Is a pro-abortion physicians group exploiting women for its agenda?

A Kentucky woman has said she nearly died after experiencing complications during pregnancy, and she wants the state's laws on abortion changed so that the same thing doesn't happen to other women. However, her health crisis — an ectopic pregnancy — was never considered an abortion in the state, and the state law has even been clarified since then to state this specifically.

So why does she believe women like her are still at risk?

Key Takeaways:

• Some women who have miscarried naturally or experienced ectopic pregnancies have been misled by the abortion industry or abortion-supporting medical professionals into believing that treatment for miscarriages and/or ectopic pregnancies are abortions.

• The state of Kentucky defines abortion as having "the specific intent of causing or abetting the termination of the life of an unborn human being." This does not apply in an ectopic pregnancy situation, which is life-threatening for the mother; the intent of treating this complication is not to cause an unborn human being's death but to save the life of the mother.

• It is clear that physicians in the pro-abortion camp are intentionally conflating situations like this woman's life-threatening ectopic pregnancy in order to deceive the public so they can expand elective abortions.

The Details:

Chante Burg joined Kentucky Physicians for Reproductive Freedom on Thursday as the pro-abortion group went to the state legislature to push for changes to the state's law protecting preborn children from abortion. She shared her personal story in hopes in igniting a pro-abortion change.

"Their constituents need to hear directly from patients," she told the Kentucky Lantern. "I feel like there [are] a lot of religious beliefs and political agendas that are being thrown out there, but they are not listening to the actual women that are impacted by these laws."

Burg's personal story involves pregnancy loss. She became pregnant in 2024 but after about two months, she began to experience serious symptoms — numbness in her legs, a fever, and a "throbbing in [her] womb."

Burg suffered an ectopic pregnancy, and was reportedly left in pain for 14 hours without any pain medication before doctors finally carried out the necessary surgery to save her life.

She was told that the delay in care was because doctors were trying to understand the state's laws, which at the time, according to CNN, "effectively prohibit[ed] abortions in Kentucky except in limited circumstances where it is necessary to preserve the life of the mother."

And therefore, regardless, even if treating an ectopic pregnancy had been considered an 'abortion' at that time (which it wasn't), then surgery to remove the embryo would have been considered "necessary to preserve the life of the mother." But treating an ectopic pregnancy is not considered an abortion (not in any state) because the intention of the act is not to cause the death of the child; it is to save the mother's life.

A clarification and a question

In 2025, state legislators attempted to further clarify the state's law with House Bill 90, which noted that treatment for ectopic pregnancies, molar pregnancies, and miscarriage are not abortions — which begs the question: What changes are Burg and her allies hoping the legislators will make to the pro-life law? It has already been expanded to ensure there is no confusion regarding ectopic pregnancies like she experienced.

If Burg was left untreated and at risk of serious health complications or death because doctors delayed a surgery they knew she needed, the cause was not the pro-life law, but medical neglect.

In fact, Burg notes that it is tragically common for women — especially Black women like herself — to be denied care and ignored. Both of her grandmothers died in childbirth.

"I feel that generally, Black women are not heard, and even when we know that something is impacting our bodies, we have to go through more hoops and loops to finally be heard and seen," she said.

She's right. Black women are far more likely to suffer a maternal death at the hands of inadequate doctors. Again, this has nothing to do with Kentucky's pro-life law. In fact, situations like this are happening in pro-abortion states too.

Kentucky law states:

"[N]o person may knowingly: 1. Administer to, prescribe for, 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; or 2. 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."

There is an exception for the life of the mother.

But as has been proven repeatedly, abortion supporters press pro-lifers on the "exceptions," such as life of the mother, but even if pro-life legislators gave in on the exceptions and allowed them into pro-life laws, that would not be good enough.

The real demand of abortion supporters is unrestricted abortion throughout pregnancy. Women like Burg, who have experienced true and life-threatening medical emergencies are being used by abortion supporters who know that Burg's situation was never truly the result of a pro-life law.

Zoom Out:

Also with Kentucky Physicians for Reproductive Freedom on Thursday was OB/GYN Dr. Alecia Fields, who claimed that pro-life laws have "fundamentally changed my ability to practice medicine and to care for my patients."

Essentially, what she is admitting is that her idea of "practicing medicine" prior to the pro-life law must have involved what the law refers to as the "specific intent of causing or abetting the termination of" a preborn child (emphasis added). That means that she believes practicing medicine has to involve intentional killing.

She added:

"It is a moral challenge to practice medicine in a state where physicians are held to a different standard of care than our colleagues in other states. We are trained to first do no harm. Now we are expected to practice a version of medicine written by politicians, not grounded in evidence or clinical reality.”

Her statement is wildly misleading:

• She claims she can't live out her oath to "first do no harm" if she is unable to kill an innocent preborn baby. This makes no sense.

• She also claims that she is being held to a different standard than doctors in pro-abortion states. That's only true in the sense that she's not allowed to kill anyone and doctors in pro-abortion states are allowed to kill innocent human beings in the womb.

She shared examples in an attempt to show that the pro-life law is causing harm -- but given that the law defines abortion in a specific way, her remarks make little sense:

“Right now when I am caring for a patient whose water is broken at 15 weeks, when I’m counseling a patient whose baby has just been diagnosed with a fatal fetal anomaly, when I am urgently called to the bedside of a patient bleeding heavily during a miscarriage, my first instinct as a physician has always been the same: ‘What do I need to do to provide the best possible care for this patient?’ Now, a second question enters my mind, one that should never be there: ‘What am I legally allowed to do?’"

This is a stretch. To be clear, the only act the law doesn't let her commit is the intentional killing of a preborn baby.

For a patient whose water breaks at 15 weeks, she can help that mother to avoid labor if possible, to save her baby. If not possible, she can deliver the baby. That is not an abortion because the intent is not to kill.

For the patient whose baby is diagnosed with a so-called "fatal fetal anomaly," she's not allowed to carry out a so-called "mercy killing" and pretend that babies with a diagnosis are better off dead. That is discrimination, and it goes directly against the vow to do no harm. Abortion for fetal diagnosis kills babies and often causes trauma to parents.

And for the patient bleeding heavily during a miscarriage, there is nothing in the law that says a doctor cannot treat a miscarriage. The law was even expanded to clarify this (though it was likely quite clear to those in the abortion industry even before that point).

The Bottom Line:

Every one of the physicians in Kentucky Physicians for Reproductive Freedom ought to be well aware that treatments for ectopic pregnancy and preterm rupture of membranes are not abortions. Neither are treatments for miscarriage.

And if they already know this, one thing is clear: they have no problem exploiting women to advance their pro-abortion agenda.