President Joe Biden’s latest reelection campaign ad, Willow’s Box, highlights the story of Amanda Zurawski, a Texas woman whose traumatic pregnancy loss made national news after her hospital neglected to give her the emergency care she needed, resulting in her needing two stays in the intensive care unit.
Certainly, Ms. Zurawski’s ordeal presents a harsh reminder of our healthcare system’s serious faults. However, Biden’s ad twists this story to promote a pro-abortion agenda at the expense of important medical and legal facts.
In this ad, written commentary appears between video shots of Ms. Zurawski and her husband tearfully displaying the contents of a box of items they bought for their pre-born daughter, Willow.
In 2022, Willow tragically passed away when Ms. Zurawski suffered premature pre-labor rupture of membranes, or PPROM, at eighteen weeks gestation; that is, her water broke in the middle of her second trimester. As an OB hospitalist, I have cared for dozens of women facing this complication. In such cases, it is crucial for a woman’s medical team to closely monitor her, specifically for signs of infection, which can spread rapidly and result in sepsis. This is exactly what happened to Ms. Zurawski — only it appears she was not monitored closely enough.
President Biden blames Texas’s pro-life law for Ms. Zurawski’s experience. The ad states “because Donald Trump killed Roe v. Wade, Amanda was denied standard medical care to prevent infection, an abortion.”
This is simply false. Induced abortion — defined by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists as “an intervention to end a pregnancy so that it does not result in a live birth” — is far from necessary to treat PPROM. What distinguishes induced abortion from other pregnancy interventions is that its aim is to end the life of the embryonic or fetal human being. In my two decades of practice, I have never needed to intentionally end the life of my pre-born patient for the health of my pregnant patient.
As a pro-life physician, I practice according to the same principles that drive Texas’s abortion law. When treating a pregnant woman, I treat both her and her pre-born child as my patients and as equally worthy of excellent healthcare. I, like the Texas law, recognize that killing isn’t healthcare and has no place in the practice of medicine.
Despite what President Biden says, Texas’s abortion law expressly allows physicians to separate a mother and her baby in the case of serious pregnancy complications. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission reports fifty-two instances of such emergency interventions in the state in 2023. Clearly, physicians are still able to offer lifesaving care under the current law.
The Biden ad falsely asserts otherwise. It states that due to the Texas law, “doctors were forced to send [Ms. Zurawski] home” when she presented to the emergency room with ruptured membranes.
The law in no way requires physicians to send home patients whom they would otherwise admit to the hospital for monitoring and further treatment. As CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, I have unanimously heard from our Texas members that they have not had to alter their approach to care in any way. Despite never performing induced abortions, I have never had to send a patient with PPROM to the ICU. That’s because pro-life principles don’t prevent good healthcare and because I know well how to closely monitor patients in these situations — some carry their babies to viability and others require early delivery.
Ms. Zurawski wasn’t prevented from obtaining the care she deserved by Texas law. She simply received what appears to be poor care. This is unacceptable and should lead to calls for improved maternal healthcare, not for calls to repeal pro-life protections.
But President Biden’s trope does nothing to address this problem. Rather, it distracts from the real issue by exploiting tragic cases like Ms. Zurawski’s to promote a radically pro-abortion agenda. Establishing unrestricted access to induced abortion will do nothing to improve maternal health; in fact, today, the populations with the highest abortion rates also have the highest maternal mortality rates. Furthermore, advancing the false story that pregnant women suffering complications will be left to die in pro-life states will make women scared of even trying to obtain medical care.
Women and their pre-born babies deserve better than to have their tragic stories exploited in service of a political agenda. My patients deserve clarity and care, not confusion from politically motivated fear-mongering.
