At the third and final debate last Wednesday, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump drew a lot of criticism for his medically inaccurate and emotionally charged description of late-term abortion.
Trump described a procedure that rips the baby out of the womb in the ninth month of pregnancy — a shocking characterization that medical experts have denounced and refuted as a gross distortion of the procedure. Here’s what he said:
If you go with what Hillary is saying, in the ninth month you can take baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother just prior to the birth of the baby. Now, you can say that that is okay and Hillary can say that that is okay, but it’s not okay with me. Because based on what she is saying and based on where she’s going and where she’s been, you can take baby and rip the baby out of the womb. In the ninth month. On the final day. And that’s not acceptable.
In a blog post, obstetrician/gynecologist Dr. Jennifer Gunter linked Trump’s statements to a general medical literacy problem in politics, particularly among those who wish to curb women’s access to safe abortions. This got us thinking: What do more doctors and researchers who care for women wish policymakers knew about abortion?
We surveyed OB/GYNs, family planning doctors and reproductive researchers to ask what they wish politicians would understand about a person’s decision to end a pregnancy. Read on to learn more about abortion in the U.S., how doctors view the procedure and what policymakers should know about abortion access.
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“Abortion is healthcare ? and any attempt by policymakers to separate it from the rest of medicine is artificial.” ? Dr. Daniel Grossman
Every year, more than one million women in the U.S. have an abortion. Excluding miscarriages, 21 percent of all pregnancies in the U.S. ended in abortion, according to a 2011 study. Says Grossman:
The thing that I wish were better appreciated is that abortion is healthcare ? and any attempt by policymakers to separate it from the rest of medicine is artificial. Women are more sure of their decision to have an abortion than are patients who go through other comparable medical procedures. In terms of safety, abortion is at least as safe or safer than similar clinic-based procedures that are not regulated as stringently as abortion. Like other healthcare, health insurance, including Medicaid, should cover abortion care, as is done in most other countries where abortion is legal. And finally, abortion training needs to be a part of medical and nursing education everywhere ? because it’s healthcare.
Daniel Grossman is a professor in the department of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at University of California, San Francisco. He is also director of Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) at Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health at the University of California, San Francisco.
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“The public approaches the decision of abortion with sympathy and sadness regardless of the situation.” – Dr. Laura Laursen
The majority of Americans (53 percent) do not want the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion in at least the first trimester. That figure comes from a 2012 Gallup poll, the most recent year this question was asked. A more recent, similar survey from Gallup in 2016 found that twenty-nine percent of Americans think abortion should be legal under all circumstances, while 50 percent say it should be legal under certain circumstances. According to Laursen:
The public approaches the decision of abortion with sympathy and sadness regardless of the situation. Women chose abortion in order to improve the lives of themselves and those they care about. Instead of shaming women, intentionally or unintentionally, we should be empowering and celebrating all women who make decisions that are right for themselves and their families.
Laura Laursen is a family planning fellow at the University of Chicago Medical Center.