***Disclaimer: No one cares if she had an abortion because the pregnancy wasn’t viable or for whatever reason she CHOSE to have one; that is her business and how CHOICE works. What strikes people as hypocritical is Ms. Duggar Seewald is a forced birther who supports banning abortion in this country with no exceptions. But privileged Jessa chose to terminate her pregnancy in a state that has pretty much banned abortion and was the center of the Extreme Court ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade. Several online, news sites have described her CHOICE (see how that works) to abort her nonviable fetus as “health care for me but not for thee.”
In a YouTube video she posted, Jessa claimed she was recovering from a “D&C” — which stands for dilation and curettage, a common medical procedure used in cases of dangerous, unwanted, or non-viable pregnancies. In subsequent media coverage, she called the procedure “a miscarriage” but pro-choice advocates and professionals in the medical community call her procedure, an abortion.
“We decided to go the hospital, get checked in there and go through the process of a D&C,”
See how CHOICE works? “We decided…”
After hearing her doctors say pregnancy did not “look good” and because she has a history of hemorrhaging, she terminated her pregnancy. Passing the tissue at home could prove dangerous, even though she claims she miscarried before she underwent a D&C.
“Jessa Duggar, dedicated anti-abortion, anti-choice abortion campaigner, had the choice to have an abortion procedure in order to complete her nonviable pregnancy,” AnneHodder-Shipp, a sex and relationship educator, said on TikTok. “I hope [she] heals quickly and fully has all the support she needs and deserves during this time. I also hope that eventually, she realizes that she benefited from the very same medical procedure that, thanks in part to her family and religious community’s efforts, has successfully been banned throughout Arkansas and is not a choice for millions of people — but she might not ever.”
Say Their Names:
Here’s a sampling of people who’ve been denied abortion care after having a miscarriage since Roe v. Wade was overturned:
- Christina Zielke, a Washington, D.C. resident, was in Ohio in September for a wedding when she started “passing blood clots the size of golf balls.” She was bleeding so much that she filled her parents’ bathtub with blood in the middle of the night. But doctors quickly released her from the ER—despite the fact that she was still filling up diapers with blood—because they couldn’t offer her a D&C until they confirmed the fetus had no heartbeat. At the time, Ohio’s abortion ban that prohibits abortion after six weeks was in effect.
- Jill Perry Hartle was forced to carry her unviable fetus for 49 days in July because, in South Carolina, her fetal anomaly wasn’t detected until her 18- and 22-week anatomy scans. Because the state had certified its own trigger ban, making abortion after 22 weeks impossible, she was forced to travel out of state.
- Amanda Eid’s water broke at 18 weeks in Texas in July, but doctors said her life-threatening risk wasn’t life-threatening enough. Yet. They instructed her to monitor for signs of infection and come back. Within three days she spiked a 103-degree fever and was unable to walk, which was finally life-threatening enough for doctors to perform an abortion. Afterward, she developed what was probably sepsis, spent time in the ICU, and is likely now infertile.
- Mylissa Farmer’s water broke at 17 weeks in August. The 41-year-old Missouri woman was at high risk of pregnancy-related complications like sepsis, uterine loss, and death. The doctors treating her recommended an abortion but, because she lived in Missouri—where abortion is banned with limited exceptions—there wasn’t a clinic that could treat her. She called her state senator to help and he sent her to an anti-abortion crisis pregnancy center, which didn’t help her obtain an abortion. “The thing [a doctor] said was, ‘There are things worse than death, and I have seen it,’” Farmer recalled.
Jessa speaks out and explains her decision to undergo a D&C:
Since Jessa’ brush with reality, she has changed her stance on birth control:
