A new bill introduced in the House of Representatives would install a federal bureaucrat to promote access to abortion, as well as to report suspected “misinformation” that abortion activists could use to attack or undermine pro-life speech.
The HHS Reproductive and Sexual Health Ombuds Act of 2022 seeks to create a position within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for a public advocate or point of contact – an ombud – to promote abortion, disseminate information about abortion, and monitor so-called “misinformation” about abortion. The bill is backed by abortion activist groups including NARAL, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and the National Partnership for Women and Families.
According to the proposed legislation, the ombud would not only “provide the public with evidence-based and medically accurate information related to medication abortions conducted outside formal medical settings,” but also will “collect information regarding, and to address, reproductive and sexual health misinformation being disseminated to the public.”
If such information is found, it could flag an audit or investigation by the Department’s Inspector General.
The bill defines misinformation as practices that are “not evidence based” or are medically “inaccurate” — a definition that could open the door to government attacks on pro-life arguments, most fundamentally that induced abortion is not truly medically necessary, can be dangerous to women, and involves the intentional killing of a preborn baby.
Pro-abortion organizations and politicians — as well as abortion-friendly media — have a history of bias in favor of promoting abortion and enshrining the goal of promoting its “access” over and above all potentially contradicting scientific information, like the science of fetal development proving the preborn baby’s humanity.
Consider the following: a recent article in the Guardian purported to show “pregnancy tissue” in order to make abortion more palatable, but failed to show an embryo, eventually even garnering backlash from abortion supporters. Abortion giant Planned Parenthood purports to provide adoption referrals, but in reality, it discourages options other than abortion. Abortion supporters frequently call abortion pill reversal protocol “junk science” despite promising research into the protocol and a lack of adverse effects (after all, progesterone has been used to prevent miscarriage for decades). The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has even changed its guidance about ultrasounds and exams before first-trimester abortions in order to stay in step with the abortion industry. The abortion pill has been framed as so “safe” and “necessary” that some providers are prescribing the drugs “just in case” — a move which prompted a recent warning against such prescriptions from the FDA.
Yet none of these examples have been labeled as “misinformation” by those in positions of power.
The proposed legislation was introduced by Congresswoman Nikema Williams, a member of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus. Williams asserted that the bill is needed because women are confused. “As the assault on abortion rights continues, people are scared and confused as to what resources are available for them,” the congresswoman said in a press release.
The bill comes as efforts to utilize the federal government to promote abortion have accelerated since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June. Since issuing an executive order establishing an interagency task force to promote abortion, President Biden has directed federal agencies – like the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Justice, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and even the Department of Defense – to use all available means to expand access to abortion.
