A report published by the Associated Press this week claimed that “abortion training” for medical students is under threat due to a slew of pro-life laws passed in several states.
The report noted that a case currently under review by the United States Supreme Court could overturn Roe v. Wade, which would trigger more states to automatically pass laws protecting the unborn.
A third-year medical student in Oklahoma told the AP that it’s “quite terrifying” that states would pass pro-life laws. As Townhall covered, Oklahoma GOP Gov. Kevin Stitt passed a law banning most abortions in the state.
“As Governor, I represent all four million Oklahomans,” Stitt said during the bill signing last week. “And they overwhelmingly support protecting life in the state of Oklahoma. We want Oklahoma to be the most pro-life state in the country. We want to outlaw abortion in the state of Oklahoma.”
The medical student, Ian Peake, told the AP that it took him six months to find an abortion provider “willing to teach him” how to terminate pregnancies. He said it “would be easy” to shadow medical professionals performing operations like colonoscopies.
A “pro-feminist” medical student, Natasha McGlaun, told the AP she got “outside training” and then created a workshop on how to perform abortions that she offers to students in her free time. She added she has two daughters “whose right to reproductive choice she wants to protect.”
Oklahoma, as well as Idaho, Arizona, and Florida, have created laws in recent weeks protecting the unborn. Other states, such as Maryland, Colorado, and California, have gone in the opposite direction by enshrining abortion access in state law or allocating more funds to put towards abortion. This month, Maryland lawmakers overrode GOP Gov. Larry Hogan’s veto on a law that would allow non-physicians to perform abortions and allocated millions of state funds to abortion training programs for midwives, physician assistants, and other medical professionals.
“This is a time where these babies have beating hearts, they can move, they can taste, they can see, they can feel pain, they can suck their thumbs,” Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis said as he signed the state’s newly-enacted 15-week abortion ban. “This will represent the most significant protections for life that have been enacted in this state for a generation.”
Arizona GOP Gov. Doug Ducey told reporters outside his bill signing that “I’m pro-life, and I’m going to sign pro-life legislation.” Arizona’s law also outlaws most abortions at 15 weeks.
“There’s an opportunity that brings us much more in line with the rest of the industrialized and civilized world,” Ducey added. Townhall covered last summer how a study conducted by the Charlotte Lozier institute found that abortion is restricted to 12 to 15 weeks of pregnancy in most European countries.