By Cheryl Sullenger

The Associated Press published a crucially important story yesterday – but not for the reasons it may have intended. 

While the report focuses on the effects of COVID-19 on pregnant women, who are being frightened into abortions, and the abortion facilities that service them, it actually lays out a compelling case for reopening the economy as soon as possible.

There are four important reasons why reopening the country would save lives by reducing abortions:

  • More women are likely to go through with their abortion decisions than before the pandemic.
  • Women who otherwise would not consider abortions are having them out of fear.
  • State orders to halt surgical abortions have been largely unsuccessful.
  • Abortion facilities are using the pandemic to expand webcam abortions to all 50 states, despite bans on the dangerous abortion pill distribution scheme in 18 states.

Fear driving up abortions

The AP story noted that once women schedule an abortion, they are now less likely to change their minds.

At Hope Clinic for Women in Granite City, Illinois, close to Saint Louis, deputy director Alison Dreith says women are now less likely to change their minds once they schedule an abortion. Normally, 50% go through with it; amid the pandemic, the rate is 85%. [Emphasis added.]

Not only are more women following through with abortions than prior to the pandemic, it appears women are seeking abortions in greater numbers.

For example, the Trust Women abortion facility in Wichita, Kansas, is doing a booming business like it has never done before – mostly out of fear.

“The calls we’ve been getting are frantic,” Burkhart told the AP. “We’ve seen more women coming sooner than they would have because they’re scared they won’t be able to access the services later.” 

Operation Rescue previously reported that Trust Women CEO Julie Burkhart crammed women from out-of-state COVID-19 hot zones, such as Dallas and Louisiana, into her crowded waiting room with no protective gear for them or for the security guard that had contact with each person who entered the facility. 

Accordint to the AP, Burkhart said her abortion facility “performed 252 abortions in March, up from 90 in March 2019.”

With abortions up, safety is down. Trust Women sent one woman to the hospital by ambulance after she suffered an abortion-related medical emergency on Palm Sunday.

Women having panic-abortions

Because women fear the COVID-19 outbreak, they are deciding to abort children they planned and wanted.  The AP article relates one tragic example.

Dr. Anne Davis, an OB-GYN at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, said all services at her hospital are under stress and COVID-19 patients are numerous. In most cases, her team refers women seeking abortions to non-hospital clinics.

She cited one patient who had wanted to be pregnant but requested an abortion when it became clear her medical condition would require multiple hospital visits. Davis said the woman had received comparable treatment during her first pregnancy but decided this time that the hospital wouldn’t be as safe.

“This case is as ironic as it is tragic, especially in light of the fact that women face greater exposure to viruses and infections packed-out abortion facilities – most of which have failed health inspections at one time or another – than if they just stayed home and carried their babies to term,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue.  “I blame the mainstream fake news media for fomenting fear, and the abortionists for stoking that fear in patients.”

The abortionists even admit encouraging fear in their patients. 

“We don’t know enough about this to say it’s going to be fine — your pregnancy will proceed in usual fashion and there will be no impact from COVID-19,” Anne Davis told the AP. “They want us to say it will be all right. We have to say, ‘We don’t know.’”

State orders ignored or overturned

In states where governors have ordered abortion facilities to halt surgical abortions, most have either stayed open in defiance or have been allowed to continue surgical abortions by court order.  Only Texas clinics have halted surgical abortions, but have been allowed to continue to dispense abortion-inducing drugs.  The Texas case is headed to the Supreme Court, but it is likely that the case will be a moot one by the time a decision is reached, since the COVID-19 panic will most likely be over by then.

But that brings us to another reason the economy must open as soon as possible.

Webcam abortions dramatically expand

Because of the current state of emergency, the Planned Parenthood is taking advantage of the opportunity to expand webcam abortions into all 50 states. While webcam abortions are mentioned in the AP article, a Time report published today (April 14, 2020) expands on the plans in detail.

According to the Time article:

Now Planned Parenthood is joining the movement by expanding telemedicine services to all 50 states this month in an effort that providers say will help patients get necessary care while following social distancing guidelines, protecting health care workers and reducing opportunities to spread the coronavirus.

Planned Parenthood’s interim CEO Alexis McGill Johnson told Time that women could access abortion drugs online or via their new smart phone app, although abortion drugs through the app may not be available everywhere yet.  Operation Rescue warned about Planned Parenthood’s app in May 2019, while it was still in the testing phase.

“We predicted that Planned Parenthood would find a way to use that app to dispense abortion drugs in all states, and now the COVID-19 pandemic has given them the golden opportunity they have been waiting for,” said Newman. “The profit margin on webcam and smart phone abortions is through the roof. They will make money hand over fist with these schemes at the cost of innocent lives.”

Immediate solution is to reopen the government

The COVID-19 shutdown has been a boon for abortion businesses.  It has caused an increase in abortions due to fear instilled by the mainstream media. It has provided an opportunity for Planned Parenthood to increase abortion drug profits through the expanded used of telemedicine and smart phone apps. 

Putting people back to work will ease the financial fears that are feeding higher abortion numbers.  These should decrease as the economy strengthens and unemployment is reduced.

With an end to the COVID-19 panic, women will also have fewer health fears that are now driving them to the abortion facilities, where their health is actually placed in greater danger through substandard and unsafe practices that have caused the hospitalization of thousands of women due to botched abortions.

This emergency has given Planned Parenthood an opportunity to expand the distribution of abortion drugs to women in all 50 states – a goal of theirs that was thwarted ten years ago when Operation Rescue exposed what was then the experimental use of webcam abortions in Iowa.  That exposure led to the banning of webcam abortions in 18 states – all states where webcam or telemedicine abortions will now take place due to the COVID-19 emergency.

Opening the government and ending the state of emergency will again block this dangerous remote abortion-pill distribution scheme in those 18 states, saving lives.

While the genie will be difficult to put back into the bottle when it comes Planned Parenthood’s expanded sales of abortion drugs over smart phone apps and skype connections, opening the economy will nip that expansion in the bud, save lives, and restore protections to women and their babies that have been trashed during the COVID-19 emergency.

“We have one message to President Trump,” said Newman. “Please reopen the economy as soon as possible.  It will save thousands of lives that are now being lost to a predatory abortion cartel that is using fear caused by the shutdown to line its pockets with blood money.”