\u201cInformation in this decision has forced us to crunch the numbers,\u201d said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue. \u201cOur calculations based on conservative estimates indicates that nearly 1,000 women might very well be hospitalized each year in Texas alone. That number is completely unacceptable.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The article included this image offering a breakdown of these hospitalizations:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A\u00a0total of 940 hospitalizations for 70,003 abortions adds up to only a 1.3% rate of hospitalization due to complications. Given how often abortion\u00a0opponents emphasize the dangers of abortion, this number actually seems really low. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Some my find it\u00a0surprising that 6% of those\u00a0who have first trimester medication abortions have complications requiring hospitalization. However, this number is more complicated than it appears. While the 6% figure is used in that line, the\u00a0number of women hospitalized listed is only 3%. As the note at the bottom explains, this is because the 6% statistic actually refers to the percentage of those\u00a0who had to follow their medication abortion with a surgical abortion because the medication abortion did not complete, not<\/em> to the percentage of women hospitalized. The number of women hospitalized is based on the assumption that half of those whose medication abortions\u00a0do not complete will have their\u00a0surgical abortion followup at a local hospital rather than at an abortion clinic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Individuals\u00a0who choose medication abortions are told up front that there is a small chance that the pills (which they take at home)\u00a0will not be fully effective, and that in that case they will need to come in and follow the procedure up with\u00a0a surgical abortion. The followup is routine, and is typically the result of the failure of the pills to complete the abortion, not life-threatening bleeding or other complications. In other words, while some percentages of these followup surgical abortions may occur in a hospital, they are simply a repeat abortion procedure and not blood transfusions or life support.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
When we understand that the majority of the 6% figure for complications requiring hospitalization listed under first trimester medication abortions refers to those\u00a0who have to follow their medication abortion with a routine surgical abortion, the risk listed for first trimester abortions declines quite a bit. Even with this understanding, however, medication abortions are<\/span> still associated with more risk than surgical abortions<\/a>. A proper response to this reality should be to (a) fund research to make\u00a0the abortion pill safer and (b) promote the\u00a0safer surgical abortions and make these surgical abortions more widely available, which are both things abortion opponents oppose.<\/span><\/p>\n
It is well known that second trimester abortions have a greater risk of complications than first trimester abortions. Because of this, I don\u2019t find the 6% rate of complications requiring hospitalization all that surprising. Because second trimester abortions are more risky, I support making first trimester abortions more readily available. A significant number of individuals\u00a0who have second trimester abortions do so because they were unable to access an abortion during their first trimester, often due to accessibility or financial need. If we make first trimester abortions more accessible, we can substantially cut down on the number of second trimester abortions and thus cut down on the health risks involve\u2014but this is exactly what abortion opponents are fighting to stop. <\/span><\/p>\n
Even with the slightly higher rate of complications for medication abortions and the significantly higher rate of complications for second trimester abortion, the overall rate of hospitalization from complications due to abortion in Texas is only 1.3%. This number is\u00a0<\/span>far lower<\/a>\u00a0than the typical rate of hospitalization after an outpatient surgery center, yet Republicans<\/span> are working to expand the number of outpatient surgery centers<\/a>. If Republicans see outpatient surgery centers as a safe, cost-effective alternative to surgeries performed in hospitals, in spite of these centers\u2019\u00a0substantially\u00a0higher rate of hospitalization due to later complications, why all the fuss about abortion clinics, which follow essentially the same model and are in fact\u00a0safer<\/em> than outpatient surgery centers?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
There\u2019s something else that suggests that it\u2019s not really about protecting women\u2019s health as well. While roughly 1.3% of those who have abortions are hospitalized due to complications, nearly 100% of\u00a0those\u00a0who carry their pregnancies to term are hospitalized.\u00a0In other words, if those 70,003\u00a0individuals\u00a0had not had abortions, they would for all intents and purposes\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0have been hospitalized. Now yes, many would argue that childbirth is a natural process and should not be seen as a \u201ccomplication.\u201d Still, the rate of complications from pregnancy is not negligible, and in 2011 there were 30.7 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. If abortion had the same mortality rate, we would have seen 21.5 deaths due to abortion in Texas in 2011, when instead there were zero<\/em>. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Abortion is far safer than birth. Troy Newman of Operation Rescue calls 1000 hospitalizations due to abortion in Texas each year \u201ccompletely unacceptable.\u201d What does he think of the 116 women who died in childbirth in Texas in that same year? While researchers are still discussing the reasons for the U.S.\u2019s unusually high maternal mortality rate, most agree that lack of access to healthcare is<\/span> a significant part of the problem<\/a>. And yet, Republicans have blocked both medicaid expansion and other proposals that would extend healthcare to pregnant individuals. If abortion\u00a0opponents truly cared about women\u2019s health, they ought to\u00a0support policies that would make pregnancy and maternity care more affordable and more available\u2014and they need to acknowledge that pregnancy and childbirth are far more risky than abortion, and act like they actually believe that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Let\u2019s finish by talking for a moment about the controversy over admitting privileges. A Texas law passed in 2013 required abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a local hospital at\u00a0any clinic where they provide abortions. On some level, this law sounds well meaning and reasonable. However, because of a decades-long campaign of terror against abortion doctors, many clinics are unable to find a local doctor willing to perform abortions. Further,<\/span> the shortage of doctors willing to perform abortions<\/a>\u00a0and the stigma against abortion doctors means that doctors who do proally gvide abortions<\/span> often end up only<\/em> providing abortions<\/a>. Many abortion doctors travel from clinic to clinic providing abortion services for individuals\u00a0who wound not otherwise have access to an abortion provider. Requiring these doctors to have admitting privileges at numerous hospitals across the state\u00a0is neither practical nor necessary,\u00a0especially given the overwhelmingly safe nature of the procedure.<\/span><\/p>\n
Abortion opponents would have you think that abortion doctors practicing at abortion clinics without having admitting privileges at a\u00a0local hospital is profoundly medically dangerous, but this misunderstands the current situation. In my own town, our local Planned Parenthood offers abortions only one day a week. That day, an abortion doctor travels to my town from a nearby city. The Planned Parenthood clinic has an arrangement with a local doctor who would take over the care for any patient who has to be transferred to the hospital in case of an emergency. I am not sure whether this is common practice more generally, but hospital emergency rooms are<\/span> required to accept and treat all patients<\/a> regardless of whether the\u00a0doctor who originally treated them has admitting privileges.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n