A North Carolina politician switched parties from Democratic to Republican earlier this year — and now, she’s being accused of lying about an abortion.
In April, Tricia Cotham left the Democratic Party and joined the GOP. Many speculated that it was due to Democrats’ increasing extremism on abortion, though Cotham had previously been endorsed by the pro-abortion EMILY’S List. Cotham herself mostly remained quiet about the issue, beyond insinuating that Democrats all but forced her out, particularly singling out Governor Roy Cooper as being too controlling.
When a pro-life bill protecting preborn children from abortion came up for a vote this spring, Cotham voted in favor of it, saying it struck a “reasonable balance.” Her vote helped to override Cooper’s veto.
Previously, Cotham had voted in favor of codifying Roe v. Wade.
Though Cotham appears to still support abortion’s legalization, she is coming under fire for previous comments she made in 2015 concerning the loss of her preborn baby.
A ‘likely not viable’ pregnancy
In a 2015 speech, Cotham argued against a 72-hour waiting period for abortion and cited her own experience as to why she opposed such a bill.
“My first pregnancy ended in an induced physician-assisted miscarriage, while I served in this chamber,” she said at the time. “It’s not the type of miscarriage that we often think of where you lose the baby completely and it’s over. That’s not what happened. My doctor told me that my pregnancy would likely not be viable and that if I did not take swift medical action my life and any hope of future babies would be in severe danger. I trusted my doctor and her medical expertise. The time-sensitive medical process, procedures that I had to endure began immediately and it was awful. And it didn’t work. The doctor told me that I had to take more aggressive medical action. This would require a hospital check-in, hospital stay, procedures, and even chemotherapy. It was awful. It was painful. And it was sad. And it is and was personal. But I knew and I trusted that God had a plan for me. This decision was up to me, my husband, my doctor, and my God. It was not up to any of you in this chamber.”
Her speech would later be used by Time Magazine in an article about lawmakers sharing their own abortion stories:
On April 23, 2015, NC Rep. Tricia Cotham delivers emotional speech in opposition to proposed waiting periods for women seeking abortions. She shares personal story. “This decision was up to me, my husband, my doctor and my God. It was not up to any of you in this chamber.” #ncpol pic.twitter.com/2Of51R7amX
— Bryan Anderson (@BryanRAnderson) April 5, 2023
A miscarriage or an abortion?
Then, in an interview this week with WBT Charlotte’s News Talk host Brett Jensen, Cotham said that, since switching parties and voting in favor of a pro-life law, she has faced threats and backlash from both sides of the aisle, directed not only at her but at her family as well.
What she said has been hurting her the most is the exploitation of her miscarriage, described by abortion advocates as an abortion.
“I think the hardest thing and the most unfortunate — deeply personal — and this is deeply wrong,” Cotham said. “I had a miscarriage, and a miscarriage in medical terms is called a spontaneous abortion. And instead of saying — first of all — they should not be talking about my miscarriage, that is just very painful and wrong — but they are repeating this message that I had an abortion. And that is false. And that is completely frustrating and they keep on doing it and that’s below the belt.”
The New Republic (TNR) criticized her as hypocritical, pointing to the remarks she made in 2015 as proof. TNR’s Tori Otten wrote:
A common Republican talking point is to portray medically assisted miscarriages and abortion as different things. This allows them to pretend they care about people who get pregnant, because they can say they aren’t actually banning medically necessary procedures.
Except, treatment for a medical miscarriage and abortion are the same: Either a health care provider will give the patient medication to induce the miscarriage and expel the fetus, or a doctor will dilate the patient’s cervix and remove the fetal tissue.
However, while treating a miscarriage (in which a child has already died) and committing an abortion (directly killing a living child) may utilize the same instruments, one intentionally causes a child’s death and one does not.
What really happened?
MyFox8 reported in May 2023, that in addition to her comments in favor of a pro-life bill, Cotham also said (emphasis added):
Some call me a hypocrite since I voted for this bill. They presume to know my story. As I said at the time, I had an ectopic pregnancy that sadly ended in miscarriage, not an elective abortion. In fact, Senate Bill 20 affirms the life-saving care I received in that dire situation. It was very important to me that this legislation protects all women going through a miscarriage or other complications – and it most certainly does.
Though it wasn’t explicitly clear in 2015, Cotham had experienced an ectopic pregnancy — and when she said she required “chemotherapy,” she quite possibly meant methotrexate, a type of chemotherapy that is also used to treat ectopic pregnancies.
Ectopic pregnancy treatments are not considered induced abortions and are not prohibited by any pro-life law that currently exists. However, abortion advocates continue to conflate miscarriage treatment, emergency deliveries, and ectopic pregnancy treatments with induced abortion.
Treatment for miscarriages vs. abortions
Treatment for medical miscarriage and abortion are the same, but they are not equal. In a medical miscarriage, the preborn child has already died; the dilation and curettage (D&C), typically the most common procedure performed in this scenario, is being used to remove the deceased child’s body from the mother’s uterus. Likewise, medication can be used to expel the already deceased child if the miscarriage is incomplete. An incomplete miscarriage can cause an infection that can lead to death for the mother, and therefore, must be addressed.
In an induced abortion, however, the preborn child is alive at the start of the procedure, which is being committed to intentionally and directly kill the preborn child before delivery. In this case, the D&C is being used to cause the child’s death, or a drug (mifepristone) is given to kill the child before a second drug (misoprostol) expels the baby’s body. Even well-respected medical organizations, like Mayo Clinic, differentiate between routine medical care and induced abortion (emphasis added):
Dilation and curettage (D&C) is a procedure to remove tissue from inside your uterus. Health care providers perform dilation and curettage to diagnose and treat certain uterine conditions — such as heavy bleeding — or to clear the uterine lining after a miscarriage or abortion.
Natural or accidental death is in no way comparable to actively killing someone. It’s something that Planned Parenthood – the nation’s largest abortion chain – has previously acknowledged, before trying to cover up its admission.
Unsurprisingly, this tendency of abortion activists to equate miscarriage and abortion has infuriated many women, including women who support legal abortion. That’s because it’s obvious that there is a difference between someone who is already dead and someone who is alive.
