Pro-life OB/GYN affirms abortion is never medically necessary in Senate testimony

(LifeSiteNews) — Direct abortion is never medically necessary to save the life of a mother, an OB/GYN recently confirmed.

Dr. Ingrid Skop made the comments during a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing on June 12. Skop is the vice president and director of medical affairs for the Charlotte Lozier Institute. She is also a member of Texas’ Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee.

“The narrative that pro-life laws will prevent treatment of life-threatening complications affecting pregnant women, requiring them to travel out of state to access necessary medical care is blatantly false,” she stated in her written testimony.

“As an experienced obstetrician, I can use my clinical skills, backed up by guidelines from my professional society and the peer-reviewed literature, to diagnose a complication that may become life-threatening,” Skop added.

“My peers and I know what these conditions are, even if we cannot predict with certainty whether that complication will cause a woman to die or experience severe impairment, or how quickly this harm may occur,” she said. “Once I have made that determination, I am willing to induce labor to protect my maternal patient, even if I can predict her child may not survive. All laws allow intervention at the time of diagnosis of these serious conditions.”

She also affirmed that “laws protecting unborn life never prohibit care for a woman who has tragically suffered the death of her unborn child in miscarriage or stillbirth.”

Texas has been in the spotlight after a woman named Kate Cox chose to have her baby diagnosed with trisomy 18 killed in a late-term abortion. The White House celebrated Cox’s abortion, with First Lady Jill Biden inviting her as a guest to the State of the Union.

Some liberal Republicans have also pushed the false idea that direct abortion is necessary. This includes liberal Nebraska Republican Sen. Merv Riepe, who wants to weaken the state’s 12-week abortion ban even further. Even states that allow for some abortions for supposed “medical” reasons have seen few, such as Indiana.

Dr. Skop also addressed the availability of “dangerous” abortion drugs and their harms. The day after Skop’s testimony, the Supreme Court rejected a challenge from pro-life doctors seeking to address the Biden administration’s removal of safeguards for the distribution of abortion drugs.

Skop stated:

These dangerous drugs are also being mailed into pro-life states after being ordered on websites that explain how to circumvent state laws. All aspects of quality medical care are being ignored: no pre-abortion testing, ultrasound, physical examination, or labs. Such medical negligence leaves women at risk of undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy, underestimated gestational age with higher risks of failure, and future infertility or pregnancy complications. This unsupervised distribution of drugs fails to provide adequate informed consent counseling, including knowledge of alternatives and support available if she wants to give birth, and confirmation that the women is not being coerced into an abortion.

Anti-trafficking laws needed to protect young girls: Skop
Dr. Skop also explained the importance of laws against bringing minors to other states for abortions.

She cited a November 2023 story about an Idaho woman and her son. The pair brought the son’s 15-year-old “girlfriend” to Oregon to have an abortion and allegedly cover up sexual assault. He was 18.

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