When it comes to abortion, the left-wing establishment no longer has any hesitation about saying the quiet part out loud.
One of the common talking points among the Left to sell their pro-abortion stance to the masses is that they “don’t really” support unlimited abortion as the Right claims. Often, abortion activists call for “reasonable” abortion and dismiss accusations that they support late-term and partial-birth abortions as nothing more than alarmism by conservatives.
Now, however, major abortion advocates have blown this cover by calling outright for access to abortion without restrictions.
As the Washington Examiner reports, several leading medical groups in the fields of obstetrics, gynecology, and family planning have joined in an op-ed in which they explicitly endorse the legalization of unrestricted abortion, including the elimination of all gestational limits.
The Washington Post op-ed was authored by Christopher Zahn, the chief executive of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), and Jenni Villavicencio, the public affairs director for the Society of Family Planning.
Their op-ed was a response to an article by Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, and former senior counselor to President Donald Trump Kellyanne Conway.
In their piece, titled “If they want to win, Republicans need to go on offense on abortion,” Dannenfelser and Conway wrote that “Recent polls show that 56 percent of voters support a national abortion limit of 15 weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. That is why a 15-week minimum standard to protect babies in the womb, at least by when they might be able to feel pain, is a popular and humane policy that Republicans must proudly adopt and articulate.”
Zahn and Villavicencio countered: “Abortion is safe. It improves and saves lives, and it must be available without restrictions, without limitations and without barriers — just as any other critical part of health care.”
Zahn and Villavicencio referred to themselves as “advocates for unrestricted access to abortion care,” and argued that the rhetoric used by Conway and Dannenfelser “is commonly used to strip access to abortion from patients such as ours and prevent clinicians from providing people with evidence-based health care.”
After the publication of the Zahn/Villavicencio piece, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America fired back at the authors, citing healthcare leaders who took issue with the views expressed by their colleagues in the field in The Washington Post.
Ingrid Skop, a board-certified OB-GYN who serves as vice president and director of medical affairs at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, was quoted as saying:
As an obstetrician for the last 30 years, I have advocated and cared for both of my patients—mothers and their unborn children. This brazen proclamation from ACOG, while sad to see, is reflective of a discouraging new reality: In ACOG’s leadership and the broader medical community, there’s no place for dissent on the issue of unlimited abortion for any reason, at any time in pregnancy.
We are witnessing, in real time, a vocal, political takeover of a scientific community that represents the most honorable and beautiful profession, responsible for safely bringing new life into the world. I wish ACOG would realize that their promotion of elective abortion without limits isn’t reflective of the views of their own members, considering about 90% of practicing obstetricians will not perform an elective abortion.
Another group to speak out on the debate was the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), which functioned as a “special interest group” within ACOG until 2013. The organization told the Washington Examiner that Zahn and Villavicencio’s remarks were nothing more than “a purely political statement, not a medical one.”
“ACOG’s open endorsement of induced abortion at any point in pregnancy and for any reason is a reflection of neither the medical evidence nor excellent healthcare for our patients,” said AAPLOG. “It is out of step with the views of this nation’s OB-GYNs, the vast majority of whom do not perform induced abortions. Obstetricians enter this specialty to promote the health of both pregnant and preborn patients.”
Anti-abortion laws to protect the unborn have continued to gain traction in Republican-controlled states in the year since the overturn of Roe v. Wade. In just one example, the Indiana Supreme Court voted 4-1 late last month to affirm its previous ruling sustaining a new abortion law that liberal critics describe as “a near-total abortion ban.”
The law makes abortion illegal except for cases of rape and incest up to ten weeks and in the case of a lethal fetal anomaly, or if the mother’s life is at risk up to twenty weeks. The law also limits the practice of abortion to hospitals or surgical centers owned by hospitals, and bans clinics specializing in abortion.
While Democrats and the mainstream media continue to claim that abortion is popular with most Americans, the traction abortion restrictions are gaining across the country at the state level tells a very different story.
