A federal judge last week struck down a new state law in Texas that would have added a requirement to second-trimester abortions using dilation and evacuation (D&E) procedure. The law wouldn’t have ended abortion, but would merely have prevented doctors from dismembering living fetuses in the womb. The ruling is another set-back for women and another victory for those who practice deception.
Whole Woman’s Health, a pro-abortion rights group and lead plaintiff in the case, hailed the ruling. Amy Miller, the group’s CEO, said she was “thrilled to prevail” because “the pattern of incessant and dangerous attacks on women’s healthcare has not stopped.” A closer examination of the case, however, reveals that Whole Woman’s Health – and co-plaintiff Planned Parenthood – use deceptive language to inaccurately frame the situation, which ultimately harms, not helps, women in America.
Abortion advocates are, it must be conceded, experts in using words to soften the horrific nature of the “procedures” they defend, and skilled professionals at using deception to frame the debate in terms favorable to them. The most effective use of deception has been the intentional exchange of the term “abortion” with “women’s healthcare,” as Amy Miller did in the aftermath of the ruling.
This exchange of terms is a deliberate attempt to vilify those who value the life of the unborn and use fear to fraudulently influence others into believing that those who defend life are out to deprive women of general healthcare. This claim is blatantly untrue and easy to dispel.
To be pro-life means pro all life. Many of the staunchest advocates of life are women. It is clear and obvious that no female supporter of life would, under any circumstances, support a move to deny herself access to healthcare. Abortion activists’ deceptive use of soft terms to hide the truth of abortion, however, should trouble even those who support abortion.
On their website, Planned Parenthood advertises that their suction abortion procedure uses a “hand-held suction device or suction machine to gently take the pregnancy tissue out of your uterus.” Dilation and evacuation (D&E), their website also states, is as simple as using “medical tools to empty your uterus.” Planned Parenthood implies that abortions are little more than removing an inanimate object from the womb, as one might reach into a bag and remove a marble.
Using such phrasing has the intended effect of deceiving a woman as to the true nature of what these medical procedures actually entail. A woman has a right to know what’s really going to happen inside her body before she agrees to an abortion. Far from “gently” removing a “pregnancy” from the womb, suction literally dismembers the tiny developing human being, sucking arms, legs, body, and eventually a head through a tube.
When conducting a D&E abortion on a woman, a doctor uses a sopher clamp to reach into the uterus and begins literally pulling the limbs off the living fetus, one by one, placing them on a surgical tray to ensure nothing is left behind. Because the head is too large to fit through the cervix, the doctor uses the sopher clamp to crush the skull so it can be removed, piece by piece. There’s nothing “gentle” about these ghastly procedures to the pre-born baby.
When a woman is pregnant, it is a sometimes anguishing decision as to whether she should have an abortion or take the baby to term. There are a myriad of factors that affect her situation, and they’re unique to each couple. It is appropriate and necessary, therefore, that the decision-making process be based on a sober, honest, and fact-based evaluation. Words matter.
A woman should not have to make a decision regarding her pregnancy based on faulty or deceptive language. Planned Parenthood and other abortion advocacy groups do all in their power to hide the truth of what happens in a woman’s body during an abortion. The decision can often be gut-wrenching for a woman, and I do not advocate using graphic images or harsh language to try and shame her into keeping the baby. Yet women have a right to know the full truth before making that permanent decision.
Armed with an accurate understanding of what the abortion provider is going to do to the tiny developing body within her, more women might opt to carry the baby to term instead of ending its life.
Knowing the truth and making a genuinely informed decision does not, in any way, deprive a woman over the right to her body, does not negatively impact – in any way – her healthcare, and does not impinge on her constitutional rights. American women deserve better than to be manipulated in these ways by groups like Planned Parenthood.