Life Is on the Line
Democrats Deceive Women in Sham Hearing
September 26, 2024 | Washington, D.C.
by Tabitha Walter, Executive Director, Eagle Forum
With less than six weeks left until Election Day, Senate Democrats spent this week taking political potshots at Donald Trump. While this rhetoric is typically seen on the campaign trail, this time it came from the Senate Finance Committee.
The catalyst for this hearing was Vice President Kamala Harris’s recent comments that two women from Georgia died from taking the abortion pill.
In 2022, Amber Thurman was given abortion pills in North Carolina to terminate her pregnancy with twins after being more than six weeks pregnant. After returning to Georgia, she began suffering from an infection from the fetal tissue still inside of her body. The emergency room she attended kept her waiting for 20 hours before treatment. At that point, it was too late.
Last week, Candi Miller took abortion pills that were mailed to her home and suffered from a similar infection. However, she did not seek medical treatment because she believed that she or her doctors could be criminally prosecuted for the healthcare she would receive. The Georgia Medical Board reiterated that the delay in Miller’s care was “preventable.”
The hearing titled “Chaos and Control: How Trump Criminalized Women’s Health Care” included five witnesses — two Obstetrician and Gynecologists (OBGYN), two attorneys, and a Louisiana woman who shared her personal account of being turned away from hospitals while having a miscarriage.
Republican members of the committee reminded viewers that this was a political ploy to disparage Trump at the expense of suffering women. Their questions got to the root of the issue of whether these laws prevented women from receiving the care they needed for abortion complications or miscarriages. They do not. One attorney, Heather Hacker, clarified:
Regardless of the state, laws restricting abortion do not prevent physicians from treating ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages, or women suffering life-threatening complications, including complications from abortion. To the extent that this has been reported by the media, it is incorrect. To the extent that doctors have claimed that their hands are tied in treating patients in these circumstances, they are mistaken. And to the extent that women believe that any law will prevent them from receiving lifesaving care, they are sadly misinformed. The evidence demonstrating the truth of the above statements is not partisan — it comes from the text of the laws themselves.
The hearing did not help the Democrats’ case. Although they tried to draw a direct correlation between Trump’s Supreme Court Justice nominations and the various pro-life state laws, Republicans poked many holes in their logic.
Not only does Trump have no power over state laws, but he has championed states’ rights to pass their own laws apart from federal overreach. He has also indicated that he is not in favor of more restrictive pro-life laws but has a record of supporting legislation that protects life beginning at five months of pregnancy.
The Trump administration ensured that doctors who dispense abortion pills must be in person and receive adequate follow-up. In contrast, the Biden administration removed those requirements.
The narrative that Democrats are spinning only continues the confusion. Women deserve honest and accurate information and care during pregnancy. Treatment for miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, and even complications from botched abortions are not prohibited by law.
Last week, Senator James Lankford (R-OK) put Democrats on record for supporting infanticide. On the Senate floor, Sen. Lankford asked for unanimous consent to pass the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act (S. 204) which requires medical professionals to administer life-saving care if a baby is born alive during an abortion procedure. He stated:
This is not a question of are we going to legalize or not legalize abortion. This is about a fully delivered child crying on a table — if they will get medical care or if we will back up and watch them die. That’s the question before us. And what we’re going to do about that.
This bill was blocked from moving forward.
In response to Sen. Lankford’s attempt, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) asked for unanimous consent on her resolution (S.Res. 828) which was packaged to look like support for women’s emergency healthcare. However, it included a right to “abortion care” which is broad enough to support all abortions in general. Fortunately, this deceptive attempt failed.
Democrats have made their intentions clear that if Kamala Harris wins the presidency, and they have enough votes in both the House and Senate chambers — they will pass laws that usurp state laws to have unrestricted taxpayer-funded abortion through all nine months of pregnancy. Harris just announced that she will call for abolishing the Senate filibuster to make it easier to pass pro-abortion legislation. In addition to codifying Roe v. Wade, they are in favor of removing conscience protections for medical professionals and women’s healthcare clinics that do not want to participate in abortions.
They will endanger women (like the two in Georgia) by allowing abortion pills to be sent through the mail without proper medical oversight. The Biden administration, Harris-Walz campaign, and extreme Democrats are selling women a bill of lies that could be catastrophic for years to come.