Fact Check: Dobbs Will Not Impact Life-Saving Medical Care for High Risk or Ectopic Pregnancies

Common Abortion Procedures and Pills Don’t Treat Ectopic Pregnancies

Washington, D.C. – Pro-abortion politicians and pundits are dangerously spreading misinformation that the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs will prevent pregnant women from receiving necessary medical care in the event of life-threatening complications.

For example, Daily Beast columnist and former CNN commentator Wajahat Ali tweeted on Friday:

Dr. Christina Francis, M.D., a board-certified OB/GYN and associate scholar at Charlotte Lozier Institute, responded:

“My heart is breaking that women are being made to feel fearful by the misinformation that’s out there.  Treating ectopic pregnancies or miscarriages or other life-threatening conditions in pregnancy is not the same thing as an abortion.  Chemical abortions, which are being heavily promoted by the abortion industry and its allies,  cannot treat an ectopic pregnancy according to the FDA.  The treatments for ectopic pregnancy are not the same procedures used by induced abortions, which even Planned Parenthood admits.    As a pro-life OB/GYN who’s practiced my entire career in hospitals that do not allow abortions, I have never been prevented from safely treating an ectopic pregnancy.

“In the rare but tragic situations where a pregnancy puts the mother’s life at risk, there are medical procedures for compassionately separating the mother and her baby and working to save both lives.  The only intent of an abortion is to produce a dead baby.  Women deserve to be empowered by medically-accurate information.”

Dr. Francis also serves as board member and CEO-elect of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG).

Dr. Ingrid Skop, M.D., F.A.C.O.G., a board-certified OB/GYN who serves as senior fellow and director of medical affairs at Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI), has published a comprehensive fact sheet examining the common medical indications and treatments for life-threatening medical complications during pregnancy, including ectopic pregnancy, previable preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPPROM), and management of a spontaneous miscarriage.

“Those of us who regularly treat women facing challenging and even traumatic pregnancies know that standard medical procedures are available to treat these situations without resorting to abortion.  In fact, the overwhelming majority of OB/GYNs do not perform abortions, and that’s good news for women’s health, as it is much safer for the woman to be treated in a medical setting with access to emergency care than at an abortion facility.”

Dr. Tara Sander Lee., Ph.D., a Harvard-trained scientist who serves on the Biden Administration’s Health and Human Services Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Infant and Maternal Mortality, pushed back on another inaccurate statement currently making the rounds in legacy media and on social media:

“Just because someone like Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says that ‘people will die because of this decision’ doesn’t make it true.  The fact is that the quality of U.S. maternal mortality data is quite poor.  Even the CDC recognizes that improved maternal mortality surveillance is needed.  Plus, several of the states with the highest numbers of abortions don’t report their data.  This creates a black hole, from which abortion advocates pull flawed statistics claiming that childbirth is more dangerous than abortion.

“In Scandinavian countries with far more accurate and complete reporting on pregnancy outcomes, abortion, and childbirth, multiple studies show that the risk of premature death from abortion is almost four times greater than that from childbirth.  Facts matter.”

Dr. Lee is senior fellow and director of life sciences at CLI.  She is lead editor of the Voyage of Life website, which provides accurate, scientific information about human prenatal development, including a “dive deeper” section on ectopic pregnancies.

Charlotte Lozier Institute was launched in 2011 as the education and research arm of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. CLI is a hub for research and public policy analysis on some of the most pressing issues facing the United States and nations around the world. The Institute is named for a feminist physician known for her commitment to the sanctity of human life and equal career and educational opportunities for women.

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