In the year since #RoeVWade was overturned, the #Republican Party has tested out constantly changing talking points & messages on #abortion in an attempt to make its anti-abortion policies sound less #extreme. #Conservatives are even considering moving away from the term “#ProLife,” fearing that voters have newly negative associations w/the label.
With post-#Roe outrage showing no sign of waning, strategists are pushing a new lexicon on #abortion — medically, legally & culturally. Some #Republicans have abandoned the term “#ban” when speaking about #AntiAbortion#legislation, for example. Now they’re pushing for a 15-week “#standard” on abortion — which, to be clear, would be a ban. #Americans overwhelmingly oppose strict #AbortionBans, so Republicans are moving away from the term.
#Republicans hope that by changing the way #Americans talk about #abortion, it might help change the way they feel about abortion — which is, right now, very #ProChoice.
This summer, for example, the American Association of #ProLife#Obstetricians & #Gynecologists published a “Glossary of Medical Terms” instructing doctors on what “life affirming” #language to use. Under their guidance, a woman whose fetus has a fatal anomaly would be told NOT that the condition is #terminal but that it’s “life limiting.” Similarly, if someone’s water breaks months before her due date, she would be informed NOT that the pregnancy is #nonviable but that it’s “pre-viable.”
The goal is in part to persuade #women to carry doomed pregnancies, which can be emotionally & physically catastrophic.
#Republicans are even trying to redefine #abortion itself, claiming that they are doing so to clarify matters for #doctors & #patients. In truth, these are deliberate efforts to ensure that fetuses’ rights trump women’s rights, no matter the cost to women. And increasingly, that cost is very high.
If a woman in #Idaho has a life threatening #pregnancy, state #law dictates that the #doctor must end the pregnancy in a way that provides “the best opportunity for the unborn child to survive,” which the State Supreme Court has interpreted to include performing a #cesarean or vaginal delivery. …a bill proposed in #Wisconsin …stated that… during a #medical emergency …a doctor “makes reasonable medical efforts” to preserve “both the life of the woman & the life of her unborn child”;
#Wisconsin legislators mentioned using a C-section & early labor, specifically.
In #Idaho, the ONLY exception to the #trauma of unnecessary #labor & delivery or #CSection is if the #woman’s life would be MORE at risk that way. In other words, instead of having minutes-long #abortions, #women will be forced by the state to endure major #surgeries or #traumatic vaginal deliveries, even if that seriously affects their physical & mental #health.
That’s what happened last year to a #Louisiana#woman whose water broke 16 wks into her #pregnancy, long before a fetus is viable. Because the #hospital was concerned about violating the state’s #laws, which #ban#abortion at ALL stages of pregnancy, the #patient was denied a dilation & evacuation, a standard #abortion procedure. Instead she was forced to spend hours delivering a nonviable fetus.
Her #doctor reported in an #affidavit, “She was screaming —not from pain but from the emotional #trauma she was experiencing.” When it also took hrs to deliver the placenta, the #woman hemorrhaged & lost close to a liter of blood.
To #AntiAbortion grps, mandates like this aren’t just acceptable; it’s what they lobbied for. #AAPLOG even recommends that in cases of dangerous #pregnancy complications, like massive placental abruption, #women should be made to labor for up to 24hrs
— even if they must be treated w/blood transfusions in #IntensiveCare — in lieu of being given an #abortion, in order to deliver “an intact fetal body.” In situations like this, #WomensHealth & lives are #endangered the longer they remain #pregnant. To groups that seem to value a fetus’s survival above all else, that’s a risk they’re willing to take.
But #AntiAbortion orgs …have long claimed that few, if any, pregnancies — no matter how ill fated — require abortions. Instead, …patients w/life-threatening pregnancies should be treated w/a “separation procedure,” or… a “medically indicated maternal-fetal separation.” These nonsensical terms, which have made their way into #Republican-backed #legislation, seek to decouple #abortion from its #medical context.
…politicians’ using deceptive talking points isn’t new, but when it comes to an issue like #abortion, even just a handful of #words can have dire consequences.
Consider the expression “postbirth abortion” — the idea is that abortion involves killing newborns. This is, to be clear, a lie, but that hasn’t stopped candidates like Donald #Trump and Ron #DeSantis from repeating it.
The phrase “abortion tourism” has also made its way into #Republican talking points. This makes it sound as if women traveling to get abortions were taking vacations rather than fleeing their home states for #healthcare, sometimes emptying their bank accts or staying in shelters in the process.
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