Marshall: ‘Reproductive freedom’ amendment is based on propaganda, not facts
Jan 13, 2024
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Lying and ignoring the truth significantly influenced the liberalization of abortion policy in the United States in 1973, as stated by Dr. Bernard Nathanson, a former abortion provider and a key figure in legalizing abortion nationwide.
Intentional ambiguity and disregard and denial of facts continue to play a role in maintaining legal abortion, as evidenced by the efforts of Virginia Democrats to pass an amendment to the state’s constitution in 2024 that would declare abortion a fundamental right.
Dr. Nathanson, who once operated the world’s largest abortion clinic and co-founded a national abortion advocacy group, admitted, “We simply fabricated the results of fictional polls. We announced to the media that 60% of Americans favored permissive abortion,” Nathanson wrote in his 1996 book, “Confessions of an Ex-Abortionist.”
Dr. Nathanson said he also misrepresented the number of illegal abortions and related deaths. “The actual figure was close to 100,000, but we repeatedly told the media it was 1,000,000. The number of women dying from illegal abortions was around 200-250 annually, not the 10,000 we claimed.”
Dr. Nathanson highlighted another major tactic: insisting that defining when life begins is impossible, framing it as anything but a scientific question. He argued that fetology clearly shows life begins at conception, deserving the same protections as anyone else.
In 1990, a colleague from George Washington University’s medical school and I surveyed Virginia doctors who might have treated women for immediate abortion complications in 1989. Seventy-five physicians reported 230 complications out of 33,200 abortions. In contrast, the Virginia Health Department reported only 34 complications for 33,600 abortions in 1988, the last year such data were collected.
Our study identified 676% more complications than reported by Virginia’s officials, who only surveyed abortion providers. We asked doctors about complications from abortions performed by others.
In a 2022 report, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services acknowledged this data gap, stating, “Assessing the incidence of complications is difficult. Some do not occur immediately or become apparent while the patient is in post-procedure recovery, leading to missed or misreported complications.”
Abortion providers and officials in Virginia and the CDC were aware of this reporting flaw but seemed permanently indifferent.
Regarding abortion safety, as a General Assembly member in 1995, I requested Medicaid directors to compare the health care costs of 325 women who had abortions with those of 325 who gave birth.
From 1989 to 1994, “Women who had legally induced abortions filed 532 claims for subsequent health interventions, while those who gave birth filed 307. ... The reimbursements for women who had abortions totaled $123,800, compared to $66,900 for those who gave birth,” then-Medicaid director Robert Metcalf wrote in reports in February and March 1995.
A 1997 inquiry I made to Medicaid yielded similar results.
In 2024, Democrats have introduced bills to amend the Constitution of Virginia to protect the “fundamental right to reproductive freedom.” The House version, HJR1, is sponsored by Charniele Herring, D-Alexandria, and the Senate version, SJR1, by Sen. Jennifer Boysko, D-Herndon. The interpretation of these amendments will depend on their wording, not on debate speeches, press releases or Planned Parenthood briefings.
Chief Justice John Marshall in 1819 noted, “The words of an instrument, unless there is some sinister design that shuns light, will always represent the intention of those who frame it.”
The Reproductive Freedom Constitutional Amendments say, “Every individual has the fundamental right to reproductive freedom.” This term, “individual,” applies to females, males, adults, and minors.
The absence of a minimum age for reproductive rights in the RFCA is notable. Unlike Article 2, Section 1, of the state Constitution, which sets a voting age minimum of 18, the RFCA does not specify an age threshold for reproductive rights.
Thus, I believe the text of these bills would allow minors to access legally birth control, abortion, sterilization, or sex changes without parental consent. This effectively nullifies any minimum legal age of sexual consent. Virginia’s sexual trafficking laws would become unenforceable, as minors would have the legal right to “consent” to any sexual behavior. This could extend to purchasing pornography, sexually explicit materials, and engaging in prostitution, as prohibiting these would infringe on “reproductive freedom.”
I also believe that parents would be powerless to intervene or sue adult sexual predators due to the RFCA’s provision: “The Commonwealth shall not penalize, prosecute, or otherwise take adverse action against an individual who aids or assists another individual, with such individual’s voluntary consent, in the exercise of such individual’s right to reproductive freedom.”
Don’t be taken in by Democrats’ propaganda about “choice.” Find out what is the actual object of their “choice” by giving a good look at the stages in the development of a child before birth by checking out the BabyCenter.
Finally, if you oppose the Democrat’s version of reproductive freedom, I urge you to tell your state delegate or senator to vote NO on HJR1 or SJR1. To learn who your state legislator is, visit whosmy.virginiageneralassembly.gov.
Bob Marshall
Manassas
Marshall served in the Virginia General Assembly from 1992 to 2018; his district included part of Loudoun County from 2002 to 2012. Among the more than 65 laws and studies he authored was the 2006 amendment to the Constitution of Virginia that defined marriage as between a man and a woman.
We're currently fighting a similar measure in Maryland.
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