Johns Hopkins prof says abortion is attempt to 'control pregnant people’s bodies'
Johns Hopkins University published an article on May 19 titled 'A Year Without Roe: Abortion Restrictions and the Threat to Women’s Health.'
The article summarized an official JMU media briefing that featured only pro-abortion individuals and perspectives.
Johns Hopkins University (JHU) published an article on May 19 titled “A Year Without Roe: Abortion Restrictions and the Threat to Women’s Health” following an official “Expert Media Briefing” the university’s Bloomberg School of Public Health released the day before.
The professors facilitating the media briefing were Dr. Suzanne Bell, whose research centers on “inequities in access to and quality of contraceptive and abortion services,” and Joanne Rosen, a senior lecturer at the university who studies the impact “of law and policy on sexual and reproductive health, access to abortion, and sexual and gender minority communities.”
In JHU’s article summarizing the briefing, states that have moved to protect unborn life are referred to as having “erode[d] access” to abortion, and are also called “abortion-hostile.”
”In this environment, it’s getting harder for hospitals in abortion-hostile states to attract and retain obstetricians and gynecologists, and raising questions about the future of training for these specialties in those states,” bemoans producer and writer Annalies Winny, who penned the JMU article.
During the briefing, streamed on YouTube, Professor Bell said that the Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court decision was a “devastating and unprecedented reproductive health policy change, with potentially significant implications for reproductive autonomy, fertility, and maternal and infant health in the U.S.”
“I want to emphasize that abortion is health care,” Bell said.
She then went on to refer to women as “pregnant people” throughout the video released by the university.
“Recent state restrictions, coupled with ongoing efforts to curtail access to medication abortion pills nationwide, are an attempt to interfere with the delivery of evidence-based health care and control pregnant people’s bodies,” Bell concluded.
[RELATED: Student ‘praises Jesus’ for abortion at recent Students for Life event]
Senior lecturer Joanne Rosen spoke to Campus Reform following the Maryland school’s media briefing.
“The denial of abortion carries significant and well-documented health risks” for the “pregnant person,” she said.
“For example, and as Dr. Bell described in the article, ‘[the] risk of maternal death is 15 times higher for carrying a pregnancy to term than it is for abortion, and pregnancy-related complications are 2 to 25 times higher for pregnancies ending in birth compared to abortion.’ For these and other reasons, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists describes abortion as essential health care,” Rosen told Campus Reform.
Campus Reform contacted all relevant parties listed for comment and will update this article accordingly.
Follow Kaia Lehenbauer on Instagram.
