The new director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Mandy Cohen, recently spoke with TIME, during which she shared her thoughts on abortion in the United States.
TIME asked Cohen her opinion on a recent Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision that upheld a Texas judge’s ruling that kept safety protections in place on mifepristone, the first drug of the two-drug abortion pill regimen. “As a physician, and a public health leader, how does that strike you?” asked the outlet.
Cohen explained, “Well, I’m so disappointed that we are here, that we are having the conversation to revisit whether or not women should have access to health care when they need it. And, you know, I will say as a mom of two daughters, a physician, and now the director of the CDC, I’m going to continue to make sure that we are working to make sure women have access to care when they need it, and that they have medical treatment when they need it. We will do everything we can to bring the evidence, the data, the best practices we can and support that.”
She added, “This is obviously an FDA-related issue, but we will support however we can the work that’s being done across the government to support women in their reproductive health.”
She also called access to abortion one of her “priorities” and “area[s] of focus” and highlighted her belief in the importance of birth control. She wants women to have “access to the tools that can keep them healthy at all moments of their life.”
But abortion is not one of those “tools” that would accomplish this. In fact, one might wonder — what “disease” is being controlled or “prevented” by killing a preborn child, and why would the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention promote it?
Induced abortion is the intentional and direct killing of innocent human beings prior to birth, not a treatment for disease. Directly and intentionally killing preborn children — or any human — is not necessary in order to treat another person’s health condition or protect their health in any way.
There are times when a pregnancy must end in order to save a woman’s life or health, but the doctor does not have to take the time to kill the preborn baby prior to delivery. In many cases from 21 weeks on, the baby’s life can also be saved. However, if the baby dies as a result of a preterm delivery performed to save the mother’s life, this would not have been an abortion, but a natural death as the result of a necessary delivery.
A new peer-reviewed study from the Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) and the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) suggests that women whose first pregnancies end in abortion have worse mental health outcomes than those whose first pregnancies end in birth. Women who have undergone abortions report feelings of guilt, depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts.
After an abortion, women have said, “All I feel is emptiness…,” “The pain and emptiness stay forever,” and “I am haunted by the image of my tiny baby… I cut myself and even wanted to die.”
In addition, abortion is physically dangerous. The abortion pill has been found to be four times more dangerous for women than a first-trimester surgical abortion. A 2021 study also found that abortion pill-related ER visits increased 507% since 2002. Women who take the abortion pill have a 22% greater risk of an ER visit for any reason, and a 53% greater risk of an ER visit for abortion-related reasons.
Women who had a chemical abortion followed by a second abortion of any kind within the next year were more than twice as likely to require ER treatment. However, the abortion pill was not the only abortion procedure to see an increase in ER visits during that same time frame. Following a surgical abortion, ER visits increased 315%.
Abortion is not health care; it is killing.
