What We Can Say to Counter Abortion Disinformation

Abortion lies are prolific and spread ubiquitously by the anti-abortion advocates. So much so, that media outlets repeat this information without doing fact checks, which continues to spread abortion lies. Yes, I’m talking to you, Morning Joe, Fox News. along with many other journalists who don’t have the resources to or the desire to fact check who and when later abortions are offered to pregnant people.

This isn’t “misinformation”, which is an unintentional mistake. It’s deliberate, disinformation. Their “alternative facts” are meant to confuse, conflate and manipulate people into thinking later abortions are a higher number than they are and completely elective. Elective abortions happen because the fetus anomaly means there will be no viable baby. That’s hard news for any parent who wants to take a baby home. Thankfully, abortions after 21 weeks only represents 1% of all abortions. Anti-abortion advocates would have you believe it’s many more than that. 

First up. Roe vs. Wade established viability as the primary factor in determining the legality and permissability of getting an abortion after 20 or so weeks. The Dobbs decision may have gutted this decision, but intentionally spreading disinformation about what the limits on abortion the Roe decision created is generally ignored by the anti-abortionist advocate. Viability is multifactorially determined by the predictive outcome of the pregnancy. The physical gender, genetics, malformation, abnormalities of the fetus and any maternal issues that risk her health and life are evaluated and the likelihood of having a healthy baby that will grow up, live independently and give grandchildren is given to the parents. Viability and predictive outcomes sometimes cannot be confirmed until after the 20 week mark. In general, most of the medical community accepts 24 weeks as the point of viability. What gets lost in the abortion discussion is the fact that some fetuses will never be viable, even if they are carried to 40 weeks.

That means 2 things:

• Roe established that an abortion could be obtained for any reason up to viability, but the state can impose some restrictions to ensure the safety of the mother starting at 13 weeks.
• After the viability benchmarks of 13 weeks then 24 weeks, abortion is only available if the fetus is not viable or the pregnant person is at risk for permanent damage and/or death.

We liberals all know anti-abortion advocates are really forced birthers. That’s not news. What we liberals need to learn to do is pull out the disinformation and challenge it. Anti-abortion advocates want to eliminate abortion via the most intrusive and abusive methods possible. We need to challenge this mind set.

Say:

1. We can reduce the desire for abortions only so much. Some people don’t want to be pregnant.
2. We’ll never get to zero on abortion care, but we can put policies in place to reduce that number.
3. The states are putting in barriers to abortion care saying it’s for the safety of the pregnant person, but that’s a sham. They want to eliminate all abortion care and refuse to acknowledge miscarriages and a whole host of pregnancy issues make abortion care necessary.
4. First of all, you aren’t going to get people to stop having sex. The best we can do is educate people and give people the resources to plan their pregnancies.
5. We have to stop this nonsense of attacking the most reliable birth control methods. The pill and IUDs are safe and are highly effective. They prevent pregnancy. Calling these most effective methods abortifacients is a lie.
6. In talking about religion, you aren’t alive unless you pass the Genesis 2:7 test. You know, the verse where God breathed life into Adam? The implication being you aren’t alive until you exit the womb and can breath air. You can’t be killed if you aren’t alive in the first place.
7. The best way to reduce abortion rates is to take away the economic pressures pushing people to get abortions, improving reproductive education, reduce child sex abuse, reduce the number of unintended pregnancies, give people the resources they need to care for their family members.
8. If we reduce the number of people living in poverty, make sure young people in their twenties know their pregnancy risks and offer Long Acting Reversible Contraception to people for free, the unintended pregnancy rate will plummet and so will the desire for abortion care.
9. 59% of abortions are obtained by parents of other children.
10. 60% of abortions are obtained by women in their twenties.
11. 49% of abortion patients live below the federal poverty level.
12. Why not add policies that curb unintended pregnancy? With 45% of the 6.1 million pregnancies in the U.S. being unintended and around 34%-40% of those end with abortion; it’s clear. Reduce abortion rates by decreasing the unintended pregnancy rate.
13. Why not reduce the economic costs of having a baby? If you’re pro-baby, then make it an easier decision to continue the pregnancy.
14. Why not offer child care from 4 months of age capping the cost to no more than 7% of their income? If we did that, offered quality child care, there would be more incentive to continue the pregnancy. While we’re at it why don’t we offer job training after high school. Lift people out of poverty, reduce the desire for abortion.
15. Same goes for parental leave. Someone has to bond with the new baby and they can’t do it while working. Give an appropriate paid time off to both parents so they can welcome the new addition to their family.
16. Stop limiting SNAP and WIC benefits. If you want people to continue their pregnancies, remove food insecurity. 
17. If you want people to continue their pregnancies, then we need to make pregnancy economically feasible.
18. Why not improve age appropriate reproductive education? It seems to me, banning books that mention sex is counter to the idea of only having a planned pregnancy. If a child is clueless about sex, then how do we tell them how to manage it to avoid pregnancy?
19. Why aren’t we teaching children about sexual assault avoidance? That 9-10 year old in Ohio sure didn’t get pregnant while attending Drag Queen Story Hour.
20. Please add your own suggestion for what to say.

The medical term is later abortions. Abortions performed after 21 weeks. Late-Term abortions has no medical meaning. It is a dog whistle for anti-abortion advocates getting the uninfomed to think these are elective pregnancy terminations of viable babies.

For example, if a fetus has Potter’s Syndrome (kidney agenesis), that fetus is incompatible with extra-uteral life, which happens 1 in every 4,000 pregnancies (very low chance). If the fetus is taken to term and born alive it will be dead by the end of the week and it will die in excruciating pain. This would be a rare abortion that accounts for 1% of all abortions performed. Knowing the numbers matters. I use Guttmacher’s abortion records which are higher than the CDC’s numbers because certain states like California do not report them to the CDC. The CDC says there were about 620k abortions in 2020. Guttmacher says it’s about 930k. 1% would be 6,200 to 9,300 non-viable fetuses.

When during pregnancy do most abortions occur?

The vast majority of abortions occur during the first trimester of a pregnancy. In 2020, 93% of abortions occurred during the first trimester – that is, at or before 13 weeks of gestation, according to the CDC. An additional 6% occurred between 14 and 20 weeks of pregnancy, and 1% were performed at 21 weeks or more of gestation. These CDC figures include data from 40 states and New York City (but not the rest of New York).

Say:

1. Only 1% of abortions are performed at 21 weeks or later in the pregnancy. They can only be performed for viability or maternal health issues.
2. 99% of abortions are performed from 6 to 20 weeks.
3. 93% are performed up to 12 weeks.
4. 6% are performed from 13 to 20 weeks.
5. Abortion after 21 weeks is restricted to fetuses that are incompatible with life or the mother is at risk of permanent damage and or death.
6. Look, 1% of abortions are for non-viable pregnancies, less than 10,000 per year in the U.S. Only 7% are performed after 13 weeks for a total of 43.4k to 65.1k total abortions. But, that isn’t the issue. Anti-abortion Authoritarians want to force all pregnancies to term regardless of viability or the desires of pregnant people. A child is a lifetime commitment that some people don’t want.
7. Some people cannot commit to 40 weeks without their medications which are bad for a fetus. 
8. Adoption is not a solution for most people. Commiting to carry a baby to term requires effort. An effort some people don’t want to do.
9. There are about 400k kids in the U.S. foster care system and not all of them can be adopted. These children have parents that can’t care for them.
10. Adoption costs vary from a few thousand if you go through your local government’s child services and qualify for reduced costs to $60k through a private agency and attorney and as high as $100k and more for surrogate care. A lot of loving people would adopt, but for all the red tape and costs.
11. We, as a society, demand a better parenting performance from adoptive parents than we do of natural child bearing parents. 
12. If my daughter had her water break at 17 weeks, I’d want the pregnancy terminated before she became septic. There would be no way to make the baby viable that early on. Why would anyone ask her to risk it?
13. Sepsis accounts for 13% of maternal deaths during pregnancy. 7.7% of pregnancy people become septic. Why wouldn’t we actively avoid a septic infection by following established standards of care?
14. If I was told my baby was missing it’s brain, I’d want to end the pregnancy. Some women wouldn’t and that’s their choice, but I’d want people to be able to end a futile pregnancy if they want to.
15. What is the point of forcing people to carry a non-viable fetus to term?
16. The only “elective” thing about a later abortion is when the parents accept fate. Or, if religious, they hear God telling them that they are not going to have a baby with this pregnancy. Some people hear that earlier than others. Others live in denial until they don’t.
17. Sometimes exasperation works, “Gee whiz! The baby has no brain. At what point do you hear God speak! It makes no sense to continue that pregnancy. It’s cruel to the parents.”
18. Sarcasm is less effective, but for your reading pleasure: “Golly, why not have an anti-abortion tax? It seems to me if Elon musk who bought Twitter for cash and apparently single-handedly helped Russia defend their assets in the Black Sea; obviously, he doesn’t pay his fair share in taxes. Tax him and people like him x% more and decrease abortions at the same time. That sounds like a winning policy right there.
19. Please add your own suggestion for what to say about permitting abortion according to Roe vs. Wade.

We’ve seen horror story after horror story of women forced to live state sponsored torture during their failed pregnancies. The water breaks at 18 weeks, but the hospital determined the patient has to be septic before termination can be done. An untreated ectopic pregnancy until the tube bursts risking hemorrhage. In one case, a chunk of the uterus had to be removed along with the tube, because of where the tube burst.  People with Lupus are denied methotrexate (which helps keep them alive), because they could become pregnant.

OK, let’s bring it down to the bumper sticker addition. I’m going to need more help with these. Dems aren’t good at bumper stickers because we think of all the disclaimers. The next thing I know, my bumper sticker is a paragraph long — 4 short words with a paragraph of disclaimers. Anyway, some are better than others.

Say:

1. Sex Ed. Prevents Pregnancy
2. Lifting People Out of Poverty Reduces Abortion Rates
3. Reduce the Cost of Contraception and Reduce Abortion Rates
4. Prevent Unwanted Pregnancy! Use Contraceptives!
5. Stop Child Sexual Assault!
6. End Child Sexual Assault
7. Tax Elon Musk More, Fund Pregnancy Prevention
8. SNAP & WIC Feeds Children
9. A Fetus With No Brain is Cannot Live
10. A Fetus With No Kidneys Cannot Live
11. Paid Parental Leave Gives Us Healthier Families
12. Grow the Economy! Help Women Care for Their Family!
13. Sepsis Kills! It’s 13% of Pregnant Deaths
14. Help Pregnant People Avoid Sepsis. 
15. Give Doctors the Right to Prevent Sepsis!
16. Pregnant People Need Life Preserving Standards of Care!
17. Children Should Never Get Pregnant!
18. Free Child Care Will Improve Child Care
19. Fed Children Are Healthier Children
20. Sever rapist’s Parental Rights!
21. Drag Queen Story Hour is Safe for Children
22. Bigots Ate Not Good For Children
23. Please add your own bumper sticker

Update note. Fixed the spelling error on Bumper sticker #20