FACT CHECK: Media deceives by omitting facts, and by likening miscarriage to abortion

The latest pro-abortion article in a series from States Newsroom attempts to blame the alleged denial of a Florida woman’s miscarriage treatment on Louisiana’s pro-life law. The article, in typical hit piece fashion, avoids discussing the actual pro-life law in question while repeating the pro-abortion lies that have been perpetuated by media in recent months.

This newest effort to vilify pro-life laws concerns the tragic loss of a child in the womb at 10 weeks. The baby had not been growing properly, and the mother, Tabitha Crowe, was worried she was going to lose her child. At 10 weeks, her baby had only grown to about the size of a six-week-old embryo.

At a Glance:

• A woman believes a hospital in Louisiana would not perform a D&C to complete her miscarriage due to the state’s pro-life law, though the hospital gave her misoprostol (sometimes used as an abortoin drug) to complete her miscarriage instead.

• Louisiana’s pro-life law specifically states that the removal of a deceased child after a miscarriage is not considered an abortion and is legal.

• The media’s reporting refers misleadingly to miscarriage treatments as “terminations” while also referring to induced abortions (which intentionally end the lives of preborn children) as “terminations.”

• The media’s conflation of miscarriage and abortion is deceiving the public rather than educating the public.

• Media stories discussing the “preventable deaths” of pregnant women are also misleading the public into believing that women are dying because of the laws in pro-life states; in reality, 80% of all pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. are labeled “preventable,” and some pro-abortion states have even higher percentages of pregnancy-related deaths than pro-life ones.

A tragic loss of life

Crowe lives in Florida, but was visiting her parents in Louisiana when she began to experience signs of a miscarriage.

She went to LSU Health Lallie Kemp Medical Center in Independence, Louisiana, on August 8. She was heavily bleeding, passing clots, and in pain — all common for miscarriage. Though States Newsroom does not mention if her baby had a heartbeat, doctors sent her home to complete the miscarriage. This is the “expectant management” approach to miscarriage, which can take up to eight weeks, according to the Mayo Clinic. Mayo recommends expectant management for miscarriage if there are no symptoms of infection. If the miscarriage does not complete, the Mayo Clinic recommends “medicines or surgery” to help.

Two days after returning to her parents’ home, Crowe woke up screaming and crying in extreme pain. She went back to Lallie Kemp, where doctors transferred her to St. Tammany Parish Hospital Emergency Department in Covington, Louisiana, because it was the closest hospital with an OB/GYN unit.

Dr. Matloob Rehman, Lallie Kemp’s medical director, told States Newsroom, “Lallie Kemp is a small, rural hospital without a full complement of specialists, including obstetrical surgery. If a patient is in need of such care, it is Lallie Kemp’s practice to refer or transfer the patient to a hospital that can provide such services.”

While at St. Tammany, Crowe received pain medication and ultrasounds, and was cleared of blood clots. She was also (allegedly unbeknownst to her) administered misoprostol, a drug used to treat miscarriage that is also the second drug of the two-drug abortion pill regimen.

Research published by the American Academy of Family Physicians states that 80% to 99% of women given misoprostol are able to complete a miscarriage. According to the Mayo Clinic, adding mifepristone would have made the treatment more effective, but mifepristone can only be dispensed under the supervision of a prescriber certified by its manufacturer (Danco), and it is unclear if St. Tammany or any of its physicians are certified prescribers. While at St. Tammany, Crowe asked staff for a D&C — a surgical procedure used to complete an early miscarriage when the administration of drugs or other treatments fail. She did not receive one.

A D&C or suction D&C may also be used to intentionally kill preborn children in first-trimester abortions; however, treating the miscarriage of an already-deceased preborn child and intentionally killing a preborn child are entirely different. And in Louisiana, only procedures intended to end the life of a living preborn human are against the law.

“They did ultrasounds and all that, but they didn’t help make sure that the miscarriage was completing,” Crowe said. “We kept telling them, ‘Hey, can y’all just do this D&C, so like, we can be done with this pain?’ They wouldn’t answer.”

Her sister said that she “had a sense” the doctors wouldn’t give Crowe a D&C because of the state’s pro-life law (which, incidentally, specifically states that miscarriage treatment is allowed and is not considered an abortion).

“I had a sense it was because of the abortion laws, because by the time they did the canal sweep of blood clots, they didn’t even want to listen that I was in pain anymore. They were like, brushing it off, like, you’ll be fine,” Crowe said. “Even if them not doing it was wasn’t because of the abortion laws, I still didn’t get the treatment that I needed.”

Crowe admits that the hospital’s reasoning may not have been the state’s pro-life law, and despite not being given her requested D&C, Crowe was given misoprostol — which may also be used as an abortion drug.

A hospital worried about breaking a pro-life law by performing a D&C should be just as worried to administer a drug used in the abortion pill regimen — and therefore, since Crowe received misoprostol, it seems that the reasoning of staff in this case (choosing not to perform a D&C) had nothing to do with a pro-life state law.

There are risks with a D&C, including infection and injury to internal organs; perhaps this played a part in the hospital’s decision, but most doctors will provide a woman with the treatment she prefers (expectant management, medication, or surgery) after providing her with all of the benefits and risks of each. The staff’s reasoning is unknown.

States Newsroom said it obtained Crowe’s medical records, which indicate that the miscarriage was completed at St. Tammany.

However, Crowe and her husband returned to their home state of Florida, where they went to the emergency room on Eglin Air Force Base where she said she was given a D&C. States Newsroom argued that because the emergency room was on the base under “federal jurisdiction,” Crowe could have the D&C she wanted because abortion is allowed.

But according to the Department of Veteran Affairs, abortions are allowed at its hospitals only for cases of rape, incest, and to save the life of the mother — which would mean that Crowe’s D&C was done for the purpose of miscarriage, not abortion. That hospital did not respond to States Newsroom’s request for comment.

When the media refuses to clearly articulate the simple difference between accidental death (miscarriage) and abortion (intentional killing), they mislead the public. This isn’t journalism; it’s the promotion of a certain agenda through the dissemination of lies.

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Louisiana’s pro-life law

States Newsroom also claims that pro-life states are no longer offering the same miscarriage care they used to:

But increasingly, women say they are being denied routine miscarriage care in states like Louisiana, where doctors face imprisonment if they perform an abortion unless a woman is at risk of dying, and where common miscarriage drugs are now more difficult to access.

Doctors in Louisiana and Texas have also reported a rise in patients whose pregnancies are no longer viable receiving more risky and invasive terminations, such as Cesarean sections and inductions, in lieu of abortion procedures. It’s a change in practice some doctors involved in the anti-abortion movement endorse.

In this statement, States Newsroom conflates “terminations” with “Cesarean sections and inductions.” But a “termination” is widely understood to be an induced abortion, which is the direct and intentional killing of a preborn child. The delivery of miscarried or stillborn baby, regardless of the method, is not an abortion and is not prohibited by Louisiana law; to call it a “termination” is, again, only serving to create confusion among readers, who will begin to associate miscarriage treatment and abortion as if they are one and the same.

But then… perhaps that’s the pro-abortion media’s goal.

Regardless of what doctors at St. Tammany did or didn’t do, pro-life laws do not dictate how miscarriages or stillbirths should be managed. In those situations, the preborn baby has already died. Pro-life laws serve to protect living preborn children from being actively killed in the womb for the convenience of the mother or the person(s) pressuring her to abort.

Louisiana defines “abortion” as “the act of using or prescribing any instrument, medicine, drug, or any other substance, device, or means with the intent to terminate the clinically diagnosable pregnancy of a woman with knowledge that the termination by those means will, with reasonable likelihood, cause the death of the unborn child.”

It is also clear about instances in which using these “means” is not an abortion:

Such use, prescription, or means is not an abortion if done with the intent to:

(a) Save the life or preserve the health of an unborn child.

(b) Remove a dead unborn child or induce delivery of the uterine contents in case of a positive diagnosis, certified in writing in the woman’s medical record along with the results of an obstetric ultrasound test, that the pregnancy has ended or is in the unavoidable and untreatable process of ending due to spontaneous miscarriage, also known in medical terminology as spontaneous abortion, missed abortion, inevitable abortion, incomplete abortion, or septic abortion.

(c) Remove an ectopic pregnancy.

The state’s pro-life law says (emphases added):

No person may knowingly administer to, prescribe for, or procure for, or sell to any pregnant woman any medicine, drug, or other substance with the specific intent of causing or abetting the termination of the life of an unborn human being. No person may knowingly use or employ any instrument or procedure upon a pregnant woman with the specific intent of causing or abetting the termination of the life of an unborn human being.

It also notes:

Medical treatment provided to the mother by a licensed physician which results in the accidental or unintentional injury or death to the unborn child is not a violation [of the law]

If doctors refused to perform a D&C for Crowe, it was not because of the pro-life law.

Recommendations for miscarriage

States Newsroom cites the pro-abortion American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ (ACOG) recommendations, saying, “When intervention is necessary in the first trimester, ACOG recommends abortion medications or procedures such as vacuum aspiration or dilation and curettage (D&C).” This means that ACOG recommends intervening only if necessary in first trimester miscarriages.

This is in line with recommendations from the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic, which advise expectant management if there are no symptoms of infection, followed by medication or surgery if the miscarriage does not complete in a timely manner or the woman shows signs of infection. Crowe received misoprostol.

States Newsroom continued, “Later in pregnancy, recommended termination procedures include dilation and evacuation (D&E), which has a high safety record but is condemned by anti-abortion groups and banned in some states.” Notice the use of the word “termination” here. In the event of a child’s death in utero later in pregnancy, it is called a “stillbirth.”

A surgical procedure to remove a deceased preborn baby’s body is not a “termination,” a.k.a an induced abortion. Induced abortion is the act of intentionally and deliberately killing the child before delivery. By using the word “termination” to describe delivery options for a baby who has already died, States Newsroom is conflating miscarriage and induced abortion with the goal of convincing readers that if a procedure used for an induced abortion is also used for a miscarriage or stillbirth, then the use of that procedure itself is what pro-life laws prohibit. This is a lie.

A D&E procedure involves dismemberment, and pro-life groups stand solidly against the dismemberment of living human beings. While dismemberment is the least compassionate and most violent approach to miscarriage care because it destroys the baby’s body and denies parents the opportunity to hold and take photos of their baby, pro-life laws do not prohibit it for miscarried children; pro-life laws specifically protect living babies from the procedure, not ones who have already tragically died by natural miscarriage.

States Newsroom makes a bold and faulty claim when it states that the D&E procedure has “high safety records.” A large part of the “core messaging” of pro-abortion ACOG is that “Abortion is safe” but there is no proof of this. Abortion data are faulty because there are major flaws in the U.S.’s abortion surveillance system, including that there are no mandatory reporting requirements for abortion or abortion complications. As of September 1, 2023, only 28 states require postabortion complications reports from abortionists, but since then, more pro-abortion states have ended or are considering ending any such reporting, including Michigan, which in June of this year announced that its 2023 abortion report would be its last.

Dr. Susan Bane, board-certified OB/GYN and member of the American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecoloigsts explained to Live Action News, “We do not have mandatory reporting requirements in our country, which leads to underestimating the number of abortions and risks for complications. Faulty data lead to faulty conclusions.”

What is known is that the further along in pregnancy a woman is, the riskier an abortion is and the second-trimester D&E procedure carries significant risk such as uterine rupture — as was the case for two women “mangled” just days apart at an abortion facility in Maryland in 2020.

Stories in the media

Stories portrayed by the media as tragic effects of pro-life laws are dominating headlines. States Newsroom claims that “some state health departments are working to make these stories harder to learn about.”

“In Texas, ProPublica reported that at least three women have died because of delays in care caused by the state’s abortion bans. Despite these reported deaths, Texas’ Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee said it wouldn’t examine any pregnancy-related deaths from 2022 and 2023, the first two years after the state’s near-total abortion ban took effect, according to the Washington Post,” States Newsroom wrote.

This is true, but it’s not the first time the committee has made such a decision, and it will not completely omit the data from those years. The committee’s chair, Dr. Carla Ortique, explained, “This is not the first time we’ve leapfrogged forward. In an effort to be more contemporary, recognizing what’s happening in the state, [we felt this was necessary]. If we were to keep reviewing year after year, we’d still be in 2016, probably.”

Lara M. Anton, Senior Press Officer for the Texas Department of Health and Human Services, further explained, “It’s important to note that the case reviews are not the only tool we have for understanding maternal health. Our Maternal and Child Health epidemiologists continue to analyze and publish data on maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity for the intervening years, including maternal mortality ratios and their cause and timing of death analysis. Some data from 2022 has already been added to the dashboards and additional data for 2022 and 2023 will be added as the analyses are completed.”

The plan is to look at more recent deaths to see where the gaps in healthcare are.

Georgia recently fired its entire Maternal Mortality Review Committee following a confidentiality breach in which someone on the committee gave women’s data to ProPublica. This was a breach of ethics. It was not determined who on the committee was behind the breach, so all members were let go and will be replaced.

States Newsroom also mentioned the disbandment of Idaho’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee, which last issued a report on data from 2021, after Roe fell.

“Idaho, shortly after banning abortion, disbanded its Maternal Mortality Review Committee in 2023 after members recommended expanding Medicaid,” it wrote. “The recently re-established committee is now backlogged and focused on publishing 2023 data in January before tackling 2022 data. The committee’s last report, based on 2021 data, showed the state’s maternal mortality rate had doubled in recent years and most of the deaths were preventable.”

The truth is that regardless of the state, the majority of maternal deaths are deemed preventable. However, since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturning Roe was handed down, media outlets have been weaponizing the word “preventable” to attack pro-life laws.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), collectively, 80% (or four in five) of pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. are determined to be “preventable.”

Even in pro-abortion states, the majority of pregnancy-related deaths have been deemed “preventable” and the “leading underlying cause of pregnancy-related death” is mental health conditions (23%), followed by excessive bleeding (14%), cardiac and coronary conditions (13%), infection (9%), thrombotic embolism (9%), cardiomyopathy (9%) and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (7%).

In the pro-abortion state of Illinois, 91% of pregnancy-related deaths between 2018 and 2020 were labeled “preventable.” In New Jersey between 2016 and 2018, 91% of pregnancy-related deaths were labeled “preventable,” and in California between 2018 and 2020, 80% of pregnancy-related deaths were labeled “preventable.”

But the media has overwhelmingly engaged in deception by omission, and has chosen not to report these facts.

The Associated Press, in one exception, recently admitted that pregnant women tragically die in both pro-life and pro-abortion states from causes deemed “preventable.” Preventable pregnancy deaths occurred under Roe and they are still happening in pro-abortion states today.

The number of women dying in the U.S. from pregnancy-related causes more than doubled in the 20 years between 1999 and 2019 — during the reign of Roe v. Wade — according to a study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

If maternal mortality deaths are continuing to rise, it is not because of pro-life laws.

Tell President Trump, RFK, Jr., Elon, and Vivek:

Stop killing America’s future. Defund Planned Parenthood NOW!