The taxpayer-supported PBS News Weekend show on Saturday provided some helpful PR for the abortion megaplex Planned Parenthood. It’s been a favorite source for pro-abortion alarmist takes ever since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. As usual with PBS, there are no voices raised to celebrate saving infant lives, but a single-minded focus on the lost opportunities to abort, with the hardest cases presented as commonplace.
Host John Yang portrayed good news for life as bad news in the over-seven-minute-long segment:
Yang: While the number of legal abortions has gone up nationwide since the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, a recent report from a group that supports reproductive rights says there have been sharp declines in states that impose new restrictions on abortion access. One of those states, Wisconsin, saw around 7,000 fewer abortions in the year following the court's decision than the state's annual average. Marisa Wojcik of PBS Wisconsin spoke with doctors there about the effect on their work and on their patients.
Jenn Vollstedt, Former Labor and Delivery Nurse: When I got the results, I knew what I wanted to do. It was really hard emotionally. I was devastated. I wanted that baby.
Marisa Wojcik: Jenn Vollstedt is a former labor and delivery nurse in Milwaukee. At 12 weeks pregnant, Vollstedt was told something wasn't right. At 19 weeks pregnant, she found out she and her unborn child were at risk.
Vollstedt: I knew that if I carried that pregnancy to term I was putting my own health at risk. And I also knew that my baby if she survived a term would only suffer.
Wojcik: Jenn Vollstedt made her decision while abortion was still legal. The cascade of events following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling overturning the constitutional right to an abortion hit states like Wisconsin the hardest, creating a near total abortion ban in the state one year ago.
Wojcik found her Planned Parenthood source.
Wojcik: Before Roe v. Wade was overturned, Dr. Kristen Lyerly, an OB/GYN from Green Bay, counseled patients at one of the few Planned Parenthood clinics in Wisconsin that provided abortions following the decision she Dr. Ford and Dr. Jenn Jury McIntosh, a maternal fetal medicine physician in Milwaukee, joined a lawsuit challenging the 1849 law.
Dr. Jenn Jury McIntosh, Maternal Fetal Medicine: Now we're operating this narrow channel of providing the best care, not committing malpractice, and being careful not to break a law. These pregnant people either have high-risk conditions themselves, so medical complications. But on the flip side, we also take care of fetuses. So it's the most family-centered outcome that we can.
Wojcik: Prior to the Supreme Court's ruling, Wisconsin patients and physicians had more options when it came to making decisions about reproductive health care.
By “reproductive health care,” Wojcik means abortion, though her report was heavy on euphemisms to avoid the word, both from Wojcik and the abortion doctors she interviewed.
Wojcik: Some physicians like Dr. Lyerly, left Wisconsin so they can continue to provide reproductive care without fear of prosecution.
Wojcik, ostensibly a reporter, called for changing the abortion laws of Wisconsin.
Wojcik: Physicians worry, not only about the consequences today, but those yet to come….And for Jenn Vollstedt, she hopes in the future Wisconsinites will be able to navigate these difficult decisions without the barriers in place today.
Wojcik’s PBS piece is getting predictable praise from pro-abortion like the Collaborative for Reproductive Equity at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The latest abortion-supporting piece was brought to you in part by Consumer Cellular, and by taxpayers like you.
A transcript is available, click “Expand.”
PBS News Weekend
12/2/23
6:15:27 p.m. (ET)
John Yang: While the number of legal abortions has gone up nationwide since the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, a recent report from a group that supports Reproductive Rights says there have been sharp declines in states that impose new restrictions on abortion access.
One of those states Wisconsin saw around 7,000 fewer abortions in the year following the court's decision than the state's annual average. Marisa Wojcik of PBS Wisconsin spoke with doctors there about the effect on their work and on their patients.
Jenn Vollstedt, Former Labor and Delivery Nurse: When I got the results, I knew what I wanted to do. It was really hard emotionally. I was devastated. I wanted that baby.
Marisa Wojcik (voice-over): Jenn Vollstedt is a former labor and delivery nurse in Milwaukee. At 12 weeks pregnant, Volstead was told something wasn't right. At 19 weeks pregnant, she found out she and her unborn child were at risk.
Jenn Vollstedt: I knew that if I carried that pregnancy to term I was putting my own health at risk. And I also knew that my baby if she survived a term would only suffer.
Marisa Wojcik (voice-over): Jenn Vollstedt made her decision while abortion was still legal. The cascade of events following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling overturning the constitutional right to an abortion hit states like Wisconsin the hardest creating a near total abortion ban in the state one year ago.
Christopher Ford, Emergency Medicine: We have yet to see what systemic consequences this this this law will have.
Marisa Wojcik (voice-over): Healthcare providers like Christopher Ford, a Milwaukee based emergency medicine physician found themselves in legal limbo, when the default legal standing reverted back to a law from 1849. It says destroying the life of an unborn child is a felony, except to save the life of the mother.
Christopher Ford: We are in a situation where that interpretation of a law from 1849 is really a gray area.
Dr. Kristen Lyerly, Obstetrician-Gynecologist: We didn't even know that germs cause disease in 1849.
Marisa Wojcik (voice-over): Before Roe v. Wade was overturned, Dr. Kristen Lyerly, an OB/GYN from Green Bay, counseled patients at one of the few Planned Parenthood clinics in Wisconsin that provided abortions following the decision she Dr. Ford and Dr. Jenn Jury McIntosh, a maternal fetal medicine physician in Milwaukee, joined a lawsuit challenging the 1849 law.
Dr. Jenn Jury McIntosh, Maternal Fetal Medicine: Now we're operating this narrow channel of providing the best care not committing malpractice, and being careful not to break a law. These pregnant people either have high risk conditions themselves, so medical complications. But on the flip side, we also take care of fetuses. So it's the most Family Centered Outcome that we can.
Marisa Wojcik (voice-over): Prior to the Supreme Court's ruling, Wisconsin patients and physicians had more options when it came to making decisions about reproductive health care.
Dr. Kristen Lyerly: We would have conversations about what all their options were. We would talk about everything. Sometimes we would connect them with prenatal care. Sometimes we would connect them with adoption services. Sometimes they would go home and think about it. And they just wouldn't return for that second visit. But often they did.
Marisa Wojcik (voice-over): Now these doctors are managing a much different reality.
Dr. Jenn Jury McIntosh: If it becomes clear that they're leaning towards a termination, I have to say, unfortunately, this is illegal in the state of Wisconsin. And if this is what you choose to pursue, then we'll have to give you information on how to pursue this out of state. And it feels like I'm abandoning my patients and saying that.
Marisa Wojcik (voice-over): Some physicians like Dr. Lyerly, left Wisconsin so they can continue to provide reproductive care without fear of prosecution.
Dr. Kristen Lyerly: I have the joy of working in rural Minnesota and Northern Arizona on the Navajo Reservation. So in a way, it's very satisfying. But the truth is, I want to be home.
Marisa Wojcik (voice-over): For those who stayed they must now navigate a law that many doctors feel is unclear.
Dr. Jenn Jury McIntosh: It's intrinsically vague, which then causes physicians to potentially second guess like is this risky enough? Because everyone who practices medicine knows that it can be very gray for a while and then become very black and white. And you the longer you wait to intervene. The worst outcomes are in general.
Christopher Ford: We've heard reports, you know, in other states that have very strict abortion bans like we do here in Wisconsin in which, you know, we've had patients that have been told to wait in the car until they become even more unstable in order to present to the emergency department.
So at that point in time, they can do something about it. Now, of course, that's an egregious example. And that's something that we don't aspire to. However, that is someone's interpretation of the law.
Dr. Kristen Lyerly: There was a time when I was in Minnesota, where someone presented, she was bleeding, she was 21 weeks pregnant with a desire pregnancy, but she was bleeding so much that she had to go to the operating room right away, and I had to perform an abortion.
And I couldn't help but to think to myself, if this was happening to be in Wisconsin, I would be terrified about what the next steps would be about what the implications for my future my career would be.
Marisa Wojcik (voice-over): Physicians worry, not only about the consequences today, but those yet to come.
Christopher Ford: What I'm seeing over and over and over again, is this getting worse over time. And a lot of it has to do with the access of health care, with the access of care to Obstetrics and Gynecology, and a lot of the voices that are at the table right now. Don't see these patients, and they don't have any medical background, but they're making these decisions.
Dr. Jenn Jury McIntosh: I just want to do my job. So the fact that politics are trying to be present in my exam room, present in the back of my mind, as I'm looking at a patient and talking to that patient and their family, that it's impacting that at all feels crazy to me. Because really, we should just be providing the best evidence based medical care that we can that's right for that patient and right for their family.
Marisa Wojcik (voice-over): And for Jenn Vollstedt, she hopes in the future Wisconsinites will be able to navigate these difficult decisions without the barriers in place today.
Jenn Vollstedt: Now, when I look back, I feel so recovered and healed. I also wouldn't have my son if I didn't have this abortion because of the timing if I had to carry it in term.
Julian, he is — he just turned six and he is one of the most joyful and curious people I've ever met, the more we try to focus on, is that right or wrong? Or is that okay? The more we're focused on making choices for other people, when we're not involved in their health care, and we're not medical professionals.
Marisa Wojcik (voice-over): For PBS News Weekend, I'm Marisa Wojcik, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
