable conversations.”

Cinthia agrees with Davis that abortion is “sold as a way to fix things and move on” but that it “ignores the impact to the body and mind of the woman.”  She states that how we value the least of these impacts our own self-worth, and that a society that provides abortion on demand for humans but disallows euthanizing an animal without just cause has lost its perspective.  Even societies that sacrificed infants to pagan gods valued their children more than this, she explains, noting, “Babies were sacrificed to gods because they were valuable;” as horrific as those sacrifices were, our nation is devaluing these children even more by treating them as “throw-aways.”  Cinthia states that our society has developed a mentality that wants to make uncomfortable things simply disappear and that we need to understand our actions matter because we matter.

Cinthia visits next with Dr. Ingrid Skop, M.D., FACOG, an OB/Gyn who has delivered over 5,000 babies and is the Vice President and Director of Medical Affairs for the Charlotte Lozier Institute. Her bio, available at https://lozierinstitute.org/team-member/ingrid-skop-m-d-facog/, includes publication of research in multiple peer-reviewed articles regarding maternal mortality, abortion, and women’s health; providing expert testimony at the state and federal levels on legislation related to abortion; and opposing politicians who “choose not to follow the science regarding fetal heartbeat and development.”  Dr. Skop reports that misinformation is being used to accomplish political goals and that the reaction to the overturning of Roe v. Wade has been characterized by “fearmongering and lies.”  She states that we have been told maternal mortality is going to increase and that women will not get needed care, but that this is “absolutely untrue.”  Dr. Skop reports that every state with abortion restrictions allows for exception to protect the woman’s life, though this is hardly ever needed.  (Dr. Skop explains that it is necessary at times to deliver a baby early in order to save the life of the mother, but that everything is done in these cases to attempt to save the life of the child; actually needing to abort the child for the sake of the mother’s medical stability is rare.)  Dr. Skop reports that all states with abortion restrictions allow exceptions for ectopic pregnancies, for example, and that the spread of misinformation about these issues is an attempt to “frighten the public,” including pregnant women and doctors.  Dr. Skop explains that 95-97% of abortions in the U.S. are for financial and social reasons; she states that those who describe tragic medical circumstances to protect abortion access do not know or acknowledge that exceptions always exist in the laws for these circumstances.  She also indicates that the current access to abortion pills is itself medically dangerous to women since these medications are being mailed to anyone who requests them with no legitimate screening for risk factors for taking them (e.g., ectopic pregnancy) or for the existence of coercion; 63% of America’s one million abortions last year were performed with these kinds of drugs, though this can occur in ways that are “totally medically unsupervised.”  Even medical data is sometimes used in deceptive ways.  For example, claims are made that chemical abortion is “safer than Tylenol” for the woman, but this is deceptive.   “We have almost no good data,” explains Dr. Skop, because the numbers are not mandatorily reported.  Dr. Skop has cared for many women with physical and mental health complications from abortions, including hemorrhages, infection, and needing surgery.  She has seen the impact on mental health and notes that women are six times as likely to commit suicide in the year following an abortion than if they carry their babies to term.  Dr. Skop reports that women and girls sometimes take abortion pills having been told they are aborting “a clump of cells,” and then are shocked to recognize arms, legs, and a human shape to what is expelled.  She states, “The American public has been gaslighted about this, and euphemisms have been used to the point that people don’t even really understand what is happening.”

Like Davis, Dr. Skop emphasizes that the demand for abortion is being misrepresented.  She states that most women who have abortions do not want them but feel desperate because of other circumstances; she notes, “There are so many other ways to deal with social problems” in our society.  She also repeatedly refers to the existence of coercion toward abortion by men and others in the lives of pregnant women.  While she does not state that the American public generally opposes abortion, she does state that it is much closer to pro-life than to the anytime-for-any-reason ideology being advocated by politicians.  She also states that approximately 90% of doctors do not do elective abortions and that their representing agencies are advocating their own ideologies and not those of the doctors they represent.  She states that most obstetricians “know they have two patients and want to care for both.”

In her years as a psychotherapist and current work as a life coach, Cinthia has also worked with many women who have mental health complications from abortion.  She states that women are biologically wired to love the child with which they become pregnant, that they “can’t help but love that child no matter what,” and that, when we encourage women and girls to consider abortion, “we are setting up women to be murdering and then have to live with that for the rest of their life.” Cinthia and Dr. Skop both emphasize that women and girls with unplanned pregnancies may be in difficult situations and often do not realize that there are people who want to help. Like other people in difficult situations, these women and girls need people around them who are “strong enough to help them think through what is happening” and access the many resources that exist.  Cinthia emphasizes to clients considering abortion that, while abortion is sold as a way to make the problem disappear and make life go back to normal, this decision will have implications for the rest of their lives; it is not like going and getting your teeth cleaned or having another medical procedure that simply takes care of a medical issue and frees the patient to move forward in life.  Dr. Skop emphasizes that this is not simply a political issue, but “at its root an intensely spiritual and moral issue” which we “should be unafraid to address from the pulpit.”  Cinthia encourages us as a society to stop “searing our own conscience” so that we see things in a way that is upside-down and backwards, allowing ourselves to do what seems like it will make problems go away but which compounds them astronomically.

Again, if you have experienced or participated in abortion in any way, we emphasize that there is help, hope, mercy, and forgiveness.  God can heal, and He does it all the time.  Please go to Him.  Tell Him where you are with this whole issue – honestly and completely.  Let Him give you mercy, protection, and courage.  And then, with His guidance, seek help from safe people who know about the aftermath of abortion and who can help you make this journey.  Grace and peace to you.

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