#EndTheLies, Declare Reproductive Rights Advocates as Senate GOP Pushes 20-Week Abortion Ban
"The provocative, inaccurate lies about abortion being spread by this administration and its allies completely strip pregnant people of their dignity and medical needs, putting their health in jeopardy."
Reproductive rights advocates came together on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning to combat misinformation used by Republican lawmakers to push anti-choice legislation--including a bill currently before Congress that would impose a nationwide 20-week abortion ban.
"Instead of listening to the expertise of medical organizations, healthcare providers, and the real-life situations of patients and families, anti-abortion politicians used this hearing to spread misinformation and stigma about abortion care."
--Dr. Kristyn Brandi, PRH
Pro-choice advocates' demands to #StopTheBans and #EndTheLies came in response to a 10am Senate Judiciary Committee hearing called by Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to promote the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (S.160), which the senator has sponsored since 2013.
"This hearing is a political stunt that has real consequences," said Dr. Kristyn Brandi of Physicians for Reproductive Health (PRH).
"Instead of listening to the expertise of medical organizations, healthcare providers, and the real-life situations of patients and families, anti-abortion politicians used this hearing to spread misinformation and stigma about abortion care," Brandi added. "This is plain wrong."
\u201cWe're here on Capitol Hill to call out the lies about abortion that @senjudiciary and abortion opponents keep spewing. What they're trying to do is distract you from all the abortion restrictions and bans that states are trying to pass. #StopTheBans #EndTheLies\u201d— Planned Parenthood Action (@Planned Parenthood Action) 1554818978
\u201cNARAL members are on Capitol Hill this morning waiting to head into the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on legislation that would ban abortion at 20 weeks in ALL 50 STATES. We will NOT be intiminated by these cruel attempts to strip away our basic freedoms. #StopTheBans\u201d— NARAL (@NARAL) 1554818341
Under Graham's proposed legislation, a healthcare provider who performs or attempts to perform the procedure after 20 weeks post-fertilization could be fined, jailed for up to five years, or both. The only exceptions for the time limit would be to save the life of the pregnant person and cases of rape or incest.
Graham claimed during his opening remarks at the hearing that "there is significant scientific evidence that abortion inflicts tremendous pain on the unborn child" and once Americans "understand" that, there will be widespread support for banning the procedure after 20 weeks.
Critics took issue with both his claims about public opinion and medical science:
\u201cSen. Graham has already started out his hearing with a slew of anti-choice lies, suggesting that supporting safe access to abortion is an unpopular opinion in the U.S. That couldn't be further from the truth: 7 in 10 Americans support access to safe, legal abortion. #StopTheBans\u201d— NARAL (@NARAL) 1554819309
Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who denounced the bill as unconstitutional and dangerous, argued that "today's debate is not about passing legislation to improve medical care--it's about advancing an ideological agenda."
Challenging Graham's claims about pain, Feinstein quoted from a memo by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which says that "the fetus does not even have the physiological capacity to perceive pain until at least 24 weeks of gestation."
FactCheck.org, after reviewing relevant research and speaking with several experts, concluded in 2015 that "a firm starting point for pain in the developing fetus is essentially impossible to pin down, and that definitive claims regarding pain perception at 20 weeks are unfounded."
\u201cThis morning, some of our allies in Congress spoke out against a dangerous proposal to ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy in all 50 states. \n\nThank you @SenFeinstein, @SenBlumenthal, @SenatorDurbin, @maziehirono, and @amyklobuchar for standing up for women.\u201d— Center for Reproductive Rights (@Center for Reproductive Rights) 1554842386
Rev. Katherine Ragsdale, head of the National Abortion Federation, noted that "this is not the first time that lies demonizing abortion providers and the women they help have found such fertile ground," recalling the 1980s and 1990s, when "politicians looking for an issue to fundraise on, began spreading misinformation and lies about abortion providers that are echoed today."
"This language went unchecked and abortion providers were targeted by anti-choice extremists who were told they were stopping murderers. Shootings began. Fires. Bombings. A kidnapping. People chained themselves in an attempt to block clinic doors. I remember because I was there and so were many of our members," she said. "It is time for anti-choice politicians and extremists to tell the truth."
Reproductive rights advocates took to Twitter to debunk lies from the GOP lawmakers and their anti-choice witnesses, and emphasize the ultimate goal of "sham" hearings like this one:
\u201cThe purpose of abortion ban hearings like the one in the US Senate today is to lay down a smokescreen & mask the real agenda that anti-abortion politicians and activists are pushing\u2014to ban #abortion. https://t.co/sZBSart0V1 #StopTheBans\u201d— Guttmacher Institute (@Guttmacher Institute) 1554825218
Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women's Law Center (NWLC), charged that the hearing "makes patients' lives and health care a political game."
"It is another blow in the Trump-Pence administration's all-out attempt to gut Roe, outlaw abortion, and criminalize women for controlling their own bodies," Graves said. "The provocative, inaccurate lies about abortion being spread by this administration and its allies completely strip pregnant people of their dignity and medical needs, putting their health in jeopardy."
Pro-choice advocates also celebrated the testimonies of Valerie Peterson--who shared her story of terminating a pregnancy due to serious fetal abnormalities--and Georgia state Sen. Jen Jordan, a Democrat who has garnered national attention for speaking out against her state's pending "heartbeat" bill.
\u201c"I believe that no one else can know what was best for my family and me or for any other woman." \nThank you, Dr. Valerie Peterson, for sharing your story. #StopTheBans\u201d— National Women's Law Center (@National Women's Law Center) 1554821707
Georgia is one of several states that bans abortions at 20 weeks--at least, until Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signs the heartbeat bill. As Jordan pointed out, the state also has devastatingly high rates of maternal mortality--the worst in the United States, which ranks last among developed countries in terms of pregnancy-related deaths.
\u201c"Since the passage of Georgia's 20-week ban [on abortion] we have seen the maternal mortality rate double, if not triple." \u2014 @senatorjen speaks out on why this ban is an attack on our health. #StopTheBans\u201d— National Women's Law Center (@National Women's Law Center) 1554822592
During the hearing, Sen. Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii) highlighted how abortion bans disproportionately impact people of color and those living in poverty. She also pointed out that many of the politicians fighting to roll back reproductive rights have also attacked other healthcare legislation and programs, from the Affordable Care Act to Medicaid.
\u201cAbortion bans have a "tremendously adverse impact on poor people, poor women, and minority women. We know this." Thank you, @maziehirono for calling out the disproportionate harm of abortion restrictions.\n#StoptheBans\u201d— All* Above All (@All* Above All) 1554819659
\u201c"If the people supporting these laws really cared about women & families they would know that abortion restrictions result in more women dying & they wouldn't be trying so hard to get rid of the ACA & Medicaid." @maziehirono #StopTheBans \n\nYES!!!!!\u201d— Feminist Majority (@Feminist Majority) 1554822294
"If politicians truly want to create a safe, just society, they should focus their time and attention on passing legislation that expands access to healthcare," concluded Brandi. "They should be passing the EACH Woman Act, supporting Medicaid expansion, ensuring young people have comprehensive sex education, reducing the maternal mortality rate, instituting paid family leave, and eliminating discrimination against pregnant people."