In an article published by Newsweek, TCA’s Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie explains what it will be like treating ectopic pregnancies in a pro-life culture. She writes:
Two years ago, my very-pro-life sister-in-law nearly lost her life due to an ectopic pregnancy. Her little embryo lodged in her fallopian tube instead of her uterus and, at only the seventh week of pregnancy, her tube ruptured. Blood spilled into her abdominal cavity, causing excruciating pain and bringing her to the brink of death. A distinguished lawyer in Washington, D.C., a loving wife and devoted mother of three daughters, she was rushed to the hospital. There, doctors removed the embryo and the ruptured tube—and saved her life, though it took many months before she fully recovered.
Her story is a snapshot of what ectopic pregnancy treatment looks like in a perfectly pro-life setting. It refutes the disingenuous pro-choice talking point that women suffering miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies will be put at risk in a post-Roe v. Wade world.
You see, my brother and sister-in-law strive to live their lives according to the teachings of the Catholic Church, including its teaching on the moral significance of human life from conception to natural death. For them, their tiny embryo was a son or daughter whose life was precious. For OB-GYN care, she specifically chose a provider who also believes that every human life is to be treasured and that elective abortion is a grave evil. My sister-in-law wanted a doctor who would honor and respect the nascent life inside of her as much as she and that little one’s father did.
In short, she, her husband, and her doctors proceeded through the crisis from a purely pro-life moral position. And yet, she received the same treatment that any woman would have received: the surgical termination of her pregnancy. Why? Because the medical treatment for ectopic pregnancy is not an elective abortion. An elective abortion has, as its central purpose, the ending of the life of the embryo or fetus and is performed electively (that is, for social or personal reasons). Surgery or medical treatment for an ectopic pregnancy is not “elective.” It’s absolutely necessary. Its object is not the death of the embryo but the saving of the mother. The embryo is, in fact, already doomed by his or her location, and the mother will almost surely die if the pregnancy is not ended as quickly as possible.
You would hardly know all this—all this medical and moral nuance—if all you hear is the drumbeat of pro-choice activists since the Dobbs v. Jackson decision. Against all evidence to the contrary, they’re out insisting that the lives of pregnant women with ectopic pregnancies and other potentially fatal conditions will be endangered in states that limit elective abortion. This dangerous misinformation is a complete fallacy.
Despite the alarmist pro-choice rhetoric, Americans can rest assured that limiting elective abortion will not put expectant mothers in danger. Indeed, even in situations where the most sensitive respect for nascent human life is exercised, necessary life-saving treatments are always considered ethical and moral. They are also explicitly legal. Even when, as in the case of my pro-life sister-in-law, they result in the death of the embryo or fetus. Rhetoric to the contrary is dangerous and irresponsible.
