Abortion Myths

Mendacity, mythology and make-believe

By Wanda K. Mohr

Perhaps the most successful enterprise of the Republican Party over the last decade has been the construction of a powerful web of conspiracy theories, misinformation, disinformation, propaganda and outright lies. Told repeatedly and spread exponentially, their success is worthy of the Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels who asserted, “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth.”

Such repetition has the power to make things sound more true, and to confuse the electorate. This is particularly true in the case of low information voters who rely on misleading information offered on social media and the “conservative” press. Despite the ease of access to information, it is still very difficult to keep up to date on everything and no one can digest the massive amount of information available, particularly when it is highly specialized. Purveyors of untruths are aware of both dynamics - low information voting and the impossibility of absorbing the (massive) amount of factual materials.

In the battle against the spread of propaganda, Democrats are called upon to arm themselves before the general election with both mythical and factual information, having it at the ready to help counter the “myths” about reproduction. This column presents the propaganda surrounding reproductive rights propagated by Republicans and the pro-life movement and counters it with scientific facts.

Myths Related to Abortion

• Myth: Abortion is dangerous and harmful to women

• Fact: Abortion is much safer than pregnancy and birth in the US. The pregnancy-associated mortality rate among women who delivered live babies in one study was 8.8 deaths per 100,000 live births. The mortality rate related to induced abortion was 0.6 deaths per 100,000 abortions. Other reports of health dangers, such as increased risk of breast cancer have been cited by abortion opponents. However, the best available evidence — from large population based cohort studies — shows abortion does not place women at increased risk for developing breast cancer.

• Myth: Women get abortions for their own convenience.

• Fact: Researchers have found that chief among the factors that influence women’s decision to terminate their pregnancy are financial concerns. Other top issues that influence this choice are related to not being prepared to be a parent and the relationship with one's partner, such as the case of women living with an abusive partner.

• Myth: Democrats and pro-choicers want to make abortion legal right up to birth.

• Fact: Around 94% of abortions occur by the end of the first trimester. Only 1% of abortions occur at 20 weeks or later (23-24 weeks is considered viability), and almost all of them are medically necessary. Elective abortions past 24 weeks are banned in most states. Post 20 week abortions are wanted pregnancies that are ending due to fetal viability problems, congenital defects, or health risk to the mother. They are tragic, and people don’t make the decision to terminate easily.

• Myth: Democrats want to legalize “partial birth abortion.”

• Fact: “Partial-birth abortion” is a non-medical term for a procedure known as dilation and extraction, or D&E which is a procedure that terminates and removes an intact fetus from the uterus. This was done in the past and considered a safer alternative to a D&C, which introduces surgical instruments, and thereby microbes and possibility of infection, into the womb. Partial-birth abortion is a purely political term coined by the National Right to Life Committee in 1995. It refers to a procedure (D&E) which is already federally prohibited.

• Myth: Abortion requires surgical intervention.

• Fact: While Dilatation and Curettage (D&C) was a common surgical intervention that was used to terminate pregnancy, in 2020 medication abortions using mifepristone and misoprostol surpassed surgical procedures for terminating pregnancy. Medication abortion is highly effective and safe.

• Myth: Medication abortion is the same as Plan B.

• Fact: This allegation mixes apples and oranges. Plan B prevents a pregnancy and is known as emergency contraception. This medicine is taken soon after having unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy. Medications, such as mifepristone and misoprostol, are abortifacients that end a pregnancy. Plan B contains the hormone levonorgestrel, a synthetic progestin similar to the progesterone the body naturally makes to regulate the menstrual cycle. The hormone inhibits or delays ovulation. Plan B can be used within 72 hours of having sex and is most effective when taken within 24 hours of having sex. By contrast, abortion medications work by a completely different mechanism, inhibiting the growth of pregnancy tissue rather than delaying ovulation.

• Myth: An ectopic pregnancy can be transplanted into the uterus as a way to save the developing embryo.

• Fact: Ectopic pregnancy occurs when an embryo implants most often in the mother’s fallopian tube rather than her uterus, rendering the pregnancy unviable. Ectopic pregnancy is the leading cause of maternal mortality in the first trimester in the U. S., and the pregnancy must be terminated before it ruptures the tube and results in catastrophic hemorrhage and death. Ectopic transplantation simply does not exist. It was brought to public attention by legislators in Ohio who in 2019 introduced a bill in the state legislature requiring doctors to “re-implant an ectopic pregnancy” into a woman’s uterus or face charges of “abortion murder”.

• Myth: Most women regret their abortions or get depression after they have one.

• Fact: According to polling, 95% of women say that they do not regret their decision to abort, and cite “relief” as their most common emotion about it.

• Myth: Fetuses try to avoid the surgeon/can feel pain/can think and dream/are already full people.

• Fact: Fetuses before the viability point at 23-24 weeks, do not have the neurological development for even basic consciousness or sentience to feel pain or survive independently of a host. The capacity required for recognition of a noxious stimulus does not develop until the third trimester at the earliest. Scientific data shows that the neural circuitry necessary to distinguish touch from painful touch does not, in fact, develop until late in the third trimester. Fetal movement is not an indication that a fetus can feel pain.

• Myth: Abortion stops a beating heart.

• Fact:The term “fetal heartbeat” is misleading and medically inaccurate. Like partial birth abortion, it is a political concept, not a scientific fact. There is no heartbeat at 6 weeks of pregnancy, because there is no heart. At 6 weeks of pregnancy (which is actually only 4 weeks of fetal development) an embryo will develop a tube that generates sporadic electrical impulses or a flutter. This flutter is not a heartbeat and is not audible through a stethoscope. Due to the use of recent sophisticated ultrasound technologies, physicians have been able to detect this flutter. But the presence of this flutter does not translate to the viability of the future heart or the pregnancy.

Conclusion

Myths, such as the ones above, form the basis of much of the GOP’s legislative actions in passing laws restricting people’s reproductive rights since the Dobbs decision. The voting public expects their lawmakers to represent the people in their districts, and to vote according to the wish of the majority of their constituents. Clearly legislators have been successful in ignoring these wishes as polls show that the majority of American citizens support abortion rights. Moreover, as evidenced in the attempted legislation around ectopic transplantation, recent attempts at legislating women’s reproductive rights represent a worrisome trend of lawmakers inventing fairy tale therapies related to reproductive health.

Becoming aware of, and understanding myths, and how to dispel them with fact, is imperative for the well informed and responsible citizen. Citizens have a right and obligation to become aware of how mythology, mendacity and make-believe have driven our voting and our legislators’ lawmaking for far too long.

Wanda K. Mohr Ph.D (A.P.R.N., F.A.A.N.) is a retired Rutgers University Professor of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing. She holds a number of volunteer roles in the Chatham County

Democratic Party.