Will the Danger of Anti-Abortion Dishonesty Reach the Public

When hard truth faces down fictitious claims, it is hard to reverse field. Politicians, clergy and their followers are trying daily to pretend women's lives are not endangered by anti-abortion laws. Almost daily now incidents of high risk and religiously motivated decisions driven by the medicine of religion are being made public.

It's been known for decades Catholic hospitals are dangerous places for pregnant women. When a fetus dies or is a hopeless case, often it needs to be removed immediately to protect the health and life of the woman. In Catholic hospitals cases like this often face delays because the local Bishop may raise religious objections if the fetus is removed. The woman is sometimes taken to a secular hospital, but sometimes not. Only when the woman begins to go into shock is the pregnancy considered life threatening. With some luck she survives the religious hokum.

With state laws now using the bogus "heartbeat" rule, circumstances have become more dangerous. The "secular hospital" will be under the same restrictions as the Catholic one. A case is described in the link. The woman's water broke early and the fetus began deteriorating and was hopeless. It could not be removed in that state, however, because some nerves of the fetus were still firing. This was the bogus "heartbeat." 

Use of "heartbeat" was thought to be a very clever political idea by antiabortion operatives. The Governor here in Iowa really likes to use that word. In the case of the woman above, the "heartbeat" which was not the fetuses' heart, nearly killed the woman. Fetuses kill women. That is a fact.

The other justification for an abortion in states with laws against as well as in Catholic hospitals is a threat to the woman's life. It is not enough for a doctor to predict the woman will go into the dangerous septic shock. She has to enter a state of shock. After she enters this state it is not always possible to save her life.  

That the new fetus has a heartbeat and the hospital will do abortions to save the lives of women are both dangerous to women. The public needs to know both are dishonest statements.