Why abortion advocates are suddenly saying surgical abortions are ‘traumatizing’

Currently, as one state has outlawed the abortion pill and a Texas court case could rule any day against the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) original approval of the abortion pill (mifepristone) in 2000, the abortion industry is concerned. With the “quick and easy” chemical abortion process under threat, abortion advocates have curiously pivoted to claiming that abortion pills are needed so women don’t have to go through “traumatizing” surgical abortions instead.

A meme is circulating on Twitter in response to the new Wyoming legislation. It reads, “When your precious little girl is raped [and] instead of taking an extremely safe [and] effective pill, she’s forced to be retraumatized by an intrusive surgical procedure for no reason other than that fascist Republican extremists want to punish women [and] girls!” the meme reads. “Who will stand up for me? Answer: Democrats.” (emphasis added)

Putting aside the notion that abortion is somehow “necessary” to “fix” the trauma of rape — a harmful myth — this is a strange turn in reasoning for abortion advocates. After all, they’ve spent years assuring us that abortions are no big deal, comparing surgical abortion procedures to removing cavities or wisdom teeth. These actually are rather popular comparisons, with abortion advocates frequently saying that going to get a surgical abortion is so easy, and so not a big deal, that it’s just like going to the dentist!

The Planned Parenthood website, meanwhile, also heavily downplays what surgical abortions are like. A dilation and curettage (D&C) — a first-trimester surgical abortion procedure — is described as something that “only takes about 5 to 10 minutes” and that afterwards, you just “hang out” in a recovery room. No big deal! And the baby is (of course) “gently” removed from the mother’s uterus, according to the nation’s most prolific abortion business.

A dilation and evacuation (D&E) is the most common abortion procedure committed in the second trimester. Under best practices, it’s a process that takes several days, as the abortionist has to use laminaria to slowly dilate the woman’s cervix. However, Planned Parenthood describes it as taking “between 10 and 20 minutes,” and again, concludes with hanging out in the recovery room. And as opposed to using a sopher clamp to rip the preborn child apart limb by limb, the abortionist will merely “use a combination of medical tools to remove the pregnancy tissue out of your uterus.”

So why, all of a sudden, are abortion advocates portraying surgical abortions as traumatizing, when before, they were telling women how easy and carefree it is to undergo them?

It’s a clear compare-and-contrast strategy: convince people to support abortion pills so women don’t have to get those big, scary, surgical abortions. But there’s a problem with this: abortions can be traumatizing, regardless of the type of procedure.

Where it’s a D&C or the abortion pill, an abortion is never risk-free and easy. Even abortionists have admitted that chemical abortions can be traumatic — not just because of the excruciating pain, but because women often give birth to recognizably human remains… and no one told them to expect it. In addition, the abortion pill regimen has been found to be four times more dangerous than a surgical abortion.

Abortion is traumatic. But when abortion advocates begin to admit what pro-lifers have been saying all along, it’s time to ask ourselves why they’re saying it. Is it to protect women, or to further the cause of abortion in a different way?

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