Planned Parenthood, ACLU fight to allow non-physicians to commit surgical abortions

While the oft-repeated pro-choice mantra is that abortion should be “between a woman and her doctor,” Planned Parenthood and the ACLU are suing the state of Maine over a law dictating just that.

Planned Parenthood and the ACLU believe requiring that a physician must be the one to commit an abortion is a “restriction” which is “medically unjustified,” because it would, according to the ACLU, “block[] qualified nurse practitioners and nurse-midwives” from committing the procedure. The group’s key objection seems to be that this law would restrict abortion access to a large extent. In a press release, the ACLU of Maine writes:

In its press release, the ACLU of Maine quotes “experts” in support of allowing non-physicians to commit abortion — but, of course, most of these quoted experts are employed within the profitable abortion industry.

READ: California study justifying non-physician abortion law debunked

Townhall.com notes that Maine’s law is actually not at all unusual. In fact, “[l]aws requiring that abortions be provided only by medical doctors are currently on the books in 41 states, but Planned Parenthood is hoping to change that.” In the same article, Dr. Raegan McDonald-Moseley, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood, is quoted as saying that such “outdated restrictions… don’t help keep women safe, and aren’t grounded in thorough research or the best science.”

But for an organization with a pro-abortion agenda, which takes the lives of more than 328,000 preborn human beings every year (according to its latest annual report), Planned Parenthood might want to use caution when invoking the idea of “the best science.”

The “best science” tells us that human life begins at fertilization (conception). The “best science” via ultrasound gives us a window to the womb, which further demonstrates to us that preborn children are alive, active, and very much human. The “best science” tells us that the fetal heart may actually begin to beat as early as 16 days after conception, brain waves can be detected by six weeks, and from the moment of conception, each preborn child has his/her own distinct DNA. Planned Parenthood ignores all of the best science in favor of its pro-abortion agenda.

Baby Development Week by Week

But what else could be behind this fight being waged by Planned Parenthood, an organization which purports to care about women’s health, while eating away at every single possible regulation of a procedure that has uterine perforation and even death as its potential risks?

Could it be that finding an actual medical doctor willing to commit abortions is more difficult than we’ve been led to believe? Circuit-riding abortionists — physicians who travel from abortion facility to abortion facility for the sole purpose of committing abortions — are quite common. Live Action News’ Susan Michelle-Hanson wrote in 2015, “… [T]hough the National Abortion Federation (NAF) insists there is not a provider shortage, they also say the majority of providers are in urban areas….” This leaves circuit-riding abortionists to fill in the gaps for the sake of “abortion access.” But if non-physicians are allowed to commit abortions — despite the fact that they are clearly not trained as extensively as physicians — then this could alleviate some of the abortion industry’s provider problem.

But what could be a potential windfall for the abortion industry would put women at greater risk of injury.

Women still die from legal abortions committed by physicians. Allowing non-physicians into the mix isn’t going to help matters. As Live Action president Lila Rose stated when California passed a law allowing non-physicians to commit abortions:

Abortion is already fraught with risks. Take a look at this list of just a handful of possible complications:

Fighting all regulatory and safety laws, and fighting to allow an already risky procedure to be done by someone with much less medical training than a doctor, is not demonstrating proper care for women.

2nd Trimester Surgical Abortion: Dilation and Evacuation (D & E)

Proper care for pregnant women can be found across the country at Federally Qualified Health Centers and Community Health Centers. Further help and resources for these women can be found at pro-life pregnancy centers and maternity homes.