A local OB-GYN is claiming media outlets weaponized a study on infant mortality in Texas to push a pro-abortion agenda.
The study, published online in JAMA Pediatrics on June 24, revealed infant deaths increased in Texas by 12.9% between 2021 and 2022. During this same timeframe, the remainder of the United States experienced a much lower percentage increase of 1.8%.
“Descriptive statistics by cause of death showed that infant deaths attributable to congenital anomalies in 2022 increased more for Texas (22.9% increase) but not the rest of the U.S. (3.1% decrease),” the study stated.
Dr. Ingrid Skop, a Texas OB-GYN, argued that the spike in infant deaths is largely due to an increase in women delivering their babies diagnosed with fatal disorders instead of aborting them. She explained that this tragedy is a “complex situation that has been overly simplified in order to promote a political agenda.”
“If the diagnosis is made and the doctor says ‘you need an immediate abortion,’ the death occurs then,” Skop, a member of Texas’ Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee, told The Dallas Express.
“But the statistics don’t pick it up because we don’t care as a country to keep reliable statistics about abortion,” she added.
“If the child is born and then dies, then the statistic will report it,” she continued. “But the reality is that the death of a human being occurs either way.”
The JAMA Pediatrics study was covered by mainstream outlets such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, and the Associated Press. Each emphasized the role of Texas’ abortion ban.
Skop serves as the vice president of the Charlotte Lozier Institute — an anti-abortion research organization. She said media outlets reported the infant death study in a dishonest manner that failed to explain the complex issue of fetal mortality.
“It’s almost like there was a planned, overwhelming publication of misrepresenting studies like this,” Skop told DX. “They’ll take a study, repeat the top line, and refuse to think about it further. It’s such a discredit to the professionalism of journalism.”
Skop emphasized that New Mexico had a worse fetal mortality rate than Texas in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
New Mexico has no limits on abortion.
Skop added that medical and media establishments should focus more on how best to treat women who face the tragedy of an unborn child diagnosed with a fatal disorder.
“It does a disservice to people who are suffering from high infant mortality — to politicize their suffering and refuse to address the real complex, compelling reason that these devastating situations are occurring,” Skop told DX. “It’s not just dishonest. It diverts research from the real causes of suffering.”
Texas enacted a six-week abortion ban in September 2021 and a full-term abortion ban after the overturn of Roe v. Wade in June 2022, with exceptions in cases in which the life of the mother is in danger. Under state law, private citizens are allowed to take civil action against individuals who facilitate an abortion.
Critics of such state law, like the Texas Medical Association, previously claimed that it “criminalizes the practice of medicine” and “interfere[s] with the patient-physician relationship.”
“The physicians of Texas never thought the day would come when the performance of our oath would create a private cause of action for persons not connected to or harmed by the action. Yet, that day has sadly arrived in the state we love,” the Texas Medical Association wrote in a prior statement, per The Texas Tribune.