Pro-abortion Democrat leaders held a hearing Thursday to complain about how state legislatures are working to protect women and unborn babies from abortion.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee primarily listened to abortion activists criticize state efforts to pass and enforce abortion clinic regulations, according to the Catholic News Agency. The title of the hearing was “Examining State Efforts to Undermine Access to Reproductive Health Care.”
Democrats, who currently control the U.S. House, receive tens of millions of dollars in political support from Planned Parenthood alone each year. Other pro-abortion groups, including EMILY’s List and NARAL dump even more money into electing pro-abortion Democrats who vow to keep abortion legal and unregulated for basically any reason up to birth.
Missouri was a key target of the hearing.
The state health department has been trying to protect women after finding numerous health and safety violations at the St. Louis Planned Parenthood. But abortion activists, Democrat leaders and their friends in the mainstream media have misled the public by claiming Missouri health officials are trying to advance a political agenda, not save lives.
NPR reports abortion activists at the hearing Thursday slammed Missouri and other states for trying to “undermine access to reproductive health care” through standard health regulations.
Here’s more from the report:
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Reproductive rights groups say officials who oppose abortion rights are, for political purposes, using excessive and arbitrary rules to shut down clinics and prevent doctors from performing abortions. …
Witnesses include Dr. Colleen McNicholas, chief medical officer with Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri. Her clinic in St. Louis that has been at the center of a dispute with Republican Gov. Mike Parson’s administration. Parson has said he has “serious health concerns” about the facility.
McNicholas told NPR that Missouri health leaders are “weaponizing” health regulations “to end abortion at all costs.”
“Abortion is moral. It is important. It is health care. And I support people being the experts in their own lives and making these decisions for themselves,” she insisted during the hearing.
But Dr. Ingrid Skop with the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists said horrible things have happened to women and babies when abortion facilities go unchecked. She told NPR about the recently Indiana case where authorities found more than 2,000 aborted babies’ bodies stored in a late abortionist’s garage and vehicle.
“Due to the political nature of abortion, health departments and others tasked with supervising the practice of medicine are often unwilling to ensure that basic medical competence and facility standards are maintained,” Skop said.
Another example is the Kermit Gosnell horrors that were discovered in Philadelphia less than a decade ago. Unchecked by state health officials for years, Gosnell murdered newborn babies, hurt women and committed numerous other crimes in his Philadelphia abortion clinic before authorities finally stopped him.
Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins responded to the hearing by calling on politicians “to tell the whole story.”
“All we really know about abortion in the United States is what the abortion industry tells us ….” Hawkins said. “If abortion is as safe as they say, then why is there any objection to tracking the true impact of their procedures or following laws for cleanliness or emergency care plans? Real healthcare vendors are held to account.”
She said Americans deserve to know the whole truth from politicians, and the problems at the Missouri Planned Parenthood are extremely concerning.
“Students for Life of America volunteers have stood outside that disreputable Missouri abortion vendor as emergency vehicles have been called day after day, as women have suffered inside. The purpose of health and safety standards is ensuring that women survive a visit to an abortion vendor, which should concern everyone,” Hawkins said.
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Author: Micaiah Bilger
