(LifeSiteNews) — Direct abortion is never medically necessary to save the life of a mother, an OB/GYN recently confirmed.
Dr. Ingrid Skop made the comments during a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing on June 12. Skop is the vice president and director of medical affairs for the Charlotte Lozier Institute. She is also a member of Texas’ Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee.
“The narrative that pro-life laws will prevent treatment of life-threatening complications affecting pregnant women, requiring them to travel out of state to access necessary medical care is blatantly false,” she stated in her written testimony.
“As an experienced obstetrician, I can use my clinical skills, backed up by guidelines from my professional society and the peer-reviewed literature, to diagnose a complication that may become life-threatening,” Skop added.
“My peers and I know what these conditions are, even if we cannot predict with certainty whether that complication will cause a woman to die or experience severe impairment, or how quickly this harm may occur,” she said. “Once I have made that determination, I am willing to induce labor to protect my maternal patient, even if I can predict her child may not survive. All laws allow intervention at the time of diagnosis of these serious conditions.”
She also affirmed that “laws protecting unborn life never prohibit care for a woman who has tragically suffered the death of her unborn child in miscarriage or stillbirth.”
Texas has been in the spotlight after a woman named Kate Cox chose to have her baby diagnosed with trisomy 18 killed in a late-term abortion. The White House celebrated Cox’s abortion, with First Lady Jill Biden inviting her as a guest to the State of the Union.
Some liberal Republicans have also pushed the false idea that direct abortion is necessary. This includes liberal Nebraska Republican Sen. Merv Riepe, who wants to weaken the state’s 12-week abortion ban even further. Even states that allow for some abortions for supposed “medical” reasons have seen few, such as Indiana.
Dr. Skop also addressed the availability of “dangerous” abortion drugs and their harms. The day after Skop’s testimony, the Supreme Court rejected a challenge from pro-life doctors seeking to address the Biden administration’s removal of safeguards for the distribution of abortion drugs.
Skop stated:
These dangerous drugs are also being mailed into pro-life states after being ordered on websites that explain how to circumvent state laws. All aspects of quality medical care are being ignored: no pre-abortion testing, ultrasound, physical examination, or labs. Such medical negligence leaves women at risk of undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy, underestimated gestational age with higher risks of failure, and future infertility or pregnancy complications. This unsupervised distribution of drugs fails to provide adequate informed consent counseling, including knowledge of alternatives and support available if she wants to give birth, and confirmation that the women is not being coerced into an abortion.
Anti-trafficking laws needed to protect young girls: Skop
Dr. Skop also explained the importance of laws against bringing minors to other states for abortions.
She cited a November 2023 story about an Idaho woman and her son. The pair brought the son’s 15-year-old “girlfriend” to Oregon to have an abortion and allegedly cover up sexual assault. He was 18.
Skop questioned abortion supporters who oppose “laws prohibiting trafficking of adolescent girls across state lines for abortions by people other than their parents or guardians.”
“Abortion advocates devote an inordinate amount of time discussing the extraordinarily rare but tragic situation of a young girl who conceives after enduring sexual assault,” Skop stated. “But in the next breath, they oppose any effort to bring the abuser to justice.”
“Abortion has long been a way for abusive men to maintain control of women, perpetuating the power imbalance, by forcing them into aborting the child resulting from rape or trafficking,” she stated.
She also cited research on abortion coercion or women being pressured to abort their babies. Skop also debunked claims that abortion is tied to an increase in maternal mortality.
The pro-life doctor pointed out that what women need is support, and many pro-life pregnancy centers are offering them help.
These centers often come under figurative attack from politicians but also literal attacks from pro-abortion extremists, despite providing hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to women, babies, and families in need.
Skop stated:
There are nearly 3,000 pregnancy centers in our country providing free ultrasounds and other medical services, education, emotional, material, and mental health support for women. 97% of clients report a positive experience, demonstrating that these centers are meeting the unspoken needs of many women. Sometimes, a woman just needs someone to tell her she is strong enough to become a mother, to empower her to give birth to her child, as pro-life health care providers such as I, and the pregnancy centers I work with, have done on many occasions. Bringing the father on board through relationship counseling will also encourage the stability of the family and reduce the incidence of single mothers living in poverty, raising fatherless children, resulting in many of the pervasive social ills our country is experiencing today.
Abortion does not solve any problems, medical or otherwise, Skop attested.
“Women need support to address their real and unique challenges,” she stated. “Abortion has never pulled a woman out of addiction. Abortion has never found housing for women facing homelessness.”
“Abortion will never help a woman escape an abusive partner. Genuine support from her community does. This is the real care that women deserve.”