<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1655908857025,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000017a-8cb2-d416-ad7a-beb7278f0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1655908857025,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000017a-8cb2-d416-ad7a-beb7278f0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_55502841", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1035212"} }); ","_id":"00000181-8bdb-ddcb-a3e1-cfdbed8d0000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedAs women take to Twitter to share their abortion stories, New York Health Commissioner Mary T. Bassett published her own yesterday in Elle magazine, attributing her success to abortion and calling the pending overturning of Roe v. Wade “dystopian.”
“Had it not been for the abortion I received before I began my internship, I would not be New York’s Health Commissioner today,” Bassett writes. “More importantly, I would not be the committed mother that I have been able to be to my two adult daughters for over 34 years. These two wonderful women might not even be here.”
Crediting one’s motherhood to abortion is arguably more “dystopian” than overturning Roe. Bizarrely, Bassett chooses to make it one of the main messages of her piece. She dedicates her abortion work to, of all people, her children — “For my children and yours,” Bassett closes.
Are children supposed to celebrate when their mother says she owes her professional success to ending the life of their sibling? The idea is about as upside-down and twisted as public health officials engaging in abortion activism. Bassett is not alone on either front. TODAY chose Father’s Day to ask men how abortion made them better fathers. Likewise, while Bassett’s celebration of abortion should be a disgrace to the profession tasked with protecting life, it is unfortunately right in line with the statements of top medical organizations.
Top institutions ignore the dangers abortion poses to children and mothers alike. The World Health Organization calls “comprehensive abortion care services” part of quality healthcare. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said it’s possible people may die if the Supreme Court overturns Roe.
The American Medical Association announced on June 14 that it adopted a policy calling abortion bans a “violation of human rights.” It will also seek “legal protections for patients who cross state lines to receive reproductive health services.”
“A growing number of current and pending laws insert government into the patient-physician relationship by dictating limits or bans on reproductive health services and criminally punish or penalize patients for their health decisions,” said AMA’s incoming president, Jack Resneck Jr., M.D. “The new policy also calls for AMA to seek legal protections for patients who cross state lines to receive reproductive health services, as well as legal protections for physicians and others who support or provide reproductive health services or referrals to patients who cross state lines.”
In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul just signed a law directing the New York State Department of Health commissioner, the abortion enthusiast Bassett, to conduct a study on pregnancy centers’ impact on New Yorkers’ “access to information and resources.”
Just days before the law was signed on the 13th, the CompassCare pregnancy center had been firebombed by an abortion activist group.
“After CompassCare’s firebombing in Buffalo, as far as we can tell, zero federal or state resources have been allocated to protect pro-life pregnancy centers,” CompassCare CEO Jim Harden said in a statement. “It appears Governor Hochul and the NY Legislature are only interested in protecting those who agree with them and bullying those who don’t.”
No matter how many organizations declare it, abortion will never be healthcare. The mantra rests on paper-thin arguments, such as the bogus claim that pregnancy is more dangerous than abortion. It relies on euphemisms that mask the violence of abortion and promote ignorance of the disturbing reality taking place behind clinic doors. There’s a reason people change their minds on the procedure after seeing real pictures of aborted babies, or even after seeing their own unborn baby on an ultrasound. What they see is a far cry from a clump of cells, the object of a simple procedure, or a woman’s right to choose.
Some women are victims. Bassett and others like her, who unapologetically laud abortion as a way to attain success, practice self-love and female empowerment, or exercise autonomy, are not.
Calling abortion healthcare is a lie. A deadly lie, one at odds with the central duty of medical and public health professionals to preserve life.
Katelynn Richardson is a summer 2022 Washington Examiner fellow.
