Words Matter…

Jul 18, 2022

In the days ahead, we will all have opportunity for personal conversations with our family, our friends, our neighbors, and even strangers regarding the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. As we begin (or continue) these divinely appointed interactions, let’s try to remember a few things:

  • Women and men with personal abortion trauma walk among us every day and often never disclose their personal stories.
  • We can strongly disagree and still demonstrate respect toward those with other viewpoints.
  • We can begin every conversation from a place of tender compassion.
  • Every word that comes from our mouths can and should reflect the love of our merciful Savior and Lord.
  • Many people are profoundly concerned and afraid about the long-term potential lack of access to necessary life-saving care if abortion access is restricted or eliminated.
  • The media is not accurately reporting medical truth and is not challenging the inaccurate statements of those featured in the current news cycle.

Here is some truth – truth that is both medically accurate AND life honoring. Abortion is the willful termination of a viable pregnancy.

Emergent medical intervention to address a non-viable pregnancy is NOT abortion – regardless of how it is medically coded for insurance purposes, medical records, or media reporting. Even Planned Parenthood agrees with this statement. Below is a simple explanation of what abortion is, and what abortion is not.

The following medical treatments are not selective/elective abortions:

  • Medical intervention to treat an Ectopic Pregnancy is not selective/elective abortion and will continue to be readily
  • Medical intervention to treat an incomplete spontaneous miscarriage (also called a spontaneous abortion) is not selective/elective abortion and will continue to be readily available.
  • Medical intervention that is required when a pre-birth baby no longer has a heartbeat in the womb is not selective/elective abortion and will continue to be readily available.
  • Medical intervention to treat a Molar Pregnancy is not selective/elective abortion and will continue to be readily available.
  • Medical intervention to treat Anembryonic Gestation, also known as a Blighted Ovum, is not selective/elective abortion and will continue to be readily available.