Kentucky Today reports that it was able to obtain records from the Cabinet of Health and Family Services on potential abortions committed in September of this year.
Two women reportedly received emergency medical treatment for life-threatening pregnancy-related conditions — illustrating that pro-life laws are not preventing women from accessing life-saving emergency care — but also demonstrating that the Kentucky pro-life law does not protect all children from intentional killing via induced abortion.
Ectopic pregnancy treatment
One woman is said to have received treatment for an ectopic pregnancy at nine weeks gestation. This treatment was deemed successful and she did not require follow-up care. However, treatment for an ectopic pregnancy is not considered an induced abortion because its intent is to save the mother’s life in an emergency situation, not to intentionally kill a preborn child.
Oddly, while Kentucky law defines “abortion” as (emphasis added) “the use of any means whatsoever to terminate the pregnancy of a woman known to be pregnant with intent to cause fetal death…” the state’s law also says that ‘removal of an ectopic pregnancy’ is allowed under the law as an “abortion.”
Despite constant claims that pro-life laws put women’s lives at risk, the reality is, women receive the life-saving care they need every day. Emily Zanotti, a writer and journalist who lives in the pro-life state of Tennessee, responded to a histrionic pro-abortion ad which claimed women can’t get pregnancy care in pro-life states. Zanotti pointed out that she was able to receive ectopic pregnancy treatment under her state’s pro-life law.
“I had a ruptured ectopic pregnancy in a state with an abortion ban, just weeks after Dobbs…” she tweeted in response to the ad. “What you are doing isn’t ‘informing.’ It’s terrifying women in my exact situation into not getting care. This is horrifying, triggering, and a complete lie.”
A pre-existing medical condition
According to Kentucky Today, the second woman underwent a dilation and curettage (D&C) procedure; the reasons were not completely clear, but two physicians allegedly said an abortion was necessary due to a pre-existing medical condition.
It is unclear if the woman’s health or life was definitively at risk, but what is clear and well-understood among OB/GYNs is that even if it were, intentionally and directly causing the death of a preborn child is not medically necessary.
“What women deserve to know… even in the most high risk pregnancies, there is no medical reason why the life of the child must be directly, intentionally ended with an abortion procedure,” explained neonatologist Dr. Kendra Kolb in a video for Live Action.
READ: ‘GLORY TO GOD’: Pro-life speaker and author Leah Darrow’s son, born at 22 weeks, is home
Treatments for health conditions like miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy are not abortions; this is something that even Planned Parenthood admitted until it was no longer politically advantageous to do so. Explanations that ectopic pregnancy treatment is not an abortion were present on Planned Parenthood’s website as recently as 2022.
Dr. Christina Francis, a board-certified OB/GYN and CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, recently said during a press conference that pro-life laws rarely affect how most OB/GYNs practice.
“We continue to provide the same care we have always provided. We can continue to walk with our patients through the best and the worst times of their lives,” she said. “The only people’s practices who needed to change in states with pro-life laws were those providing elective induced abortions. Intentionally ending the life of our fetal patients is not health care. Pregnancy is not a disease.”
Call on President Trump to pardon the FACE Act prisoners on his first day in office.
