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March 26, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — In response to the coronavirus pandemic, abortion vendor Planned Parenthood’s talking points seem to focus not on the danger of COVID-19 itself, but on its possible economic consequences.
Meera Shah, who is a physician and works in a leadership role for Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic in the state of New York, said, “Pregnancy-related care, especially abortion care [sic], is essential and life-affirming, especially now when there is so much insecurity around jobs and food and paychecks and childcare.”
“Our doors will stay open because sexual and reproductive health care is extremely important, and we have to ensure access to it,” Shah told BuzzFeed News last week.
“It seems like patients are doing everything they can to get to their appointments at this time,” she continued. “Some patients have expressed to me … that they were scared that they may not have health insurance in the future, that they may not be able to get their appointments, that childcare is becoming more of an issue now with all of the schools closed.”
Mark Harrington, founder and president of pro-life organization Created Equal, pointed out, “If Planned Parenthood cares about low income women losing their health insurance during these uncertain times, then it should be providing financial support, or childcare to these mothers.”
“Planned Parenthood doesn’t care about women. Planned cares about one thing — abortion,” he told LifeSiteNews.
“Pregnancy is not a disease. Babies are not a virus to be fought. Children are a blessing.”
Meanwhile, according to currently available data, including a small study done in China and published this February, COVID-19 in pregnant women cannot be tied to adverse pregnancy outcomes.
The Harvard Health Blog, which is associated with Harvard Medical School, pointed to the study of nine pregnant women who came down with COVID-19 and had symptoms. The study showed “that none of their babies were affected by the virus. The virus was not present in amniotic fluid, the babies’ throats, or in breast milk.”
Thus, Harvard Health Blog concluded, the risk of passing the disease to the unborn child “appears to be very low, and there is no evidence of any fetal malformations or effects due to maternal infection with COVID-19.”
The small study notwithstanding, the World Health Organization stated on its website dedicated to questions about the coronavirus and pregnancy that things are not entirely clear. “We still do not know if a pregnant woman with COVID-19 can pass the virus to her foetus or baby during pregnancy or delivery,” wrote the WHO, which also heavily promotes abortion.
A baby in London reportedly tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month, just minutes after being born, according to Live Science.
It is unknown when exactly the baby contracted the disease. “We can’t say it happened while the baby was still in the womb,” said William Schaffner, a professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. The baby might have contracted the virus during birth or immediately after, he told Live Science.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) pointed out that currently, there are “no recommendations specific to pregnant women regarding the evaluation or management of COVID-19.”
However, ACOG cautioned, “pregnant women are known to be at greater risk of severe morbidity and mortality from other respiratory infections such as influenza and SARS-CoV. As such, pregnant women should be considered an at-risk population for COVID-19.”
ACOG, like WHO, supports abortion. As LifeSiteNews reported, the group claimed on March 18 that abortions are “a time-sensitive service for which a delay of several weeks, or in some cases days, may increase the risks or potentially make it completely inaccessible.”
“The consequences of being unable to obtain an abortion profoundly impact a person’s life, health, and well-being,” ACOG and several other pro-abortion organizations said.
Five different organizations representing more than 30,000 pro-life doctors responded by explaining how “across the United States, services that do constitute essential health care for women, including routine Pap smears, mammograms, and pelvic exams, are being postponed in order to reduce everyone’s risk of exposure to COVID-19, and to conserve scarce medical resources.”
Elective abortions are neither “essential” nor “urgent,” the doctors emphasized. To continue with such procedures would “consume critical resources such as masks, gloves, and other personal protective equipment, and unnecessarily exposes patients and physicians to pathogens.”
During the Zika epidemic in 2016, supporters of abortion had used the virus as a direct excuse to promote killing the child of an infected pregnant woman in the womb. “Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry were quick to jump on the abortion bandwagon for pregnant women with confirmed or suspected cases of the Zika virus,” LifeSiteNews wrote in 2016.
Zika had been linked to microcephaly, a medical condition “of abnormal smallness of the circumference of the head that is present at birth or develops within the first few years of life and is often associated with developmental delays, impaired cognitive development, poor coordination and balance, deficits in hearing and vision, and seizures.”