It’s difficult to avoid political ads that take on women’s reproductive rights. From Democrats trying to terrify women with warnings about the extremism of their Republican counterparts, to Republicans sticking to talking points about Democrat-desired late-term abortions in order to shock and disturb their base.

The truth, as always, lives somewhere in the middle. I really hope that Republicans have no intentions of tracking young women’s menstrual cycles or travel patterns. I also really hope that most people understand that a “post birth abortion” is either perinatal palliative care for a newborn who cannot survive, or murder — only one of which is legal, only one of which would be performed by a licensed physician.

But the way it’s being presented to the average voter, I do not begrudge anti-abortion activists their ignorance or confusion. The way Donald Trump describes an “after birth abortion,” it sure sounds like murder.

In trouble deep

In the imagination of the political operatives at work on the Right, there are women who decide in the eighth or ninth month of pregnancy, or just after giving birth, to get an abortion, for no medically necessary reason. These women sound like monsters. But they also sound fictional.

As someone who has been pregnant, multiple times, and through losses, I can tell you with certainty that women in that position are not having an abortion on a whim. They’re doing it because something has gone horribly wrong.

I have yet to hear one credible story of a woman who had a late-term abortion just to have one, without medical necessity. I have not heard of a single doctor who would perform a procedure like that, even before the repeal of Roe v. Wade.

But I have heard fact-checked and verified stories about women who died in recent months because they could not get this kind of care in certain states. Women who bled out on helicopter rides and in ambulances, on their way to a hospital that would treat them. Women who could not conceive again after being denied help.

This has happened across the country and across the political spectrum. This has happened to women who wanted to have successful pregnancies, who desired to give birth and hold their children. And the consequences of the Trump Administration’s judicial appointments are clear: these women are dying.

I’ve been losing sleep

It will take years before we have real numbers, as maternal mortality rates take time to compile, but early indicators point to rising maternal death counts in states with “more restrictive abortion policies,” according to a study from Tulane University. And as many physicians point out, including the CDC, “80% of pregnancy-related deaths … are preventable.”

The women who have had late-term abortions, 1.3% of all termination procedures, are women navigating intense trauma and impossibly complicated situations. But to hear the advertisements on the radio and television, there’s a murder spree, and the blood is on all of our hands.

It would be easier to talk about abortion if we could put aside all theatrics and actually consider the facts available to us. And the truth of the matter is that abortion is healthcare, and like all healthcare, it should be subject to regulation and standards. Fearmongering, on both sides, does little to move us all forward.

Take the Left-sponsored ad where a father is stopped in his car by a policeman. At first, it seems to be for a traffic infraction, but soon it becomes apparent that the daughter in the passenger seat is the focus of the policeman’s attention. He asks about her menstrual cycle. He questions why they are about to cross state lines. The implication is clear: young women will not be in control of their bodies, or privacy, if the GOP wins.

Papa, don’t preach

I have plenty of conservative friends who bristle at the this ad. Being opposed to abortion is not being in favor of Big Brother for Women. Still — the ads seem just as bad to them as the “abortion is murder” ones are to my liberal friends.

There’s an imbalance, of course. Because while Democrats are exaggerating about how invasive, and controlling, Republicans wish to be, Republicans are using hyperbole to accuse innocent women, and their doctors, of killing just to kill — a much morally more serious accusation.

But it’s all more complicated than that, isn’t it? Perhaps this is why, when pressed by Sen. JD Vance during the vice presidential debate, Gov. Tim Walz did not answer a question on late-term abortions, instead pivoting to say that healthcare decisions should be private.

Health treatments should be private, and incredibly difficult decisions should happen between a doctor and their patient. That’s where I fall on the matter. I don’t want to tell someone suffering from his testicular issues what to do, nor do I wish to get into anyone’s uterus. I trust people to make their own decisions.

But that might be too simple a solution.

Adriana E. Ramírez’s previous column was “Donald Trump is the worst boyfriend.”

First Published: October 19, 2024, 9:30 a.m.