Snopes verdict: Abortion lobby lies again, misleads on state law

Earlier this month, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb signed into law a bill that would require doctors to report complications from abortion to the state. Women are not held responsible in any way for reporting complications; abortion is not being any further restricted than it was before the bill was passed. Yet none of that mattered to pro-abortion fanatics, who quickly began to misrepresent the bill and create a frenzy surrounding its passage.

Holly Figueroa O'Reilly

@AynRandPaulRyan

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This is why state legislatures matter so much. We have to be competitive in: every precinct every district every town every city every state New Indiana law requires all doctors to quiz women about their past abortions (Yes. For real.) #TuesdayThoughts nwitimes.com/news/local/gov…

1:34 AM · Mar 27, 2018

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Daily Kos

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New Indiana law requires doctors make women confess abortion history or go to jail dailykos.com/story/2018/3/2…

2:16 AM · Mar 28, 2018

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The abortion industry wasted no time taking advantage of the controversy, either.

Planned Parenthood Action

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Indiana's latest bill mandating abortion info has NOTHING to do with patient safety or medicine. It's a shameless government intrusion into patient-doctor relationships, meant to push ideology over women's health. Abortions are safe procedures. Period. ppact.io/2pLZU1Z

Alison Fitzgerald Kodjak

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And this, in the same bill, is what docs who actually perform abortions are required to report to Indiana state officials about their patients.

8:56 PM · Mar 27, 2018

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Reproductive Freedom for All

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If doctors fail to report their patients’ abortion history to the state, they risk being charged with a Class B misdemeanor—and face a $1,000 fine or up to 180 days in prison. bit.ly/2IdvBZD

4:48 PM · Mar 28, 2018

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The fury grew so much, that Snopes — a website dedicated to debunking rumors — chimed in. And, surprise! The abortion lobby lied. Again.

Here’s what the bill actually does, as explained by Snopes reporter Kim LaCapria.

“[T]he actual news underlying this claim reported that health care providers (not patients) would be subject to potential legal sanctions under the law if they did not attempt to elicit and report information about previous abortion complications from their patients,” she explained, excerpting an explanation of the bill. If a woman seeks treatment for a condition connected to complications from a previous abortion, the care provider is required to report it to the state. No patient identification must be submitted, but the doctor must include race, age, marital status, education level, and county and state of residence, the kind of abortion performed, the facility where the abortion was performed, and how many abortions the woman has had. The law also mandates annual inspections of abortion facilities.

This should, in theory, be uncontroversial. After all, we’re told time and again that abortion needs to be legal so women can avoid dangerous back-alley butchers. If there is no oversight for abortionists, then really, what’s the difference? And the details being requested are important; different abortion procedures carry different risks and having multiple abortions also increases various risks. And the fact that it’s so common-sense is likely why the abortion lobby is working overtime to misrepresent and incite anger over this bill; they work very hard to present abortion as being “safe”, even falsely claiming that it is “safer than childbirth“. But those complications exist, and they often go unreported; in Illinois alone, for example, a Chicago Tribune investigation found thousands of complications, including multiple deaths, that went unreported… in just one year.

Such blatant disregard for the well-being of women can have disastrous consequences. There is notorious late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart, who has injured multiple patients and killed at least two. He’s still allowed to practice medicine, though. There’s Ron Virmani, the abortionist who said black babies need to be aborted because they are “ugly” and “potential murderers“. Another late-term abortionist, Warren Hern, likewise has botched abortions. There are countless cases.

But the most egregious example of why these regulations are needed is none other than abortionist and serial killer Kermit Gosnell. For decades, Gosnell injured patients, infected them with sexually transmitted diseases, and killed multiple patients. And for decades, officials looked the other way. They ignored the patients whose uteruses were perforated; the women who had their fertility stolen from them by Gosnell’s butchery. They ignored flea-infested cats roaming his facility and ignored complaints, including tips that Gosnell was keeping the body parts of aborted babies as some kind of macabre trophies. They did not care that Gosnell’s facility was disgusting because stepping in might just keep women from being able to have abortions — and women having abortions is more important than their safety.

Let’s be honest here: these bills are being passed because they are needed. It’s not good enough to simply let the abortion industry self-regulate; countless women have already been injured or killed that way. Abortionists must be held accountable for the carnage they cause. And that the abortion industry opposes this is a chilling sign of where their priorities lie — and they’re not with women.