Diocesan Spokesperson for Life Issues Responds to Recent Executive Order

By Ana Sanguineti, M.D.
Spokesperson for Diocesan Life Issues

Last week, the President of the United States signed an Executive Order to “protect access to Reproductive Healthcare Services”. The intent of this Order is to ensure continued unrestricted access to abortion drugs, unobstructed travel to states where abortions will still be legal and to guarantee the privacy of patients’ information regarding an abortion. Sadly, abortion advocates persist in promoting abortions and in labeling the termination of a separate life- the preborn child in the womb- as “healthcare “ for the mother.

Let’s be clear: Abortion is not healthcare! It is a marginal practice avoided by most healthcare providers that can cause harm to the woman, and it is not an essential part of a woman’s reproductive health. The vast majority of OB-GYNs do not offer abortions in their practices. (1) Additionally, 74% of abortions are done by facilities that do a thousand abortions or more a year; 16% are done by facilities that do 5,000 or more a year. (2) These studies indicate the majority of abortions are done at specialized clinics whose purpose is to facilitate abortions. And a majority of women seeking abortions report they do not do so for “health reasons”. (3)

Abortion does not improve a woman’s health, but it can harm it. A woman is at risk for medical, mental, emotional and spiritual trauma following an abortion.

If we care about women, shouldn’t we support them in their pregnancies and make available the material, educational and emotional resources they lack? Shouldn’t we affirm their contribution to society in bringing new life into the world? Isn’t this a more compassionate approach to the care of the expectant mother?

This Executive Order does not offer genuine help to a woman who finds herself in a difficult pregnancy. It continues to defend the indefensible in the name of women’s healthcare: the violent termination of the child in the womb. We pray that this Administration will work to assist expectant mothers in the workplace, at home and wherever the need exists. The Catholic Church will continue to assist families through its ministries and initiatives that serve vulnerable women and children.
 

1. S. Desai et al., “Estimating Abortion Provision and Abortion Referrals Among United States ObstetricianGynecologists in Private Practice,” Contraception 97 (2018) 297- (September 2019) at 16 (Table 3).

2. 302R. Jones et al., Abortion Incidence and Service Availability the United States, 2017, Guttmacher Institute.

3. M. Biggs et al., “Understanding why women seek abortion in the US,” BMC Women’s Health 13.29 (2013) 1-13 at 6 (Table 2).