NY governor and MSNBC host repeat the ‘women will die without abortion’ lie

New York Governor Kathy Hochul recently appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” with Mika Brzezinski to discuss new legislation allowing abortionists to send abortion pills to women in pro-life states, despite state laws in place to protect preborn children. Brzezinski and Hochul justified the legislation by claiming it’s necessary to make abortion readily available — because otherwise, women will die.

Hochul made a vaguely-threatening statement that there will be “consequences” for putting pro-life laws in place, and vowed to continue promoting abortion within New York.

“I’m prepared to stand on the constitutional rights of the people in this country. And we’ll — if someone sues us, we’ll fight back, because we cannot be subjugated to these individuals who are just weaponizing every way they can to take away women’s basic rights,” she said. “And we’re sick and tired of this. We’re sick and tired of being victimized by people who are at war with women in this country, whether it’s the Supreme Court of the United States, whether it’s Republicans in Congress, or Republican governors. My god, why don’t they pay attention to the fact that women will be voting? More women vote than men. That is a good thing. And there will be consequences.”

'We're fighting fire with fire': NY gov signs bill protecting abortion providers

Abortion activists have frequently claimed that Americans are as extreme on abortion as they are, but polling has not verified those sentiments. Polling has repeatedly found that voters favor heavy restrictions on abortion and that overall, attitudes on abortion have remained steady — far from a surge in pro-abortion advocacy post-Roe v. Wade as claimed. There has also been an increase in people who identify as pro-life.

Brzezinski then jumped in to claim that women need abortion, or they will die. “These governors who are imposing six-week bans, 15-week bans, they need to be voted out because, at this point, women are going to die or become sterilized because they can’t get the health care you need,” she claimed.

The notion of women dying without abortion has been a constant refrain from abortion defenders, but it has also been repeatedly rebutted. Not a single woman has died as a result of pro-life laws since Roe v. Wade was overturned, which is hardly surprising. Abortion activists have claimed that women died by the thousands before Roe, which is false.

The Pro-Life Reply to: "Women Will Die From Illegal Back Alley Abortions"

A Washington Post fact-check on this claim cited researcher Christopher Tietze, who explained that deaths from abortions had been declining for years before Roe v. Wade. This was not because more women were getting abortions, but because penicillin had been developed, and there were overall improvements in medical procedures.

Former Planned Parenthood medical director Mary Steichen Calderone echoed similar sentiments. “She attributed the decline in the mortality rate to antibiotics and the fact that 90 percent of illegal abortions were done by trained physicians,” the Post said. Calderone also claimed that a tiny minority of women were undergoing abortions at the hands of non-physicians; the overwhelming majority of abortions, even before Roe, were committed by doctors.

The Washington Post reported that the number of deaths from legal abortions in 1972, the year before Roe legalized abortion in every state, was 24; the number from illegal abortions was 29.

Yet abortion advocates continue to use radical, inaccurate rhetoric to fight for their ability to see preborn children killed.

“New York is always just happy to lead,” Hochul said, adding, “[W]e have provided the template. We have the legislation. We have the language. We’re happy to share that with any other governor who actually respects the rights of the women that they are representing in their own states. And so, we’re happy to do it. And we’ll [be] happy to be the test case because we have no choice. Again, this is a war we are in, and we have to use all the arsenal, all the mil – all the assets we have to be able to win this on behalf of our women.”

Data has long since proven that women don’t need abortion. This battle won’t benefit women; it will only serve to benefit the abortion industry.