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April 28, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – The acting head of the United States’ largest abortion chain declared Monday that it’s “unconscionable” to suspend elective abortions during the COVID-19 crisis, even as countless legitimate medical procedures have also been suspended with little to no resistance.

Planned Parenthood CEO Alexis McGill Johnson made the comments Monday during an interview on Democracy Now, where she told Amy Goodman it was “really unconscionable” that “people would use a pandemic to restrict access to health care.”

“Think about this. Women are the majority of healthcare workers,” she said. “We’re the majority of people homeschooling right now. We are the majority of essential workers. Our bodies have literally been deemed essential, and yet our bodies — the control of our bodies and the right to control our own bodies has not.”

U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams and the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have advised healthcare facilities to reschedule non-urgent appointments and elective procedures, both to limit the spread of COVID and to free up time and resources to focus on infected patients. Many states have temporarily ordered health providers to comply, some explicitly clarifying that abortions will be held to the same standard, which the abortion industry has challenged in court.

The closest Johnson came to addressing the rationale for the suspensions is arguing that abortion pills dispensed via telehealth checkups (i.e., “webcam abortions”) should not be suspended because they do not use up personal protective equipment such as masks. 

However, pro-lifers argue that these “safe, home abortions” run the risk of placing additional, unnecessary strain on the healthcare system.

“Elective abortion, both surgical and drug induced, also generates more patients to be seen in already overburdened emergency rooms,” the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) states. “Most abortion providers instruct women to go to an emergency room if they have any concerning symptoms after the abortion. Approximately five percent of women who undergo medication abortions will require evaluation in an emergency room, most commonly for hemorrhage. Surgical abortions can also result in hemorrhage. Emergency room personnel – who are already struggling to meet the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic – will be further strained to provide care to these women.”

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