Did you know that it is legal to lie to pregnant women?
Yes, according to Romper, a bastion of journalistic incompetence and a go-to outlet for fake moral outrage, pregnant women have been lied to for a long time. Decades in fact.
And, shockingly, with the permission and endorsement of the United States government.
Predictably, the article, dramatically entitled, “It Is Legal To Lie To Pregnant Women… But We’ve Been Lying To Women For A Long Time,” scorns the work of pro-life pregnancy help organizations—charities that provide pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, STD screenings, counseling, and material assistance free of charge to women in need across the country and around the world.
Last week, the accusation-laden article came to the attention of Heartbeat International—a global network of more than 2,500 pregnancy help centers—thanks to a misattributed quote to the organization’s chairman, Peggy Hartshorn, PhD, a lifetime pro-life advocate and world-renowned leader in the pregnancy help movement.
Originally attributed to Hartshorn, the quote claimed malicious intent for pro-life informed consent laws that require abortion providers to inform women of various facts before proceeding with an abortion.
"We have many state laws that force doctors to tell women information that is false in order to scare them away from abortion services," the quote reads.
Danielle White, legal counsel for Heartbeat International, immediately contacted the author of the article and requested a prompt correction, which has since been delivered.
As it turns out, the quote actually belongs to Kelly Blanchard, president of Ibis Reproductive Health—a pro-abortion research group so radical that it even opposes using anesthesia on late-term unborn babies being aborted.
With a solitary source and a solitary agenda guiding the author, the article was surely doomed from the start.
Still, although the article is a heap of eye-roll-worthy propaganda, its general theme, I would argue, is true: Pregnant women have in fact been lied to with the permission and endorsement of the United States government. For decades.
But it is not pregnancy help centers that have been lying, as the article misleads. It is the abortion industry.
In the 45 years since Roe v. Wade, pregnant women have been lied to in the most gut-wrenching way, told that the unborn child—an intricate miracle rapidly unfolding inside them—is not a human being worthy of protection.
To counter this lie, pro-life groups have successfully advocated for informed consent laws in state legislatures, and—to the great angst of Romper and abortion advocates everywhere—the Supreme Court has deemed them constitutional.
Attempting to put a spin on these laws, over the last several years, NARAL Pro-Choice America has pushed its own corrupt version of “informed consent” in state laws and city ordinances, forcing pro-life pregnancy help centers to promote abortion.
Thankfully, at the end of June, the Supreme Court brought this effort to a full stop in NIFLA v. Becerra, deeming one such law, California’s “Reproductive FACT Act,” unconstitutional on the grounds that it violated the First Amendment free speech rights of pregnancy help centers.
Authoring the Court’s opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas explained the differences between true informed consent laws and California’s far-reaching, draconian measure:
The licensed notice at issue here is not an informed consent requirement or any other regulation of professional conduct. The notice does not facilitate informed consent to a medical procedure. In fact, it is not tied to a procedure at all. It applies to all interactions between a covered facility and its clients, regardless of whether a medical procedure is ever sought, offered, or performed.
Alternatively, pro-life informed consent laws apply directly to a procedure, revealing a number of truths to the woman considering an abortion, including the gestational age of her unborn baby, the detection of the baby’s heartbeat, and the increased risk of preterm birth associated with having an abortion—information that pregnancy help centers readily provide.
It’s no wonder that after decades of contending with these inconvenient truths—and losing— abortion advocates have simply resorted to the low-bar, juvenile retort, “You’re lying,” to counter the facts.
But just what are pregnancy help centers lying about? Are they lying about the scientific existence of another human being in a pregnancy? Are they lying about the inherent worth and dignity of every human person, mother, and child alike?
While pregnancy help centers pour considerable effort into illuminating the truths the abortion industry obscures, Big Abortion’s lies persist.
Whether claiming they do mammograms, covering up sex abuse, or denying trafficking the remains of abortion victims, Planned Parenthood is probably the biggest and most toxic liar there is, brainwashing even their most lukewarm defenders into believing that abortion is only a tiny percent of what they do.
But greater even than these, the boldest and most destructive lies of the abortion industry consist of pseudo-philosophical ideas about existence, what it means to be free, and what it means to be human.
Indeed, for the last 45 years, with the seal of approval from the Supreme Court of the United States, pregnant women have been lied to, told that they can have their children killed with no consequences whatsoever. No pain, no regret, and no remorse. Supposedly, in the name of freedom.
Only to learn in the following hours, days, weeks, and years, that the emotional pain from that abortion is something that will remain with them forever.
For the last 45 years, pregnant women—especially pregnant women of color and lower socioeconomic status—have been berated with the message that they “can’t,” that they’re “not good enough,” and that their innocent children—who could, in fact, be their key to future happiness—are better off dead than raised in difficult circumstances.
Yes, Romper, for 45 years, pregnant women have been lied to, and tragically, the effects of those lies can be measured in the 60 million innocent lives that have been extinguished by the practice you defend.
