People magazine and other Duggar-loving publications have the story about Jessa Duggar Seewald‘s recent medical treatment, which they take pains to call anything but an abortion.
Seewald’s most recent pregnancy went south, and an ultrasound revealed the fetus did not “look good.” People magazine reports:
Due to risks of complications with passing the fetus at home, she said she decided to check in to a hospital to perform a dilation and curettage procedure to remove the fetus from her womb.
The story does not say whether a heartbeat was detected, or whether the fetus was still alive at the time of the D&C, a procedure more commonly called an abortion. Current Arkansas law allows abortions for dead fetuses, but not for living ones, regardless of their suffering or prospects for survival outside the womb.
Seewald shared a video about the experience on You Tube.
The Duggar family and other vehement anti-abortion conservatives helped pass a near-total abortion ban in Arkansas. Removing a living fetus is no longer legal here for any reason except to save the life and health of the mother. (Correction: current Arkansas law does NOT allow for an exception to preserve the health of the mother.)
The problem, in Arkansas and in other states with similar bans, is that these new laws sow confusion and fear among medical providers worried they will face legal repercussions. That means women who need abortion care are often out of luck.
A New York Times investigation reveals many doctors are simply unwilling to risk it:
Doctors and hospitals are turning away patients, saying that ambiguous laws and the threat of criminal penalties make them unwilling to test the rules.
“Having the legal right on the books to get an abortion and getting one in practice are two distinctly different things,” said Laurie Bertram Roberts, the executive director of the Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund, a group that supports abortion rights.
While Seewald was able to access this care, another Arkansan without similar connections and clout might not. Tales of women forced to suffer weeks of pain and mental anguish as hospitals weigh their legal exposure are increasingly common in states with strict abortion bans.
A bill pending at the Arkansas Capitol would carve out a tiny exception to Arkansas’s near-total abortion ban to allow women to access abortion care if the fetus has no chance of survival. Currently, under the trigger law that went into effect upon the fall of Roe protections in the summer of 2022, Arkansas law allows abortions only to save the life or health of the mother.
House Bill 1301 sponsored by Rep. Nicole Clowney (D-Fayetteville) is scheduled to be heard in the House Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee Tuesday. (Another correction: The bill won’t be heard this week. No date has yet been set.)