The DNC Stories: Abortion or Medical Malpractice?

Stories of struggles to get abortions take center stage at the DNC, but all of the stories have one thing in common.

The DNC featured three women, each telling their own story about a complicated pregnancy and the restrictive abortion laws in their states, as well as other stories told by speakers. But just like the Kate Cox situation (she was there on night two), when you look into the different circumstances, they almost all point to medical malpractice.

Amanda Zurawski told a story of a much-wanted baby, but she was diagnosed on a Tuesday in the ER at 18 weeks with an incompetent cervix. (For the guys in the audience, that means the door that keeps the baby in until it’s time to be born wasn’t holding shut.) When she asked for a cerclage (a stitch to keep the door closed), she was told it was too late because her membranes (the water sac the baby lives in) were bulging. Later that night, her waters broke, a complication called PPROM, preterm pre-labor rupture of membranes. According to Amanda, when she rushed back to the ER, they said that because the baby had a heartbeat, they couldn’t do anything and eventually sent her home to labor on her own. The thing was, her body didn’t want to give up on the baby, so nothing progressed, but because her waters had broken, she wound up getting an infection. As a result of the infection, she lost the use of one of her fallopian tubes and had to have surgery on her uterus to remove scar tissue. She will now need to use IVF to have a baby and will always be considered high-risk.

But the doctors had options. The first, obvious option would be to immediately place the patient into the Trendelenburg Position, elevating the feet and hips over the head, and hope that gravity helps to pull baby off the cervix, allowing for a cerclage to be placed. Another possible option would be an Amnioreduction. Two years earlier, the NIH published a case study proving that using a big needle to remove some of the amniotic fluid would allow for the sac to be gently moved back into the uterus enough to place a cerclage. However, if the cervix was already too short or far too dilated, or once the water broke and labor was not progressing, the doctor could have safely induced Amanda, triggering a premature birth. Even the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists declared back in 2013 that such an action would not be deemed an abortion. The goal of an abortion is to kill the child. Inducing a premature birth because of PPROM and preventing a life-threatening infection is not the same procedure. The Supreme Court of Texas agreed.