Huffington Post Author Soft-pedals Dangerous Illegal Abortions

Laura Bassett, writing on March 5 for the Huffington Post about abortion businesses shutting down in Texas, www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/05/texas-abortion-clinics-shut_n_4907050.html, invites readers to send in individualized horror stories about the effect of the law. In particular, she requests stories about recourse to unsafe abortion methods (emphasis added):

HuffPost Readers: Have you or a woman you know had to resort to unsafe measures to end your pregnancy because of lack of access to an abortion clinic or lack of funds? I'd like to hear your story. Email me at LBassett@huffingtonpost.com, and please let me know if you would like to remain anonymous. I will never publish someone's name or any identifying details without permission.

By phrasing the question as she does, Bassett suggests that resort to unsafe measures is understandable, maybe even necessary, for some women. A quotation at the end of the article from Amy Hagstrom Miller, CEO of the Whole Women’s Health abortion business, does the same thing (emphasis added):

The consequence of losing so many clinics, Miller said, is that women who are desperate will turn to unsafe measures or illegal providers in order to end their pregnancies.

"Abortions are supposedly legal on paper, and women still need to have the service whether or not they can access it through professional medical channels or not," Miller said. "I would not be surprised if medical providers start to pop up who do them illegally. It's just a matter of time."

One might have hoped that Bassett or Miller would, despite their support for abortion, strongly discourage a woman from jeopardizing her health by self-abortion, resort to slimy practitioners, etc.  They did not do so.

Bassett is clearly looking for anecdotes with which to attack the Texas abortion laws. Not only does she refrain from any condemnation of dangerous, illegal abortions, but she slants her request for anecdotes in a way designed to impugn the abortion laws. She requests accounts of women who, “because of lack of access,” endangered themselves. This loaded wording prompts the responding person to blame the decision on lack of access to an abortion clinic or lack of funds, rather than other possible causes. After all, women might resort to the Gosnells of the world, or self-abortion for that matter, out of ignorance of the safety concerns, pressure from third parties, examples set by others, or even – ironically – Bassett’s suggestion of that “option.”

Bassett should not let zeal for abortion lead her to disregard the real harm that might come to women who, while providing politically useful stories to the likes of Bassett, might have been spared real damage had she shown the same zeal in warning these women away from self-harm. Supporting access to abortion should not mean supporting, or soft-pedaling, access to unsafe abortion.