Antiabortion Extremists Are Playing Language Games
Abortion opponents claim that there’s never a medically necessary reason for abortion. That flies in the face of medical reality. So in states with abortion bans, they’re simply redefining abortion to make their point — and make it easier to criminalize.
Protesters speak through megaphones at the fiftieth annual March for Life rally on January 20, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
Nearly two years into our post-Roe reality, the effect of state abortion bans is every bit as bad as expected.
Physicians in Louisiana report that the state’s near-total abortion ban, which went into effect in July of 2022, has resulted in pregnant patients being denied care for miscarriages, given unnecessary C-sections, and made to wait until their lives are at risk before receiving abortion care.
One Louisiana maternal-fetal medicine specialist described the case of a pregnant patient who was forced to remain pregnant despite having serious cardiac complications that threatened her life:
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