Operation Rescue, an extremist anti-abortion organization, recently announced its new plan to convince women that abortion is unsafe. The organization says it has created a new website to document “emergencies” at abortion clinics.
Operation Rescue’s Plan to Mislead Women
Operation Rescue says it will launch a new website, Abortion911.com, urging anti-choice activists to “expose” emergencies at abortion clinics. The goal is to convince women that abortion is unsafe. In reality, the site does little more than encourage anti-choicers to violate women’s privacy.
Anti-choice activists have a long history of invading women’s privacy. So-called crisis pregnancy centers have long gathered information on women seeking care, then used that information to shame them out of abortion. In at least one case, anti-choice activists harassed the family of a woman seeking an abortion, then called the police, causing them to show up at a Mississippi abortion clinic.
Scott Roeder, who shot abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, was a member of Operation Rescue. The organization has individually targeted numerous abortion providers, published their contact information, and printed “wanted” posters.
How Abortion Saves Lives
Operation Rescue’s claim that abortion is false and misleading, particularly in light of anti-choice legislative activity that does endanger women’s lives. Research consistently shows that making abortion less accessible can kill women. It may also raise the abortion rate.
Legal abortion remains extraordinarily safe. The risk of death from pregnancy or childbirth is at least 14 times higher than the risk of death from abortion. The United States has the highest rate of maternal mortality in the developed world. Abortion deaths are extraordinarily rare. Just four women died from complications of abortion in 2013.
Self-proclaimed pro-life activists have done nothing to address maternal mortality. In many cases, Republican legislators support measures—such as allowing insurers to refuse to cover pregnancy or removing poor women’s access to health care—that are known to increase maternal mortality. The Trump Administration has withdrawn funding for many international reproductive health services, and reinstituted the Mexico City Policy—a politically motivated anti-abortion policy known to kill women.