By L.A. Williams
Christian Action League
July 28, 2023
Planned Parenthood and a Duke Health doctor this week filed a new motion asking a federal judge to block two sections of the state’s new 12-week abortion ban that “significantly restrict abortion access for patients,” according to language in the suit.
The motion, filed Monday, claims that “abortion is a basic component of health care and is one of the safest medical treatments in the United States.”
“Abortion is far safer than continuing a pregnancy to term and childbirth, and complications related to pregnancy and childbirth are much more common than complications from abortion,” the motion claims.
The motion asks U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles to issue a preliminary injunction against the law’s hospitalization section, which requires “abortions after the twelfth week of pregnancy in cases of rape, incest, or life-limiting anomaly be performed in a hospital” instead of at an abortion clinic. The hospitalization section impacts late-term abortions that are allowed through the law’s exceptions clause.
“It irrationally singles out physicians who provide and patients who seek abortion, a politically stigmatized type of medical care, as compared to those providing and seeking medical procedures of equal or greater risk — including miscarriage management using identical methods,” the motion alleges.
A procedure known as “dilation and evacuation” (D&E) is typically used for abortions at that stage. It involves the abortion doctor extracting the unborn baby one piece at a time — arms, legs, torso, and the skull — through the use of instruments. The pro-life community has dubbed it “dismemberment abortion.”
Nevertheless, the motion claims that the procedure “is as safe as, and frequently safer than, a wide range of other medical procedures — including vasectomies, colonoscopies, wisdom tooth extraction, and tonsillectomies.”
The motion also targets the law’s “IUP Documentation Requirement,” against which Eagles previously issued a temporary restraining order. The new motion seeks to convert that order into a preliminary injunction.
Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League said that there is a large body of evidence showing that significant abortion risks have either been suppressed or ignored. In a statement, Rev. Creech said:
“These claims by Planned Parenthood and the Duke Health doctor are the same claims made by pro-choice advocates which have been debunked many times over. The statistics on abortion complications and risks are often underestimated due to the inadequate means of gathering data. “The fact is while deaths from childbirth are accurately reported, the dangers and deaths from having an abortion have not been accurately reported by abortion clinics. For various reasons, the evidence has overwhelmingly shown the morbidity and mortality rates of having an abortion are several times higher than that of carrying a baby to term.”
“I once came across a story from a very reliable source about a young woman who underwent an abortion at a clinic and ended up with her uterus being perforated during the procedure. In a startling turn of events, the abortionist accidentally pulled out a part of her bowels. The clinic didn’t call an ambulance because they didn’t want any negative publicity. Instead, the young woman was driven to a hospital in a vehicle belonging to a clinic staff member. Unfortunately, the damage to her body was permanent, resulting in her needing a colostomy. Astonishingly, this incident was not reported as an abortion-related complication.
“What’s behind this court motion is requiring women who want an abortion after twelve weeks, in cases of rape and incest or a life-limiting anomaly to go to a hospital, cuts into Planned Parenthood’s business profits. Yet this is where these women, for the sake of safety, need to be. The clinics don’t have to maintain the high standards of health, safety, and professionalism that are required of hospitals.
“You know, what’s frustrating about these people is their total inability or unwillingness to consider that even if abortion were safer for the mother than childbirth, it wouldn’t be safe for the innocent child. Tearing the baby from the womb, limb by limb, head from torso? It’s barbaric.”
Judge Eagels is scheduled to hear arguments on the case on September 21st.
