Antiabortion advocates talk a big game about protecting the “sanctity of life,” but in reality do not care about life at all—not the lives of mothers, whose rights they think nothing of taking away, or the babies they force pregnant people to carry to term. The most recent example of this hypocrisy? A new study showing that infant deaths increased in Texas in the wake of its near-total ban on abortions.
On Monday, a study published in the JAMA Pediatrics journal revealed that in 2022, the year after Texas’s Heartbeat Act went into effect, the infant mortality rate went up by nearly 13%, versus an almost 2% increase in the rest of the US. Deaths as a result of birth defects increased in the state by 22.9%—compared to a nationwide decrease of about 3%—presumably because the Texas law bans abortion after six weeks, which is well before tests are done to detect fetal abnormalities. Alison Gemmill, who led the study, told USA Today, “It just points to some of the devastating consequences of abortion bans that maybe people weren’t thinking about when they passed these laws”—a statement that is definitely giving antiabortion lawmakers way too much credit. Wendy Davis, a senior adviser for Planned Parenthood Texas Votes, pointed out that since the study only looked at 2022—and not the years that followed the overturning of Roe v. Wade, when many more states enacted abortion bans—“the situation on the ground today is [likely] even more dire.”
What do people who call themselves “pro-life” think of all this? Not much—and definitely not that they should rethink how their policies have had terrible consequences on countless real, live people.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Texas governor Greg Abbott said the Heartbeat Act has led to “thousands of children have been given a chance at life.” Amy O’Donnell, a spokesperson for Texas Alliance for Life, told USA Today, “We don’t apologize for the fact that we don’t support discrimination against children facing disabilities or fatal diagnoses in or out of the womb. And that’s the line that we just believe should not be crossed.” She did not comment on the fact that the Texas law inflicts unimaginable trauma on people forced to give birth to children they know won’t survive, only to watch them die.
The Donald Trump campaign—whose candidate regularly brags about killing Roe v. Wade—does not appear to have commented on the news. As a reminder, earlier this month, Trump told a group that wants abortion “eradicated entirely” that he knows “where you’re coming from” and pledged, “I’ll be with you, side by side.”
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