The Left is working overtime to sow confusion and discord in the abortion debate in an effort to pass radical abortion laws like the one proposed in South Dakota. The abortion lobby is manipulating the masses to believe pro-life laws neglect women and put them in harm’s way – but nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, pro-life bills are the ONLY policies actually looking out for the safety and long-term wellbeing of women – both born and unborn.

A new study from the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute shows just how effective the Left’s misinformation campaign has been. The study proposed a series of events and asked participants if the example qualified as abortion, such as the scenario described below:

“Person G is 12 weeks pregnant. When they have their first ultrasound, there is no cardiac activity, and their doctor recommends having the fetus removed. Person G has a surgical procedure to remove the fetus.”

This example is discussing the treatment of a miscarriage, yet out of 2,000 participants, one-third falsely qualified the procedure as an abortion.

More shockingly, however, were the individuals who did not consider a “eugenic abortion” – when a child is killed in the womb due to suspected fetal abnormalities – an abortion. One participant expressed their confusion: “I guess, I mean, maybe [it’s an abortion]. It depends on if you know you’re not able to take care of a severe – a sickly child I guess, then what choice do you have? I think it’s considered abortion only when you personally know you can take care of a child and you’re being selfish.” (emphasis added)

This is a prime example of how deeply the Left has twisted a very simple concept – motive and intention are irrelevant when it comes to murder. It doesn’t matter why a woman chooses to have an abortion if the end result is the intentional killing of a baby in the womb.

“Our biggest takeaway is that people do not hold a shared standard definition of what is and isn’t an abortion,” the lead author of the study Alicia VandeVusse said. “We found that there’s a lot of nuance and ambiguity in how people are thinking about these issues and understanding these issues.”

So, let’s set the record straight. Abortions are NOT:

• Treatment of ectopic pregnancies
• Early delivery attempts (even if the child passes away)
• Evacuation procedures after the child has miscarried
• Other miscarriage treatment

The definition of abortion is extremely straightforward: the intentional, direct killing of a human being in the womb.

The aforementioned procedures are not considered abortions because they do not intentionally cause the death of the child. If physicians are addressing a woman’s medical condition and the child passes away in the process, it is not an abortion. Not a single pro-life bill in the nation threatens a woman’s ability to receive care while experiencing a miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy.