Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm Johnstone Street. But every few months, since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the 2022 Dobbs decision, another article claims that pro-life laws are keeping women from essential health care, and higher rates of maternal mortality are thus inevitable.
The most recent example was an article in ProPublica magazine, which asserted in its title and I quote: "Ectopic pregnancy deaths have nearly doubled. It's worse in states with abortion bans." End quote. Though the authors were then careful to acknowledge that there are other factors involved, the clear insinuation from the title and the article was that medical professionals in pro-life states are either too afraid to offer proper care to women, or are banned from giving it altogether. According to the article, and I quote, ProPublica analyzed the data collected from every state by the CDC to look for patterns. The analysis shows a growing divide for women in states with strict abortion bans compared with those without.
While the uptick in ectopic deaths occurred nationwide, the climb has been much steeper in states that banned abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. End quote.
Now, of course, the article ignores the first and central fact of any abortion, and that's that every single one of them kills fifty percent of patients. The article also ignored other studies that have found no correlation between legalized abortion and better health outcomes for women. For example, live action summarized one study that looked at the maternal mortality rate, the MMR, around the world. And I quote: "Countries that have legalized abortions, like South Africa, India, Nepal, Cambodia, and Guyana, have not seen the predicted maternal health benefits. By contrast, several countries that disallow abortion, like Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Egypt, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Mexico, and Uganda, have seen significant reduction." And maternal mortality.
End quote.
But for abortion advocates, abortion's healthcare, thus unlimited rights to an abortion, is an essential thing for any society that truly cares about women. Any regulation on abortion will inevitably lead to suffering for women. At least that's the conclusion. Thus, Dobbs must be killing women.
However, the data cited by ProPublica simply does not support blaming the increased rates of maternal mortality on new pro-life laws. In fact, it actually points to a different cause altogether. Ryan Anderson summarized it this way in a post on X: "Quote the big jump in ectopic-related deaths occurred a year before Dobbs and occurs in both pro-life and pro-abortion states." Jamie Bryan Hall also addressed the numbers in an article for National Review. Online in the 21 years from 1999 to 2021, the U.S. averaged 4.2 ectopic pregnancy-related deaths per million live births, and then suddenly in 2021, this figure surged to a peak of 9.8.
It's averaged 7.8 over the past five years, which are five of the seven worst years for ectopic pregnancy-related deaths since 1999. End quote.
In other words, you can't blame post-Dobbs laws for what happened before Dobbs was decided. In fact, another culprit better fits this timing. A far more likely explanation is the sudden rise in chemical abortions in the last few years, which the same pro-abortion advocates claim is as safe as Tylenol. What makes it all the more suspicious is how the spike in maternal deaths corresponds to the FDA loosening regulations on the abortion pill regimen today. As Michael New explained for National Review Online, prescriptions for mifepristone and misoprostol.
No longer require an in-person visit, a follow-up visit, an ultrasound, or a visit to a local pharmacist. Prescriptions for the abortion pill regimen are often given via telehealth visits and delivered through the mail. And even if the FDA's loosening of regulations cannot be blamed as the sole cause of the spike in maternal deaths, the very first pill in the abortion regimen, mifepristone, is far more dangerous than it's advertised, with complications that include bleeding and even death at higher rates than are advertised. When these side effects are tied to the already dangerous crisis of an ectopic pregnancy, well, the outcome is darkly unsurprising. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint.
Today's Breakpoint was co-authored with Dr. Timothy Paget. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download podcasts. And for more resources or to share this commentary with others, go to Breakpoint.org.
