Abortion activists are complaining that women have to travel further to abort their unborn babies during the coronavirus pandemic.
New research from the Guttmacher Institute found that Texas women have to travel an average of 20 times further for an abortion because of a new state restriction on non-essential health care, CBS News reports.
“The greater the increase in travel distance, the greater the hardship it causes, and the more likely it becomes that some individuals will not be able to obtain the [abortions] they need,” Rachel Jones, a researcher with the pro-abortion group, told CBS.
According to the research, the Texas restriction “increasing travel distances from an average of 12 miles to 243 miles, a 1,925% increase.”
All of the 21 abortion facilities in Texas are supposed to be closed this week, based on a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals order. The ruling upheld a state mandate that temporarily halts non-essential medical procedures, including elective abortions.
Across the country, cancer treatments, stents to prevent clogged arteries, dental work and joint replacements are being postponed because of state orders like the one in Texas, the AP reports. These are important health care procedures; they save lives and relieve pain, but they are being delayed so that hospitals have more beds, equipment and staff to treat people suffering from the virus.
But the abortion industry thinks it is special. It wants its work killing unborn babies elevated above real health care.
In Texas, abortion activists complained that the state-wide mandate is preventing women from receiving “essential health care,” meaning abortions.
Follow LifeNews.com on Instagram for pro-life pictures and videos.
According to CBS:
Abortion services across Texas have been suspended since last Monday, when the Attorney General declared that the procedure must be temporarily halted as part of the state’s ban on “non-essential” and “elective” medical procedures amid the coronavirus pandemic. Since then, hundreds of patients have had their appointments canceled, leading some to travel to nearby states for the procedure despite stay-at-home orders. …
For some, the increase in travel time and the costs associated with travel put the procedure out of reach. Guttmacher warned that those impacted the most by states’ temporary bans on abortion will likely be low-income women and single mothers who won’t be able to afford the time off work or travel costs.
Jones complained that the mandate “places unconscionable burdens” on pregnant mothers, especially “people who are already struggling to make ends meet and those who are marginalized from the health care system.”
But the situation in Texas is not the tragedy that Guttmacher describes it as. Babies are being saved from death, and pro-lifers are stepping up to support families in need. Option Line reported a huge increase in calls recently on its 24-hour pregnancy help hotline. Run by Heartbeat International, the hotline connects mothers to local support services, including pregnancy resource centers that provide free diapers, pregnancy tests, clothes, counseling and other resources to moms and babies.
Embrace Grace, another pro-life outreach, is helping to organize online baby registries, virtual meetings, and other efforts to support pregnant and new moms who choose life. And Abby Johnson recently shared that her new ministry, Love Line, which provides financial and material support to help moms choose life for their babies, recently heard from a Texas mom who decided to keep her baby because of Gov. Greg Abbott’s order.
Unlike a cancer treatment or hip replacement, there is nothing essential about an abortion. Abortions kill unborn babies and often hurt mothers physically and psychologically. The coronavirus pandemic should be a wake-up call to society that every life deserves to be valued and protected, not just those who have been born.
Please click here to read the full story.
Author: Micaiah Bilger
