Vanity Fair’s abortion headline spreads anger and fear-inducing misinformation

Vanity Fair’s headline on July 18 was literally too shocking to believe — though many readers likely trusted the magazine when it said, “‘Pro-Life'” Idaho Republicans Declare Women Should Be Left to Die to Save Fetuses.” This statement is false, and proves the pro-abortion media has left behind any trace of journalism in favor of fear mongering and abortion lobbying.

Number one? Idaho Republicans certainly never “declared” such a thing — in fact, they “declared” nothing at all.

Platform vs. law

What happened in Idaho this weekend was… precisely nothing. The Idaho Republican Party voted against adopting an amendment stating that abortion is acceptable in order to save the life of the mother, to add to its platform.

No laws were changed, no platform was changed, and everything is the same in the Idaho Republican Party concerning abortion and the lives of women as it was prior to this past weekend.

But the Idaho Republican Party knows something that either Levin and Vanity Fair don’t know or are pretending not to know: Abortion in the legal sense (defined in pro-life laws as intentional killing) is never necessary to save the life of the mother.

Abortion, by medical definition, is the end of a pregnancy — whether the pregnancy ends by spontaneous abortion (miscarriage) or induced abortion (abortion). However, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists defines “induced abortion” as “an intervention to end a pregnancy so that it does not result in a live birth (emphasis added).” Induced abortion is clearly what pro-life laws address — the intentional killing of a preborn human being prior to delivery. Scott Herndon, who is running for state Senate in Idaho, explained (emphasis added):

[…] for the last 49 years we have essentially lost the argument in the culture because we have focused on abortion as the termination of a pregnancy and not the termination of a living human being. […] We will never win this human rights issue, the greatest of our time, if we make allowances for the intentional killing of another human being.  

That’s the key difference here, and until everyone understands the difference between the medical and legal definitions of abortion/induced abortion, we’re just talking in circles.

Rather than intentionally killing the child before delivery, doctors who are not abortionists will simply 1) deliver the child to save the mother’s life, or 2) administer a necessary medication or drug to treat the mother’s condition, if there is such a treatment. Sometimes the treatment will cause the death of the child unintentionally or secondarily — such as surgery for an ectopic pregnancy or cancer treatment or preterm delivery before the child is old enough to survive outside the womb.

These are not legally abortions because they do not carry the intent to cause the preborn child’s death.

Keeping women in the dark and putting them at risk

But pro-abortion media like Vanity Fair, along with the abortion industry, want to foment confusion to keep abortion legal; in doing so they are putting women’s lives at risk. If women die because proper treatment was withheld during pregnancy because of this pro-abortion miseducation campaign, abortion proponents will blame pro-life laws, but their deaths will have been at the hands of pro-abortion misinformation.

“And you know who’s telling women they should fear seeking care for miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy because of abortion laws?” said Alexandra DeSanctis Marr on Twitter. “Abortion supporters. Not pro-lifers, and not pro-life laws. Abortion supporters are creating this chaos on purpose. Catholic hospitals and doctors don’t perform elective abortions yet they have somehow been treating women with ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages for forever. This isn’t actually complicated. All I’d ask is that you really consider who is trying to make it seem complicated.”

To convince Americans that pro-lifers are to blame, Vanity Fair uses the stories of women who have suffered at the hands of medical professionals who don’t understand that treatments for incomplete miscarriages, ectopic pregnancy, or postpartum hemorrhages are not intentional killing, which is what pro-life laws specify is not allowed.

It is likely that nearly all if not all of these doctors began practicing medicine during the reign of Roe v. Wade. 

Prior to Roe, women received the treatment they needed because doctors understood that treating their health conditions did not equate to killing their babies. But since Roe was unleashed on America in 1973 and the misinformation campaign from abortion advocates began with the help of the media, medical professionals seem to be struggling with the definition of an abortion and women are suffering because of it. In fact, since Roe, the maternal mortality rate in the U.S. has climbed considerably.

Medical mismanagement of pregnant and postpartum women is a direct effect of Roe v. Wade and confusion spread by pro-abortion media.

Idaho’s trigger law

Vanity Fair also mentions Idaho’s “trigger” law, which passed in 2020 and sought to protect preborn human beings 30 days after Roe v. Wade was overturned. This law includes an exception for rape and incest as well as an exception for the life of the mother. Levin mentions the rape and incest exception, yet fails to mention the life of the mother exception.

This is an obvious attempt to make Idahoans and the nation believe that there is zero concern from pro-life politicians for women whose lives are at risk during pregnancy. The trigger law was scheduled to go into effect this week, but Planned Parenthood has filed a lawsuit to block it.

The decision to not add a “life of the mother” amendment to the Idaho Republican platform does nothing to change the state’s trigger law or any abortion-related law in the state. It simply confirmed the truth — that induced abortion is not necessary to save the life of the mother and is not the same as a lifesaving medical intervention. Idaho Republicans know this. Idaho Democrats and abortion advocates know it too. Now it’s time women do.

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