The Deaths and Agonies of Trump's Abortion Bans [View all]

[Galraedia]

Whatever happened, it’s not their fault. The anti-abortion lawmakers and activists of America insist that their “pro-life” laws aren’t responsible for the suffering that women have experienced in hospitals and clinics across the country in the 26 months since Roe v. Wade was overturned. And in refusing responsibility for this wave of physical and emotional agony, and even death, the anti-abortion movement is also trying to absolve Donald Trump of his role in this catastrophe.

As the evidence mounts, much of the right has been forced to acknowledge that women have been harmed since the Dobbs decision. But instead of admitting that abortion is part of essential medical care, the move has been to point the finger, variously, at pro-choice activists, the media, and doctors themselves, claiming there’s been a coincidental sudden rise in malpractice. In September, after Propublica reported on the cases of two Georgia women who died after being unable to get legal abortion care in their home state, a spokesman for Governor Brian Kemp blamed “partisan activists and so-called journalists” for “egregious misinformation and propaganda that fostered a culture of fear and confusion.” Later that month, the vice-president of the influential Charlotte Lozier Institute, which styles itself as the data arm of the anti-abortion movement, faulted the abortion pills the two women in Georgia women had taken rather than the abortion ban that had pushed them out of state or online to end their pregnancies, complicating their follow-up care. In late October, without identifying any specific cases, conservative medical groups issued what they called a Women’s Healthcare Declaration, claiming that “life-affirming legislation has been deliberately mischaracterized, leading to confusion and incorrect information among healthcare professionals and patients.”

But the truth, for those who actually want to see it, is plain. As the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists put it in a statement last month: “There is no doubt that abortion bans are preventing ob-gyns and other clinicians from providing health care to their patients, and that those patients and their families are suffering as a result.”

Donald Trump promised to appoint Supreme Court justices who would “automatically” overturn Roe v. Wade, and it’s a rare promise that he kept. Without his three justices, the 6-3 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization — allowing states to ban abortion at any time without mandating any exceptions — could not have happened. Although the number has fluctuated as voters and courts have their say, 13 states currently have total abortion bans with vague or narrow exceptions. A doctor found to have violated these bans can face anything from a loss of license to, in Texas, life in prison.

Read more: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-abortion-bans-deaths-agonies.html