The Trump administration’s Office of Population Affairs under the Department of Health and Human Services is shifting the focus of its Title X grants. Historically, these grants focused on funding birth control and contributed to an “overreliance on pharmaceutical and surgical treatments.”
But now the department “expect[s] applicants to demonstrate how their Title X projects will integrate noninvasive, evidence-based practices that promote health literacy, fertility awareness, and reproductive health without unnecessary medicalization or symptom suppression.” In other words, in a time of falling birth rates, the administration is working to promote fertility awareness, natural contraception, and pregnancy.
Dr. Christina Francis, head of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, praised the shift: “Families flourish when women are supported before, during, and after pregnancy. … In a time when we are facing a rapidly declining birth rate that falls far short of the replacement fertility rate, we should be doing all we can to encourage and support family formation and fertility.”
Will we see a rise in such life-affirming OB-GYNs? Only if women make intentional choices to support their models. Right now, many women who identify as pro-life, even those who are religious, don’t give much thought to where to go for OB-GYN care. They often simply choose an obstetrician their friend or sister recommends.
That’s completely understandable from a practical perspective, and unfortunately, not every town even has a pro-life option. But women often don’t realize their doctor isn’t life-affirming until they run into a problem. If you have a normal pregnancy, it can be easy not to see any red flags and not know anything about what might be happening with the patient in the room next to you.
But here are 10 reasons to find a pro-life OB-GYN if you can.
1. Not Prescribing Chemical Abortion
Unfortunately, in many states, chemical abortion is now legal through prescription and can be filled at the local pharmacy. You may not realize that just by choosing your OB, you are supporting a business that is willing to prescribe the death of a child. Many OB-GYNs are willing to prescribe these drugs, which induce dangerous at-home abortions.
Many pro-life OB-GYNs, on the other hand, offer abortion-pill reversal, a second chance at choice for women who have taken the first abortion pill then experience regret and want to save their babies.
2. Not Pressuring to Abort
Pro-life OBs aren’t going to pressure you to have an abortion. You might think, “Why would they tell me to get an abortion? I have no reason to!” Unfortunately, you may not realize that even in planned, wanted pregnancies, OBs are now pushing genetic testing.
Upon a positive screening or diagnostic test, sometimes even if there’s only a slightly increased risk for an abnormality of any kind, many mainstream OB practices recommend abortion. They may not provide it, but they do refer for it — or provide it under the guise of early induction as a “termination for medical reasons.”
In contrast, pro-life doctors provide support for prenatal diagnoses. Even in the most severe, life-limiting cases, perinatal hospice can be a life-affirming option, continuing the pregnancy until the baby’s natural death.
3. Helping Women Afford Prenatal Care
Pro-life OBs may be able to care for pregnant women in financial need. They can do this by accepting Medicaid or offering sliding-fee scales or self-pay discounts. Sometimes, women in unexpected pregnancies face financial difficulty and are unable to get quality medical care, particularly in the first trimester. They often go without care and deliver at hospitals under emergency Medicaid or even deliver at home as “freebirthers” with no medical care.
By supporting pro-life OB-GYNs, you are helping them to financially stay afloat and therefore have the financial margin to assist women who can’t afford the help they need. These women have bravely chosen life and deserve continuity of care from prenatal providers after the initial moment of a pregnancy decision. Please consider supporting the OBs who support these women.
4. Valuing the Earliest Embryo
Pro-life OBs value every human life, from the moment sperm meets egg, resulting in a new person. That has implications for contraception and in vitro fertilization (IVF) as well as abortion.
Unfortunately, hormonal contraception can result in the death of an already formed human life that is unable to implant in the uterus due to hormonal changes thinning the uterine lining. This is rare, as hormonal contraceptives usually prevent ovulation altogether, but it does happen. And it’s not a good risk to take when there are more effective and natural ways to plan families through fertility awareness — which is empowering information that not only values embryos but also women’s health.
IVF can also result in a lot of embryo destruction and freezing, which are not in keeping with human dignity. Many pro-life OBs pursue other forms of infertility treatments that don’t require creating human life in a laboratory, such as restorative reproductive medicine.
5. Knowing the Baby Is Also Their Patient
Pro-life OBs are more likely to see your unborn baby as a second patient. They value both mother and baby in making treatment plans.
That means that if you face a medical complication at any time in the pregnancy, you can make a plan for trying, if possible, to get the child to viability and do a C-section so you can both survive. When that isn’t possible, pro-life OBs can intervene to save your life with induction or surgery in ways that respect the life and dignity of your baby, such as delivering the baby whole to die peacefully in your arms instead of being dismembered.
6. Approaching Miscarriage Properly
Pro-life OBs can work to prevent miscarriages and also be compassionate when they do happen. Some OBs don’t even begin to care about finding underlying causes for miscarriage until there have already been several losses. By contrast, pro-life OBs frequently test progesterone levels and consider blood thinners and tests that can help minimize miscarriage risks.
Pro-life OBs also tend to be more compassionate if you face a miscarriage or stillbirth. Many women are shocked to find their secular doctors less than compassionate in the case of a loss. Examples include an unwillingness to let a woman try to deliver at home, hospitals refusing to release remains, or medical professionals calling on parents to simply “try again” as if their baby didn’t matter.
7. Better Listening and Holistic Health
Pro-life OBs are more likely to listen to their patients and care about overall health. Unfortunately, maternal mortality rates are often tied to a lack of physicians listening to the woman’s concerns.
Furthermore, women’s health is always tied to relational, spiritual, and mental health as much as physical health. Having a provider who knows this and can encourage you toward good overall health and provide excellent vetted referrals is important.
8. Treating Less Invasively
Pro-life OBs are typically more likely to choose less-invasive methods of treatment for medical ailments. This means they pursue alternatives to sterilization or contraception, even when other doctors would resort immediately to those “solutions” in complex medical cases. Medically necessary hysterectomies can still happen, for example, but they are less frequent.
Pro-life OBs typically have a greater respect for bodily integrity and God’s design for the female body that leads them to seek restorative solutions. Using artificial means of solving female health issues can unfortunately act as a cover-up, rather than getting to the root problem.
9. Supporting Those Wanting Larger Families
Pro-life OBs value the family. They support married couples having bigger families when they feel called to do so, rather than questioning women or pushing contraception or sterilization after a certain number of children.
10. Supporting Teens in Chastity
Pro-life OBs typically respect the values of chaste teenagers and won’t push them toward contraception or prematurely initiating sexual activity. They also won’t try to sever bonds between mothers and daughters, as secular sexual education often does.
It’s not always possible to find this kind of OB. Sometimes doing so can mean inconveniences such as longer drive times. But even looking for OBs that share at least some of these life-affirming values can make all the difference.
Even if you are stuck in a practice that isn’t life-affirming, learning to advocate for yourself and others becomes easier when you have thought these things through. Women can become courageous enough to educate their doctors and be clear about their own needs and those of their families.
The fight for life isn’t just at pregnancy centers; it’s at OB offices too. This is the only way we make progress toward a true culture of life.
Chaney Mullins Gooley has spent over a decade in pro-life pro-woman work building a culture of life across denominations and service spheres. She now serves as a non-profit consultant and owner of Toward Home LLC and lives in Alexandria, VA with her husband Patrick.
