Pro-Abortion Propagandists Are Wrong – Trigger Laws in Pro-Life States Do Not Ban Medical Care for Miscarriages or Ectopic Pregnancies

Largely in response to the Supreme Court’s majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, abortion radicals have launched a new line of misinformation about abortion and laws governing abortion in pro-life states. The most common myth now being pushed by pro-abortion activists is that in states that ban abortion, miscarriage and ectopic pregnancies will also be considered “abortions.” For example, one doctor claimed on Twitter that “Just so we’re clear: the pregnancy that ends up in the wrong spot, like the fallopian tube? The one that will NEVER turn into a baby and will rupture and kill your wife, daughter, or sister? Terminating that fetus is also an abortion, and they want to ban those, too.”

One article alleges that “[t]here are . . . gray areas the law doesn’t address. In some very early pregnancies, the fertilized egg lodges outside the uterus – most commonly in a fallopian tube – a potentially life-threatening situation called an ectopic pregnancy. If that type of pregnancy proceeds, the woman can bleed to death.” The article also goes on to state that “[p]atients who have a miscarriage also sometimes need to take abortion medication or have dilation and curettage surgery – known as a D&C – to remove tissue that lingers inside the uterus.” And the article cites a professor of obstetrics and gynecology as stating that “the treatment for an abortion and the treatment for a miscarriage are exactly the same.”

However, the claims that are being made by pro-abortion activists are disingenuous, misleading, or completely incorrect. There is no state in which a pro-life law would prohibit or criminalize medical treatment for a miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy. Moreover, there is a very distinct and obvious difference between both miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies and abortions.

The ACLJ has long fought against the abortion distortion factor, and in order to combat these most recent lies has published a legal memo confronting these claims and the state laws at issue to disprove the narrative being pushed by the pro-abortion community. Please feel free to download this memo and share it with anyone you may know who is struggling with the propaganda being pushed by abortion activists. Together, we can combat the spread of misinformation and win more hearts and minds in the battle for life.

As our memo makes clear, the pro-abortion propaganda is just that, propaganda. The overwhelming number of abortions are elective, but in the wake of Dobbs, there is a major push by abortionists to distract from this reality and fearmonger about some obscure situation that doesn’t actually exist. Second, there is no pro-life law that has been enacted to target miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies. Third, each state defines abortion in such a way to make it clear what is and is not an abortion, and no state includes miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy in its definition of abortion.

But is anyone really surprised that an industry that rakes in billions of dollars by taking the lives of countless children would be willing to spread vicious lies in a last-ditch effort to protect its horrendous profit machine?

In reality, it is the pro-life community that values life and supports laws that serve to protect all innocent human life – which includes the lives of preborn children and of women. The laws in the thirteen states that have language triggering restrictions on abortion in a post-Dobbs world are intended to, and do, serve to protect preborn children and women. The false narrative that is being pushed by pro-abortion propagandists is nothing more than an extension of its continuous abortion distortion. No state prevents or punishes medical treatment of miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies, and each state values the lives of women and the preborn children they carry.

The ACLJ has been and will continue to be at the forefront in the fight for life. We will continue to expose the abortion industry’s lies and fight to defend unborn children in each and every state. You can join us in that fight by signing our petition.