Abortion laws safeguard mother’s life.

“Physicians feel ‘trapped’ by SD’s abortion trigger law. They’re hoping to change it.”

Recently, the South Dakota Searchlight published a hit piece by business reporter Makenzie Huber, pushing the left’s abortion narrative and taking cheap shots at pro-life policies. As a former abortionist and South Dakota native, I wrote a rebuttal to her skewed piece, but it was refused by not only the Searchlight, but also two other South Dakota publications.

The Truth About Ectopic Pregnancies

Huber’s article focused on South Dakota’s abortion trigger law and how it affects physicians. She used a South Dakota family physician, Dr. Laura Hoefert, as her marionette, recounting Hoefert feeling “trapped” by the law. However, treating ectopic pregnancies is not the same thing as getting an abortion. Ectopic pregnancies threaten the life of a mother, and it’s extremely rare that babies survive these pregnancies.

Publications like The New York Times, Washington Post, and Harvard Gazette tout the myth that mothers are no longer protected in a post-Roe world and that states’ trigger laws will not allow doctors to help women with ectopic pregnancies and other life-threatening conditions. This is a blatant lie.

As medical professionals, we don’t take life-altering decisions lightly. In South Dakota, our trigger law is clear: Doctors must use their best “judgment” in deciding what is the best medical route for safeguarding the life of the mother. This is not a disputable point.

The Media’s Falsehoods

Another falsehood pushed by the media is that pregnant women who have “cancer, epilepsy, kidney disease, or another chronic illness” cannot be helped. Not all chronic illnesses are life-threatening, but when they are, doctors like me treat each unique scenario first and foremost to protect the mother.

I sent Huber two articles from the American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, listing many of these life-threatening medical conditions that would necessitate an early baby delivery. It is misleading and an outright lie to confuse these two very different situations. No doctor in South Dakota or any pro-life state needs to fear a felony when it comes to saving the life of the mother.

Corporate media are not our friends. They rarely portray the truth and are hardly interested in publishing the other side of the story. Don’t believe their lies about mothers not being protected—the life of the mother will always be a doctor’s first priority.