State's Teen Pregnancy Booklet Riddled With Anti-Choice Propaganda
If pregnant teenagers in Texas are hoping to get the facts about their abortion rights from the state, they’re out of luck. A new version of the little-known pamphlet “So, You’re Pregnant, Now What?” is rife with factual errors, inflammatory language, and anti-abortion bias.
Per statute, the Texas Department of State Health Services booklet is meant to educate teens on judicial bypass – the process by which minors can forgo parental consent and obtain permission for abortion through a judge. The material is also required to provide information relating to alternatives to abortion and health risks associated with the procedure. While an earlier version was mildly problematic, a revised edition – to be finalized in the coming weeks – is blatantly designed to mislead pregnant minors and shame those seeking abortion care.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ state chapter, NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, Jane’s Due Process, and the Texas House Women’s Health Caucus are among the organizations that have sent concerned letters to the health department pointing out the slew of ideologically motivated errors.
The booklet (read it here) overstates the hazards of abortion, citing death as the first risk, despite the fact that pregnancy is statistically up to 14 times more dangerous than abortion care. (Death is merely the final bullet point in the risks associated with giving birth, and it even includes a caveat allaying readers with its rarity.) It also misleads on the mental health complications post-abortion, overemphasizing thoughts of suicide and depression, a theory wholly debunked by scientific research, and links abortion to lack of fertility and breast cancer, again discredited by leading medical organizations including the National Cancer Institute. If those glaring inaccuracies weren’t enough: Instead of using actual medical terminology, the revised booklet opts to manipulate pregnant teens’ vulnerable emotions by referring to the fetus or embryo as “your baby,” uses “mother” instead of “woman,” and visually depicts the stages of gestation. And according to ACOG, the overall description for medical abortion is inaccurate and reflects outdated FDA guidelines.
Read more: https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/news/2018-04-19/states-teen-pregnancy-booklet-riddled-with-anti-choice-propaganda/
