Miscarriage Should Never be Compared to Abortion
By: Athena Duncan, originally published August 13, 2024, Human Defense Initiative
Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, there has been no lack of misinformation in both pro-choice circles and the public forum. I have seen countless memes, reels, and anecdotes shared across social media that no doubt have made their way across many feeds. Some of them tell a half truth, omit important information, or simply misrepresent entirely the tragic reality of miscarriage. Let me be clear: miscarriage and abortion are completely unrelated and therefore should never be compared. When a woman has an abortion, the goal is to end the life of the baby while in the womb, then remove and discard their remains. Often, there is no acknowledgement that the child has any value or is even a child at all. If this were the case, a miscarriage would not warrant incredible heartbreak and profound grief.
When a woman announces her pregnancy, it is joyous news. A miraculous new life has been created! Women dream about their babies long before conception, pray for their constant protection, and discover a love they have never felt before in that first sweet cry. It is a highly emotional but equally special time of life. Pregnancy can also be a traumatic experience for many women. If you have not personally experienced the loss of a baby, you likely know someone who has. Imagine the woman who has tried to conceive for months, maybe years. She finally sees a faint second line through tear-filled eyes. She is so excited that her adrenaline prevents her from stringing together a coherent sentence so she just hands her husband the test. He is equally ecstatic. She schedules her first appointment and impatiently waits for confirmation that her miracle baby is thriving. Unfortunately, she leaves that first appointment with a piece of her heart torn away. Some women never even make it to that first appointment. The pain of losing a child, no matter what stage of life they are in, is great.
I am deeply troubled that we live in a time where bereaved mothers are being used to drive abortion propaganda. After a miscarriage, the baby needs to be removed from the uterus if the mother chooses not to let the lifeless baby come out on its own. The only commonality between an abortion and a miscarriage is this procedure performed to remove the baby from their mother’s womb. This procedure is called a dilatation and curettage, more commonly known as a D&C. The Mayo Clinic defines a D&C as “a procedure to remove tissue from inside your uterus. Health care professionals perform dilation and curettage to diagnose and treat certain uterine conditions — such as heavy bleeding — or to clear the uterine lining after a miscarriage or abortion.” There is one very important distinction to point out: in the case of miscarriage, the baby has passed away naturally prior to the procedure. In the case of an abortion, of course, the baby’s life was intentionally ended prior to the procedure. Clearly, this one commonality does not in any way warrant the comparison of these two tragic occurrences.
Who is comparing abortion to miscarriage? This aforementioned procedure has been rumored by emotionally charged and under-researched pro-choicers to actually be an abortion. Women have even been accused of having an abortion after they announce their heartbreaking loss. The online publication, Jezebel titled an article in 2023, “Jessa Duggar Seewald Had an Abortion, Even If She Won’t Say the Word” after the TLC star posted publicly that she had suffered a miscarriage. There’s no doubt that the sole purpose of this horrific attack on the famed Christian wife and mother was to further this nonsensical idea that miscarriage and abortion are one and the same. Spreading false and hurtful information in the place of care and sympathy is especially evil. There is no law in any state that prevents doctors from performing this procedure after a miscarriage, as it is not an abortion.
No matter where you stand on this largely debated issue, we should all agree to leave miscarriage entirely out of the conversation. I believe it is more important now than ever to be a voice of truth in this chaos and confusion. The post-Roe era we are in today presents a wonderful opportunity to give clarity and teach discernment to the younger generations so that they are better equipped to share the facts about abortion in a loving and honest way.
Athena Duncan is an author and mother of two boys, who strives to do all things for the glory of God.