1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:03,120 When a woman goes through a full term pregnancy and then she 2 00:00:03,120 --> 00:00:06,440 breastfeeds afterwards, her body converts the majority of her 3 00:00:06,440 --> 00:00:10,280 breast tissue into a very cancer resistant type of tissue. 4 00:00:10,280 --> 00:00:12,960 Which is why we see that the more pregnancies a woman has and 5 00:00:12,960 --> 00:00:15,360 the longer she spends breastfeeding, the lower her 6 00:00:15,360 --> 00:00:17,920 risk of breast cancers. Is it true that a woman's body 7 00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:20,440 changes with a pregnancy and after delivery? 8 00:00:20,520 --> 00:00:23,720 100%. But why is that a bad thing? 9 00:00:23,720 --> 00:00:26,120 And pregnancy is not a problem to be solved. 10 00:00:26,120 --> 00:00:28,160 It's not a disease to be treated. 11 00:00:28,200 --> 00:00:31,440 If we truly cared about Women's Health and saving women and 12 00:00:31,440 --> 00:00:33,960 taking care of them as quickly as possible, we do deliveries. 13 00:00:33,960 --> 00:00:36,080 We don't do abortions and every doctor knows that. 14 00:00:36,080 --> 00:00:38,440 That's the thing. Oftentimes families, women are 15 00:00:38,440 --> 00:00:41,480 manipulated into that decision because they're told your baby 16 00:00:41,480 --> 00:00:44,440 is suffering and you don't want your baby to be in pain. 17 00:00:44,440 --> 00:00:47,560 That baby is not suffering inside of a mom. 18 00:00:47,560 --> 00:00:51,360 There is no evidence whatsoever. There was a study recently that 19 00:00:51,360 --> 00:00:54,280 showed that women who have children into their 40s are more 20 00:00:54,280 --> 00:00:57,000 likely to live much longer into their 90s. 21 00:00:57,200 --> 00:00:58,360 Is this true? Yes. 22 00:00:58,360 --> 00:01:01,000 The bottom line is we weren't meant to do pregnancy or birth 23 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:03,480 alone. This is women's superpower. 24 00:01:06,960 --> 00:01:10,120 What if everything that you've been told about pregnancy is 25 00:01:10,320 --> 00:01:12,600 wrong? Today, Doctor Christina Francis, 26 00:01:12,600 --> 00:01:16,040 an OBGYN who has delivered babies from rural Kenya and 27 00:01:16,040 --> 00:01:19,640 fought for moms across America, is here to flip the script. 28 00:01:19,640 --> 00:01:23,200 From the hidden superpowers of the pregnant brain to the real 29 00:01:23,200 --> 00:01:26,760 dangers of abortion pills being mailed to your doorstep, to why 30 00:01:26,760 --> 00:01:29,840 pregnancy doesn't break a woman's body but actually builds 31 00:01:29,840 --> 00:01:32,920 it, this conversation will challenge everything our culture 32 00:01:32,920 --> 00:01:34,840 thinks it knows about the female body. 33 00:01:34,880 --> 00:01:37,480 If you're not already following us, hit that subscribe button on 34 00:01:37,480 --> 00:01:40,480 YouTube and subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast 35 00:01:40,480 --> 00:01:43,160 app and join us over on Sub Stack through the links in the 36 00:01:43,160 --> 00:01:45,400 description. Welcome back to the Lila Roe 37 00:01:45,400 --> 00:01:47,080 show. Doctor Christina Francis, 38 00:01:47,080 --> 00:01:49,720 welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for having me. 39 00:01:49,720 --> 00:01:52,960 It's so wonderful to be here. Doctor Francis, you're an OBGYN 40 00:01:52,960 --> 00:01:56,400 who has devoted her life caring for mothers and babies, whether 41 00:01:56,400 --> 00:01:58,720 it's in rural Kenya or here in the United States. 42 00:01:59,160 --> 00:02:01,080 What are some of the most surprising things about 43 00:02:01,080 --> 00:02:04,680 pregnancy that most people may not know, but that they should 44 00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:07,600 know? I think what gets lost in our 45 00:02:07,600 --> 00:02:13,000 current cultural narrative that just makes women so fearful of 46 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:15,040 pregnancy. And certainly since the Dobbs 47 00:02:15,040 --> 00:02:18,560 decision, I think the the overriding cultural narrative 48 00:02:18,560 --> 00:02:21,160 has been pregnancy is extremely dangerous. 49 00:02:21,160 --> 00:02:24,280 There's all these complications. That's why we need abortion 50 00:02:24,280 --> 00:02:25,800 laws. You know, this is kind of become 51 00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:30,200 the the prevailing narrative. And certainly as an WBGYN who 52 00:02:30,200 --> 00:02:34,040 now works exclusively in the hospital, so I'm managing high 53 00:02:34,040 --> 00:02:37,160 risk pregnancies. I'm very aware that there are 54 00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:39,440 complications that happen during pregnancy. 55 00:02:39,720 --> 00:02:41,960 But thankfully those are the exception. 56 00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:44,120 They're not the rule. And I think that's what people 57 00:02:44,120 --> 00:02:49,080 need to understand the rule or the the most common experience 58 00:02:49,320 --> 00:02:52,800 is that pregnancy actually greatly benefits women and 59 00:02:52,800 --> 00:02:55,840 motherhood as well. Not just from the fact that at 60 00:02:55,840 --> 00:02:59,080 the end of it, hopefully mom gets to take home this amazing, 61 00:02:59,200 --> 00:03:03,760 beautiful little baby, but also it has ramifications, good 62 00:03:03,760 --> 00:03:05,880 ramifications for her health long term. 63 00:03:05,880 --> 00:03:09,280 So it decreases cancer risk. It can decrease the risk of 64 00:03:09,320 --> 00:03:13,840 autoimmune disorders. We know that women who are 65 00:03:13,840 --> 00:03:16,280 pregnant, but then also women who mother not through 66 00:03:16,280 --> 00:03:19,160 pregnancy. So adoptive moms actually tend 67 00:03:19,160 --> 00:03:23,280 to have longer life spans, lower rates of depression and anxiety. 68 00:03:23,640 --> 00:03:27,160 And so there are long term health benefits to women that 69 00:03:27,160 --> 00:03:29,240 most most women don't know about. 70 00:03:29,240 --> 00:03:31,520 They're not talked about in their doctor's offices, which I 71 00:03:31,520 --> 00:03:33,480 think is a real travesty. All right. 72 00:03:33,480 --> 00:03:36,840 I'm so excited to unpack all of this because you don't typically 73 00:03:36,840 --> 00:03:40,440 hear what you're speaking to about the advantages or the 74 00:03:40,440 --> 00:03:44,120 positive, the benefits of pregnancy and of parenting. 75 00:03:44,120 --> 00:03:46,400 Quite frankly, we hear a lot about the negative today. 76 00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:49,680 So I'm excited to have you set the record straight here with 77 00:03:49,680 --> 00:03:53,200 your work, your expertise and this new campaign that you're 78 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:54,560 running. Think pregnancy. 79 00:03:55,040 --> 00:03:58,000 So first of all, the term pregnancy brain. 80 00:03:58,640 --> 00:04:01,040 I remember being pregnant for the first time and you know, 81 00:04:01,040 --> 00:04:03,000 people saying, oh, pregnancy brain. 82 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:05,480 It's when you forget, you're forgetful or you just feel 83 00:04:05,480 --> 00:04:09,160 overloaded or whatever it is. But there's a lot that happens 84 00:04:09,160 --> 00:04:12,200 in the brain during pregnancy, and it actually is an upgrade. 85 00:04:12,360 --> 00:04:15,080 Yes. Can you share how it's an 86 00:04:15,080 --> 00:04:16,320 upgrade? Yes, pregnancy. 87 00:04:16,320 --> 00:04:19,640 Brain, yes, absolutely. It's really amazing under the 88 00:04:19,640 --> 00:04:22,680 influences of many of the hormones that increase in a 89 00:04:22,680 --> 00:04:26,280 woman's body during pregnancy. So estrogen, progesterone, even 90 00:04:26,280 --> 00:04:31,040 oxytocin, those actually are inducing changes, permanent 91 00:04:31,040 --> 00:04:34,880 changes in a woman's brain that are leading to that experience 92 00:04:34,880 --> 00:04:37,760 of pregnancy brain during the pregnancy, but that are actually 93 00:04:37,760 --> 00:04:42,600 restructuring her brain so that she can be a mom, so that she 94 00:04:42,600 --> 00:04:45,680 can take care of her child and actually will have long term 95 00:04:45,680 --> 00:04:47,240 benefits for her. So it's something called 96 00:04:47,240 --> 00:04:49,800 neuroplasticity. So it's actually the neural 97 00:04:49,800 --> 00:04:53,200 connections within a woman's brain are changing under the 98 00:04:53,200 --> 00:04:57,760 influences of those hormones so that she can be more empathetic. 99 00:04:58,080 --> 00:05:00,440 I mean, think about it. I know you have young children. 100 00:05:01,160 --> 00:05:04,640 You know, if your brain had it changed during your pregnancy in 101 00:05:04,640 --> 00:05:07,040 order to make you more empathetic, it would be much 102 00:05:07,040 --> 00:05:09,440 harder to get up with your baby in the middle of the night when 103 00:05:09,440 --> 00:05:11,880 you're sleep deprived, you know, and things like that. 104 00:05:12,120 --> 00:05:14,920 So those structural changes that are happening are making it 105 00:05:14,920 --> 00:05:18,960 possible for a mom to be able to bond with her baby better, to be 106 00:05:18,960 --> 00:05:22,520 more empathetic, which of course then that changes her outlook on 107 00:05:22,520 --> 00:05:25,960 life, you know, permanently. Women become more empathetic 108 00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:28,800 after they become mothers, not just because they have that 109 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:31,160 bonding with their child, but because of those structural 110 00:05:31,160 --> 00:05:33,080 changes that their brain has gone through. 111 00:05:33,600 --> 00:05:36,680 Also, it makes women better able to multitask. 112 00:05:37,160 --> 00:05:40,080 You know, I think any woman that's a mother knows that their 113 00:05:40,080 --> 00:05:43,800 ability to multitask expanded exponentially once children were 114 00:05:43,800 --> 00:05:46,160 introduced. And the interesting thing is 115 00:05:46,440 --> 00:05:50,120 then that actually has benefits if if that mom decides to go 116 00:05:50,800 --> 00:05:53,160 back into the workplace outside of the home. 117 00:05:53,440 --> 00:05:57,200 Studies have actually shown that mothers actually make better 118 00:05:57,200 --> 00:06:00,480 managers out in the workplace because of that ability to 119 00:06:00,480 --> 00:06:03,240 multitask. So, so those are just a couple 120 00:06:03,240 --> 00:06:07,560 of the the benefits of that, that changing that restructuring 121 00:06:07,560 --> 00:06:09,600 of a woman's brain during pregnancy. 122 00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:11,880 And that's why she gets that pregnancy brain because there's 123 00:06:11,880 --> 00:06:13,840 a lot going on up there during pregnancy. 124 00:06:14,080 --> 00:06:16,680 But again, I think if women can understand there's a reason for 125 00:06:16,680 --> 00:06:19,840 all of this and it actually is benefiting me long term, then 126 00:06:19,840 --> 00:06:22,200 hopefully that can make that part of pregnancy a little bit 127 00:06:22,200 --> 00:06:24,640 easier to tolerate. It's so encouraging what you're 128 00:06:24,640 --> 00:06:27,920 saying and I relate to it so deeply because I feel like since 129 00:06:28,080 --> 00:06:32,560 becoming a mother I have gotten better in most categories. 130 00:06:32,560 --> 00:06:34,080 I don't want to say every because it sounds very 131 00:06:34,080 --> 00:06:38,240 braggadocious or whatever, but I feel like my children have 132 00:06:38,240 --> 00:06:40,440 blessed me with the gift of more patience. 133 00:06:40,920 --> 00:06:44,240 Yes, better multitasking, prioritization. 134 00:06:44,400 --> 00:06:46,560 Like the things that don't matter as much don't matter as 135 00:06:46,560 --> 00:06:48,960 much. If I could rewind 10 years or it 136 00:06:48,960 --> 00:06:52,080 would be 7 years before we had our first child, who's now 6. 137 00:06:52,800 --> 00:06:56,440 And I know I'm a better woman today and I credit God's grace, 138 00:06:56,480 --> 00:07:00,520 my husband's patient leadership, and my beautiful kids with that. 139 00:07:00,520 --> 00:07:03,120 And what you're describing are just some examples of it. 140 00:07:03,720 --> 00:07:07,400 What are some other ways that a woman's relationship to her body 141 00:07:07,880 --> 00:07:10,480 change? It change because of pregnancy 142 00:07:10,480 --> 00:07:12,600 and child's birth. Yeah, absolutely. 143 00:07:12,840 --> 00:07:15,520 Well, I think this is a really important thing to talk about 144 00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:20,600 because one of the things that is used to make women fearful 145 00:07:20,600 --> 00:07:24,280 about having children is your body is going to change and it's 146 00:07:24,280 --> 00:07:27,360 going to change permanently and it's going to be different and 147 00:07:27,360 --> 00:07:30,440 you should be fearful of that. Is it true that a woman's body 148 00:07:30,440 --> 00:07:35,160 changes with a pregnancy and after delivery 100% and it 149 00:07:35,160 --> 00:07:37,960 changes permanently, You know, it doesn't go back to the body 150 00:07:37,960 --> 00:07:41,600 that it was before pregnancy, But why is that a bad thing? 151 00:07:41,600 --> 00:07:44,040 And I think that's what we need to talk about and reframe for 152 00:07:44,040 --> 00:07:45,840 women. It's not a bad thing. 153 00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:51,000 I think part of it is we can never fully understand what 154 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:53,880 things are going to be like if we haven't experienced it yet. 155 00:07:54,200 --> 00:07:56,920 And so part of it is it has to be a little bit of a reflection 156 00:07:56,920 --> 00:08:00,040 back that women look back and say, yeah, things are different 157 00:08:00,040 --> 00:08:02,000 for me. But man, as you just said, 158 00:08:02,160 --> 00:08:04,360 they're so much better. And I could have never imagined 159 00:08:04,360 --> 00:08:06,960 that they were going to be this much better, even through the 160 00:08:06,960 --> 00:08:10,280 hard times and things like that. So yes, a woman's body goes 161 00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:14,400 through changes. And you know, some of those may 162 00:08:14,400 --> 00:08:16,880 be a little bit challenging after a pregnancy and a 163 00:08:16,880 --> 00:08:19,920 delivery, but so many of them are going to be better. 164 00:08:19,920 --> 00:08:22,720 So one of the things is a woman's breast tissue goes 165 00:08:22,720 --> 00:08:26,400 through changes as she continues through a pregnancy and then 166 00:08:26,400 --> 00:08:29,440 hopefully as she breastfeeds. It's one of the reasons why 167 00:08:29,440 --> 00:08:32,039 breastfeeding is so important, not only because it has benefits 168 00:08:32,039 --> 00:08:35,880 for baby, but also because when a woman goes through a full term 169 00:08:35,880 --> 00:08:39,919 pregnancy and then she breastfeeds afterwards, her body 170 00:08:39,919 --> 00:08:43,039 converts the majority of her breast tissue into a very cancer 171 00:08:43,039 --> 00:08:46,480 resistant type of tissue. Which is why we see that the 172 00:08:46,480 --> 00:08:49,600 more pregnancies a woman has and the longer she spends 173 00:08:49,600 --> 00:08:52,000 breastfeeding, the lower her risk of breast cancer. 174 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:56,120 So that's just one way in which a woman's body changes, but it 175 00:08:56,120 --> 00:09:00,360 benefits her long term physically and, and her long 176 00:09:00,360 --> 00:09:02,640 term health. And it's manifest, you know, 177 00:09:02,640 --> 00:09:05,760 just to kind of highlight how maybe an annoying pregnancy 178 00:09:05,760 --> 00:09:08,120 symptom actually means that you're going to have these 179 00:09:08,120 --> 00:09:10,920 health benefits. It manifests itself in the fact 180 00:09:10,920 --> 00:09:13,320 that women have a lot of breast tenderness early in their 181 00:09:13,320 --> 00:09:15,560 pregnancy because they're multiplying that breast tissue 182 00:09:15,560 --> 00:09:17,320 to get ready to breastfeed a baby. 183 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:22,120 So that might may seem annoying or troublesome in the beginning. 184 00:09:22,120 --> 00:09:25,240 But again, if we can help women understand, no actually this is 185 00:09:25,240 --> 00:09:27,560 a good thing and it's going to give you long term health 186 00:09:27,560 --> 00:09:30,760 benefits, then hopefully that'll help her understand that change 187 00:09:30,760 --> 00:09:34,720 a little bit better and, and feel good actually when her body 188 00:09:34,720 --> 00:09:38,000 is going through those changes. How does breastfeeding and also 189 00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:41,520 the changes during pregnancy help protect women not just from 190 00:09:41,520 --> 00:09:44,000 breast cancer like you're talking about, but also uterine 191 00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:46,000 and ovarian cancer? Yeah, absolutely. 192 00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:49,760 So we know that even just with one pregnancy, a woman reduces 193 00:09:49,760 --> 00:09:53,520 her risk pretty significantly of both ovarian and uterine 194 00:09:53,520 --> 00:09:56,160 cancers. But we also see additional risk 195 00:09:56,160 --> 00:09:58,200 reduction with each additional pregnancy. 196 00:09:58,600 --> 00:10:00,400 There's a couple different reasons for that. 197 00:10:00,720 --> 00:10:04,640 One, especially for ovarian cancer, is that we see the 198 00:10:04,640 --> 00:10:08,040 highest risk in women who basically their ovaries are 199 00:10:08,040 --> 00:10:11,600 working around the clock for longer periods of time. 200 00:10:11,600 --> 00:10:15,080 So women that start having periods at a younger age don't 201 00:10:15,080 --> 00:10:18,080 go through menopause until a later age and have no 202 00:10:18,080 --> 00:10:20,120 pregnancies. That means that their ovaries 203 00:10:20,120 --> 00:10:23,440 are working constantly for all of those years. 204 00:10:23,440 --> 00:10:25,960 So those are women that we see some of the highest risk of 205 00:10:25,960 --> 00:10:28,840 ovarian cancer in. People need to understand that 206 00:10:28,840 --> 00:10:30,960 because then you can understand why pregnancy would provide a 207 00:10:30,960 --> 00:10:33,360 protective benefit because essentially during pregnancy, 208 00:10:33,360 --> 00:10:36,280 your ovaries kind of quiet down and shut down for the duration 209 00:10:36,280 --> 00:10:40,200 of the pregnancy and and then at least initially during 210 00:10:40,200 --> 00:10:43,680 breastfeeding as well. And so that that quieting down 211 00:10:43,680 --> 00:10:47,160 of the ovaries is what can lead then to a risk reduction in 212 00:10:47,160 --> 00:10:50,400 ovarian cancer. The other thing is those 213 00:10:50,400 --> 00:10:53,200 hormones that come from the ovaries play a role in the 214 00:10:53,280 --> 00:10:57,160 development of uterine cancer, but also when you're not having 215 00:10:57,160 --> 00:11:00,080 an overgrowth of the lining of the uterus, which of course 216 00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:03,160 you're not during a pregnancy and then during breastfeeding, 217 00:11:03,480 --> 00:11:05,720 that reduces your risk of uterine cancer. 218 00:11:05,720 --> 00:11:09,600 So those are just some of the health benefits of of pregnancy. 219 00:11:09,600 --> 00:11:13,280 And of course, you are well aware in our current culture, 220 00:11:13,280 --> 00:11:16,720 many women are delaying childbearing for a variety of 221 00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:18,680 reasons. They're pursuing careers. 222 00:11:18,680 --> 00:11:20,840 They're thinking, I have plenty of time to get pregnant. 223 00:11:21,160 --> 00:11:24,560 Not only does that impact their their fertility rate and they 224 00:11:24,560 --> 00:11:27,280 may not be able to get pregnant if they wait too long to start 225 00:11:27,280 --> 00:11:30,960 trying, but also they don't get this risk reduction in their 226 00:11:30,960 --> 00:11:33,320 cancer risk that they would have gotten had they had pregnancy 227 00:11:33,320 --> 00:11:36,120 earlier. I do think there's in addition, 228 00:11:36,120 --> 00:11:38,000 the flip side of what you're saying, though, is fear. 229 00:11:38,200 --> 00:11:41,200 Fear around not just having a baby in your 20s, but for those 230 00:11:41,200 --> 00:11:44,680 women who might get later, fear about having children later 231 00:11:44,680 --> 00:11:48,080 because they say, oh, now you're a geriatric pregnancy, you are 232 00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:50,520 now at higher risk. And so it's actually not good 233 00:11:50,640 --> 00:11:52,720 for you to have babies into your 40s. 234 00:11:52,880 --> 00:11:54,720 What would you say to that? Yeah, absolutely. 235 00:11:54,720 --> 00:11:59,040 And I totally agree with you that and I, if I could change 236 00:11:59,040 --> 00:12:01,840 there's a few medical terms that if I could take them out of our, 237 00:12:01,880 --> 00:12:05,080 our lexicon as physicians, I would and one of them is 238 00:12:05,080 --> 00:12:07,040 geriatric. I think that's one of the most. 239 00:12:07,120 --> 00:12:08,960 You are geriatric. Terms. 240 00:12:08,960 --> 00:12:10,200 Exactly. Exactly. 241 00:12:10,520 --> 00:12:11,840 Another baby. I'm a geriatric. 242 00:12:11,840 --> 00:12:13,840 You are a geriatric pregnancy, that's right. 243 00:12:13,840 --> 00:12:15,920 I think that's such an awful term to use. 244 00:12:16,640 --> 00:12:19,120 You know, we do know that there are some health risks associated 245 00:12:19,120 --> 00:12:23,960 with pregnancy that do increase in in absolute incidents after 246 00:12:23,960 --> 00:12:27,080 the age of 35. But like many things, I think 247 00:12:27,080 --> 00:12:29,360 that risk oftentimes is overblown. 248 00:12:29,360 --> 00:12:31,760 And you're right. And then women feel very fearful 249 00:12:31,760 --> 00:12:33,600 to even try to get pregnant at that they. 250 00:12:33,680 --> 00:12:35,640 Say it's too dangerous. I mean, I've actually heard 251 00:12:35,640 --> 00:12:38,520 women say I don't want to have kids in my 40s because it's too 252 00:12:38,520 --> 00:12:39,760 dangerous. Right, right. 253 00:12:39,760 --> 00:12:41,960 Absolutely. And is there risk involved? 254 00:12:41,960 --> 00:12:43,840 Yes, just like there is with anything. 255 00:12:44,120 --> 00:12:48,160 But we can mitigate those risks oftentimes through, you know, 256 00:12:48,160 --> 00:12:52,400 lifestyle interventions or if a woman has a chronic medical 257 00:12:52,400 --> 00:12:54,880 condition, if we're treated being that and get it under 258 00:12:54,880 --> 00:12:57,840 control well before she becomes pregnant or early in the 259 00:12:57,840 --> 00:13:00,120 pregnancy, we can mitigate a lot of those risks. 260 00:13:00,440 --> 00:13:05,760 And so I think it is definitely this narrative that a lot of 261 00:13:05,760 --> 00:13:08,880 women buy and believe that they absolutely should not get 262 00:13:08,880 --> 00:13:12,440 pregnant after the age of 35 because the risk would be so 263 00:13:12,440 --> 00:13:15,080 high. Again, these are exceptions. 264 00:13:15,080 --> 00:13:18,640 They are not the rule. The the rate of them does 265 00:13:18,640 --> 00:13:21,680 increase slightly over what it would be if you're less than 35. 266 00:13:21,680 --> 00:13:25,120 But I've had many, many patients who have had perfectly healthy 267 00:13:25,120 --> 00:13:28,080 pregnancies and deliveries into their 40s. 268 00:13:28,080 --> 00:13:30,680 I had one, even one time, I remember she came into my 269 00:13:30,680 --> 00:13:34,000 office, she thought she wanted me to do labs because she 270 00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:35,680 thought she'd probably gone into menopause. 271 00:13:35,680 --> 00:13:37,520 She was 51. And it turned out she was 272 00:13:37,520 --> 00:13:41,240 pregnant and she had a perfectly healthy pregnancy. 273 00:13:41,520 --> 00:13:44,080 It was a total surprise, of course, in shock to her. 274 00:13:44,880 --> 00:13:47,440 But yes, you know, those, again, those can be managed. 275 00:13:47,440 --> 00:13:49,960 They can be managed well. And that's our job as physicians 276 00:13:49,960 --> 00:13:52,760 is to partner with our patients and help them through those 277 00:13:52,760 --> 00:13:54,680 times. But yes, I absolutely think that 278 00:13:54,680 --> 00:13:59,720 we should be supporting women beyond 35 have perfectly healthy 279 00:13:59,720 --> 00:14:02,160 pregnancies. I heard there was a study 280 00:14:02,160 --> 00:14:05,680 recently that showed that women who have children into their 40s 281 00:14:05,920 --> 00:14:09,560 are more likely to live much longer into their 90s. 282 00:14:09,720 --> 00:14:11,360 Is this true? Yes, absolutely. 283 00:14:11,360 --> 00:14:15,200 I saw the same study so and I think it speaks to the fact that 284 00:14:15,400 --> 00:14:19,640 first of all, if a woman becomes pregnant at that stage in her 285 00:14:19,640 --> 00:14:24,840 life, it is likely that she is has a little bit better just 286 00:14:24,840 --> 00:14:27,760 sort of health status kind of going into it that her body is 287 00:14:27,760 --> 00:14:29,880 able to get pregnant, which is wonderful. 288 00:14:30,160 --> 00:14:34,000 But also, we know that pregnancy oftentimes serves as a motivator 289 00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:38,760 to women for either stopping unhealthy behaviors or not 290 00:14:38,760 --> 00:14:42,760 starting unhealthy behaviors. So I've had many patients who 291 00:14:42,760 --> 00:14:46,160 were heavy smokers or maybe they were drinking a lot of alcohol 292 00:14:46,160 --> 00:14:49,200 that when they or doing drugs that when they became pregnant, 293 00:14:49,200 --> 00:14:52,840 because they now have this other person to think about and that 294 00:14:52,840 --> 00:14:56,160 other person's health to take into consideration that actually 295 00:14:56,160 --> 00:14:59,120 motivated them to stop that unhealthy behavior that maybe 296 00:14:59,120 --> 00:15:02,400 they had tried to stop many times before and were unable to. 297 00:15:02,760 --> 00:15:06,600 So we know that being pregnant, but also then being a mother and 298 00:15:06,600 --> 00:15:09,320 having children to think about, you don't want to leave your 299 00:15:09,320 --> 00:15:12,400 children without a mother. That also motivates many women 300 00:15:12,400 --> 00:15:15,040 to healthier behavior, healthy, healthier choices. 301 00:15:15,520 --> 00:15:19,280 And we just see in general as well that women who have 302 00:15:19,280 --> 00:15:21,800 children tend to have a little bit longer lifespan. 303 00:15:22,320 --> 00:15:24,720 And so I think that the study that came out recently that 304 00:15:24,720 --> 00:15:28,720 showed, you know, women having children later on in life speaks 305 00:15:28,840 --> 00:15:32,320 to exactly the opposite of this narrative that's out there, that 306 00:15:32,320 --> 00:15:35,440 if women get pregnant after the age of 35, they're going to, I 307 00:15:35,440 --> 00:15:38,720 think that there are women who legitimately feel they'll die if 308 00:15:38,720 --> 00:15:40,120 they get pregnant after that age. 309 00:15:40,120 --> 00:15:43,160 You know, and, and that's exactly the narrative that we 310 00:15:43,160 --> 00:15:47,560 are trying to flip right now to say, again, not being, not 311 00:15:47,560 --> 00:15:50,480 minimizing and not being ignorant of the fact that yes, 312 00:15:50,720 --> 00:15:53,280 there are complications that can rise in pregnancy. 313 00:15:53,280 --> 00:15:57,800 But thankfully, medical science has advanced so tremendously 314 00:15:57,800 --> 00:16:00,920 that now there are so many conditions that we can treat in 315 00:16:00,920 --> 00:16:04,520 pregnancy that we can still get good outcomes for mom and baby. 316 00:16:05,120 --> 00:16:08,520 But remembering that those are the exception, they are not the 317 00:16:08,520 --> 00:16:10,320 rule. The rule is that most 318 00:16:10,320 --> 00:16:14,640 pregnancies actually go very well and confer health benefits 319 00:16:14,640 --> 00:16:17,400 to mom as well. May is Mental Health Month and 320 00:16:17,400 --> 00:16:20,480 we know on this show that spiritual health can impact our 321 00:16:20,480 --> 00:16:22,520 mental health. The number one prayer app in the 322 00:16:22,520 --> 00:16:26,240 world, Hallow has a brand new and very needed prayer challenge 323 00:16:26,440 --> 00:16:29,840 called the Detachment Challenge, which invites us to detach from 324 00:16:29,840 --> 00:16:31,920 the things of this world. 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If you're in Texas, visit 341 00:17:25,800 --> 00:17:29,600 presidiocare.com/lila to get your quote today. 342 00:17:29,760 --> 00:17:33,960 And stay tuned as Presidio is looking to expand to Florida, 343 00:17:34,040 --> 00:17:38,200 Indiana, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio and more states 344 00:17:38,200 --> 00:17:40,960 help bring life affirming healthcare to the rest of the 345 00:17:40,960 --> 00:17:44,760 country. Visit presidiocare.com/lila to 346 00:17:44,760 --> 00:17:48,480 get started today. That's Presidio care.com/lila. 347 00:17:49,200 --> 00:17:52,720 Beyond the science, what in your view is the most beautiful or 348 00:17:52,720 --> 00:17:55,960 awe inspiring thing about how a woman's body is designed for 349 00:17:55,960 --> 00:17:59,720 pregnancy? Well, to answer that, I think I 350 00:17:59,720 --> 00:18:02,680 have to tell you the story of how I would say my profession 351 00:18:02,680 --> 00:18:06,000 chose me. I didn't choose my my profession 352 00:18:06,080 --> 00:18:09,440 or my specialty of OBGYN. So I was a second year medical 353 00:18:09,440 --> 00:18:13,680 student and hadn't even considered the field of OBGYN. 354 00:18:13,680 --> 00:18:16,160 Actually was thinking about family medicine maybe. 355 00:18:16,600 --> 00:18:19,560 And I was shadowing a family medicine physician and he got 356 00:18:19,560 --> 00:18:22,360 called to the hospital to deliver one of his patients. 357 00:18:22,360 --> 00:18:24,200 This was a woman I'd never even met before. 358 00:18:24,800 --> 00:18:27,360 And so I went to the hospital with him and I was standing in 359 00:18:27,360 --> 00:18:28,920 the back of the room watching the delivery. 360 00:18:29,680 --> 00:18:32,120 And it was the first delivery that I I was in the room when 361 00:18:32,120 --> 00:18:34,960 one of my sisters was born. But I was young and, you know, 362 00:18:34,960 --> 00:18:37,280 so didn't watch the delivery. So it was the first delivery I'd 363 00:18:37,280 --> 00:18:41,080 seen. And when the baby was born, I 364 00:18:41,080 --> 00:18:43,960 just started crying. I thought it was the most 365 00:18:43,960 --> 00:18:47,040 miraculous and beautiful thing that I had ever seen. 366 00:18:47,720 --> 00:18:49,160 And this you're going to make me cry. 367 00:18:50,600 --> 00:18:52,760 This older seasoned labor and delivery nurse. 368 00:18:52,760 --> 00:18:55,720 She was back at the baby warmer, waiting to take the baby over to 369 00:18:55,720 --> 00:18:57,520 the warmer. And she leaned over to me and 370 00:18:57,520 --> 00:19:01,000 she whispered in my ear and she said, oh, honey, if this makes 371 00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:02,880 you cry, you need to do this for a living. 372 00:19:03,640 --> 00:19:07,520 And I've wished so many times since that I could find her and 373 00:19:07,520 --> 00:19:11,280 tell her you changed the course of my life, which is that one 374 00:19:11,280 --> 00:19:13,720 thing that you said to me, you know, And I think it was the 375 00:19:13,720 --> 00:19:15,480 Lord speaking through her, obviously. 376 00:19:15,480 --> 00:19:19,120 But, but I, I wanted to tell that story because for me, it 377 00:19:19,120 --> 00:19:24,200 just encapsulates the awe and really the miraculous nature of 378 00:19:24,200 --> 00:19:30,360 pregnancy and, and childbirth. And to see as you learn, as I 379 00:19:30,360 --> 00:19:33,640 went through medical school and I learned about human 380 00:19:33,640 --> 00:19:38,440 development and Embryology and you see the amazing intricacies 381 00:19:38,440 --> 00:19:42,120 that happen, the amazing timing and coordination that has to 382 00:19:42,120 --> 00:19:43,480 happen. I mean, honestly, when you learn 383 00:19:43,480 --> 00:19:46,360 about it, you're like, how on earth does pregnancy even 384 00:19:46,360 --> 00:19:47,640 happen? And things go right? 385 00:19:47,640 --> 00:19:50,240 Because so many things have to go right, you know, for that 386 00:19:50,240 --> 00:19:53,200 baby to develop how he or she is supposed to. 387 00:19:53,200 --> 00:19:55,480 But of course, that's what happens in the vast majority of 388 00:19:55,480 --> 00:19:58,120 cases. And then the first time you see 389 00:19:58,120 --> 00:20:02,880 that baby on an ultrasound to see even at 6-8 weeks, I always, 390 00:20:02,880 --> 00:20:05,640 I always refer to baby as peanut because they do in the 391 00:20:05,680 --> 00:20:08,280 beginning, they look like, and I always say, look at your little 392 00:20:08,280 --> 00:20:10,680 peanut in there. You know how he or she's moving 393 00:20:10,680 --> 00:20:13,800 around and you see the heart beating it just. 394 00:20:14,840 --> 00:20:18,720 And then you just see how mom's body grows and changes to 395 00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:21,200 accommodate that in such amazing ways. 396 00:20:22,160 --> 00:20:26,960 It, it just, I don't, I don't know how any OBGYN couldn't be 397 00:20:26,960 --> 00:20:30,040 supportive of that. I don't have any OBGYN supports 398 00:20:30,040 --> 00:20:32,960 elective abortion that intentionally destroys that life 399 00:20:33,240 --> 00:20:35,880 that you just see the the beauty and the wonder of the 400 00:20:35,880 --> 00:20:39,000 development of that life. And then as we see how women's 401 00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:44,560 bodies accommodate and change and grow and to support that 402 00:20:44,560 --> 00:20:48,720 baby is just really amazing. One of the things I love to talk 403 00:20:48,720 --> 00:20:50,720 to patients about. And again, this is another 404 00:20:50,720 --> 00:20:53,960 aspect of man. I know for pregnant women, it 405 00:20:53,960 --> 00:20:55,960 feels awful. And then often times in the 406 00:20:55,960 --> 00:20:58,520 third trimester and at the end of pregnancy when your hips hurt 407 00:20:58,520 --> 00:21:02,920 and your pelvis just feels so heavy and it just everything 408 00:21:02,920 --> 00:21:06,240 feels different and walking feels different and all of that. 409 00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:09,320 And I know that it's hard, but what I tell him is this is 410 00:21:09,320 --> 00:21:12,320 another sign that your body, without you having to tell it 411 00:21:12,320 --> 00:21:16,200 what to do, your body is getting ready for that baby to come out. 412 00:21:16,200 --> 00:21:19,520 And it's because a woman's body starts making a hormone called 413 00:21:19,520 --> 00:21:22,520 relaxing, which does exactly what it sounds like. 414 00:21:22,520 --> 00:21:25,880 It relaxes things. So our pelvises are typically 415 00:21:25,880 --> 00:21:28,520 fixed joints. So they're, you know, multiple 416 00:21:28,520 --> 00:21:30,280 bones. But the the joints aren't like 417 00:21:30,280 --> 00:21:32,000 our hip joint that is meant to move. 418 00:21:32,400 --> 00:21:34,360 Your pelvis is supposed to be very fixed. 419 00:21:34,800 --> 00:21:37,760 But that would be a problem for childbirth because during 420 00:21:37,760 --> 00:21:41,000 childbirth your pelvis needs to expand to allow that baby to 421 00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:43,960 move through the pelvis and through the birth canal to be 422 00:21:43,960 --> 00:21:46,680 able to be born. And so a woman's body makes a 423 00:21:46,680 --> 00:21:50,480 hormone called relaxin that relaxes those pelvic joints. 424 00:21:51,080 --> 00:21:53,160 Unfortunately, that doesn't just happen right at the moment of 425 00:21:53,160 --> 00:21:55,120 childbirth. So it means that those those 426 00:21:55,120 --> 00:21:57,360 joints get a little bit loosey goosey there towards the end of 427 00:21:57,360 --> 00:21:59,160 pregnancy. But there's a reason for that. 428 00:21:59,560 --> 00:22:02,160 It's because of the way women's bodies were made that they were 429 00:22:02,160 --> 00:22:06,720 made to then start to change to accommodate that delivery, which 430 00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:09,240 I just think is amazing. It is truly amazing. 431 00:22:09,240 --> 00:22:13,480 Yeah, I I remember my husband when he saw me give birth for 432 00:22:13,480 --> 00:22:15,560 the first time. So I got to hear it from his 433 00:22:15,560 --> 00:22:17,480 eyes because I'm you're when you're in the experience, you 434 00:22:17,480 --> 00:22:20,320 are in 1000%. You're not like what it looks. 435 00:22:20,360 --> 00:22:23,080 Like, you know, you're like. You're in it so, but the actor 436 00:22:23,080 --> 00:22:24,960 is like, what was it like? Because he's on the other end, 437 00:22:24,960 --> 00:22:29,880 like watching the birth and he was like, it was the most I 438 00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:32,000 don't remember the word. I know at one point he said it 439 00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:33,400 was like almost like a sci-fi film. 440 00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:36,320 Like does this really happening where my wife is able to bring 441 00:22:36,320 --> 00:22:38,040 this life into the world? And he just talked about it 442 00:22:38,040 --> 00:22:40,720 being like a flower. He was like he was just blown 443 00:22:40,720 --> 00:22:41,640 away. He said it was the most 444 00:22:41,640 --> 00:22:44,320 incredible thing he has ever witnessed in his whole life to 445 00:22:44,320 --> 00:22:50,120 watch his son, our first be born and just the the majesty of this 446 00:22:50,200 --> 00:22:53,160 little body, my body, like our bodies being able to do this, 447 00:22:53,160 --> 00:22:54,640 bring another body into the world. 448 00:22:54,880 --> 00:22:56,720 And then immediately he comes up, he tries to starts 449 00:22:56,720 --> 00:22:58,880 breastfeeding. Like even that magic of like, 450 00:22:58,880 --> 00:23:02,360 yes, God's design there. And it's just, it just gives you 451 00:23:02,360 --> 00:23:06,480 a experience of awe. Yeah, one of my favorite things 452 00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:10,600 actually is to watch the dads, you know, because most moms, I'm 453 00:23:10,600 --> 00:23:13,400 not diminishing moms reactions at all, but most moms have 454 00:23:13,800 --> 00:23:16,440 fairly similar reactions. You know, I mean, they're, like 455 00:23:16,440 --> 00:23:17,920 you said, they're in the midst of it. 456 00:23:17,920 --> 00:23:20,080 They are in it. It's this really intense 457 00:23:20,080 --> 00:23:21,520 physical moment. Exactly. 458 00:23:21,520 --> 00:23:24,480 And, you know, and then most moms burst into tears as soon as 459 00:23:24,480 --> 00:23:27,080 the baby's out, you know. And so again, not diminishing 460 00:23:27,080 --> 00:23:30,080 that because it is a beautiful reaction, but dads have really 461 00:23:30,080 --> 00:23:32,640 different reactions. All of them do, though. 462 00:23:32,640 --> 00:23:35,840 I love that you said that about your husband because, yeah, it's 463 00:23:35,840 --> 00:23:38,280 just really neat to see. And especially with first 464 00:23:38,280 --> 00:23:42,520 babies, to see that family unit sort of manifest itself for the 465 00:23:42,520 --> 00:23:45,880 first time is really, really a special thing to be a part of. 466 00:23:46,240 --> 00:23:48,280 So it sounds like you see you've seen a lot of different 467 00:23:48,280 --> 00:23:51,920 reactions, probably everything from like just quiet awe to 468 00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:54,760 tears to like super excited. Like what what? 469 00:23:54,880 --> 00:23:57,920 I'm just curious like for the from your eyes looking at that 470 00:23:58,200 --> 00:24:00,040 man. I love those videos too of the 471 00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:02,080 woman walking down the aisle and the cameras on the. 472 00:24:02,080 --> 00:24:04,760 Man, so you get to see him. Experience his ride coming down 473 00:24:04,760 --> 00:24:06,480 the aisle for the first time and the only time. 474 00:24:07,200 --> 00:24:11,160 But to see his baby being born. What what? 475 00:24:11,160 --> 00:24:14,040 What do you see in the spectrum of men's reactions in that 476 00:24:14,040 --> 00:24:16,240 delivery? Room yeah, Oh my goodness, such 477 00:24:16,240 --> 00:24:22,040 a spectrum so you know from passing out which that has 478 00:24:22,040 --> 00:24:24,480 happened many. Times and said it was like 479 00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:26,840 intense you know like. Well, it does for me. 480 00:24:26,840 --> 00:24:28,080 It's a. Different kind of intense for 481 00:24:28,120 --> 00:24:30,400 you, but. We had dads pass out. 482 00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:31,840 I always warned dads ahead of time. 483 00:24:31,840 --> 00:24:33,480 Like, I've already taken care of two patients. 484 00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:35,360 I don't need a third. So if you feel like you're 485 00:24:35,360 --> 00:24:37,120 getting fat, please sit down. That's right. 486 00:24:37,120 --> 00:24:38,600 So that happens sometimes there's something. 487 00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:43,400 Yeah, exactly. But from that to just being 488 00:24:43,400 --> 00:24:48,000 speechless to I've had dads now. One of my favorite things to do 489 00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:50,120 actually, And I've done this especially with a lot, one of my 490 00:24:50,120 --> 00:24:54,160 friends that I've delivered is to have dad gown and glove up 491 00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:57,280 with me and help me do the delivery, which is really, 492 00:24:57,280 --> 00:24:58,880 really cool. I love that. 493 00:24:59,960 --> 00:25:03,040 But I've had dads who weren't gowned and gloved up with me who 494 00:25:03,040 --> 00:25:05,920 like got so excited that they kind of tried to like be a part 495 00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:07,960 of it or something, you know? So that's kind of fun. 496 00:25:09,040 --> 00:25:12,720 Yeah. To just awe, being speechless, 497 00:25:12,720 --> 00:25:16,000 crying, laughing, yeah. You know, jump on the couch like 498 00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:18,320 Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidnam. A great interview. 499 00:25:18,360 --> 00:25:21,400 And I have to, like, try to climb on the bed with the mob, 500 00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:24,920 you know, which is fine. But if I'm still, like, needing 501 00:25:24,920 --> 00:25:27,000 to do things sometimes I'm like, all right, Dad, you gotta wait 502 00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:28,720 just a minute, then we'll let you up there, you know? 503 00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:31,720 So, yeah, it's just, it's really wonderful. 504 00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:34,200 And. And I just love, you know, 505 00:25:34,200 --> 00:25:36,920 again, just speaking to the importance of a family unit. 506 00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:42,080 I just love when that is functioning how it is supposed 507 00:25:42,080 --> 00:25:46,320 to function and, and I just wish that more people could see that, 508 00:25:46,320 --> 00:25:51,000 I guess to see the importance of why should we as a culture be 509 00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:55,320 encouraging and supporting formation of that family unit. 510 00:25:55,320 --> 00:25:57,840 I mean, it just like I said, it makes such a difference even 511 00:25:57,840 --> 00:26:00,880 just in how a woman does her labor. 512 00:26:01,520 --> 00:26:05,000 You know, if she feels supported and has a really active, 513 00:26:05,480 --> 00:26:07,680 supportive husband that is there with her. 514 00:26:08,240 --> 00:26:11,480 In general, I would say that labor just goes so much 515 00:26:11,480 --> 00:26:12,720 smoother. I mean, you know, there are 516 00:26:12,720 --> 00:26:15,600 factors you can't control for obviously, but for the ones that 517 00:26:15,600 --> 00:26:17,680 you can, it goes so much smoother. 518 00:26:18,120 --> 00:26:20,920 Well, and I think in addition, you know, for those that maybe 519 00:26:20,920 --> 00:26:24,560 there is an issue where their dad is not in the picture, which 520 00:26:24,560 --> 00:26:26,840 tragically there are those cases, of course, but this brave 521 00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:29,080 Mama is like, I'm going to just love on this baby. 522 00:26:29,080 --> 00:26:32,280 In fact, for this baby. But then the power of community, 523 00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:36,520 whether it's a mother, a sister, a doula, you know, a friend 524 00:26:36,520 --> 00:26:39,720 doula, you in the room, you know, there to love on mom. 525 00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:42,880 Because the bottom line is we weren't meant to do pregnancy or 526 00:26:42,880 --> 00:26:45,480 birth alone. We meant to do it with the 527 00:26:45,480 --> 00:26:48,080 tribe, with the community, you know, with the doctor, of 528 00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:50,160 course, but you know, the friend or whoever it is. 529 00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:53,600 So that's the power of accompanying moms, regardless of 530 00:26:53,600 --> 00:26:56,080 the other challenges they may be facing or situations they may be 531 00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:58,880 in, but accompanying them and being there with them, even 532 00:26:58,880 --> 00:27:02,160 right up to the delivery of that baby to love on them and to 533 00:27:02,360 --> 00:27:04,240 provide support. I remember for my very first 534 00:27:04,240 --> 00:27:06,840 birth, my husband was, I was extra beloved on like I had my 535 00:27:06,840 --> 00:27:09,960 husband there, I had my mother there, we had a doula there. 536 00:27:09,960 --> 00:27:11,760 My sister dropped by for part of it. 537 00:27:11,760 --> 00:27:12,880 Now she's actually a birth doula. 538 00:27:12,880 --> 00:27:17,320 She went through training and it was just so special to have the 539 00:27:17,320 --> 00:27:19,920 people that loved me there for me. 540 00:27:19,960 --> 00:27:22,040 And so that's my hope for every woman. 541 00:27:22,040 --> 00:27:25,440 And if anyone listening has someone in their life who needs 542 00:27:25,440 --> 00:27:27,920 extra love, you know, who is pregnant or about to, you know, 543 00:27:27,960 --> 00:27:30,520 give birth or whatever, showing up for them, you know, asking 544 00:27:30,520 --> 00:27:32,880 how can I be there for you and showing up for them? 545 00:27:32,880 --> 00:27:35,160 I think it's so important. Absolutely, absolutely. 546 00:27:35,160 --> 00:27:40,720 And I think, you know, that's, I think even plays into this how 547 00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:43,480 we're trying to kind of flip the narrative on how we look at 548 00:27:43,480 --> 00:27:48,360 pregnancy as well, is even women that are in unplanned pregnancy 549 00:27:48,360 --> 00:27:52,520 situations where they are facing maybe an uphill battle, you 550 00:27:52,520 --> 00:27:58,000 know, by by society standards, they deserve to be excited about 551 00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:00,920 this baby and they deserve to have that support. 552 00:28:00,920 --> 00:28:03,920 And I absolutely, I mean, this is I think where the church can 553 00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:08,720 really play an important and significant role for women that 554 00:28:08,720 --> 00:28:11,600 maybe don't have that family support that they need. 555 00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:15,360 We know that many women who choose abortion say that had 556 00:28:15,360 --> 00:28:18,200 they had the support that they needed, they would have chosen 557 00:28:18,200 --> 00:28:20,680 life for their baby. And so absolutely, this is a 558 00:28:20,680 --> 00:28:24,920 place where Community Church can show up for women, be 559 00:28:24,920 --> 00:28:27,200 supportive. I think it's so important to the 560 00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:30,320 importance of having multiple generations within somebody's 561 00:28:30,320 --> 00:28:35,000 life for an older grandmother to be able to normalize some of the 562 00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:37,920 things that women are feeling during pregnancy, to say, no, 563 00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:40,840 this is actually very normal. Again, it's a good thing because 564 00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:43,000 it means that your body's changing in this way to help 565 00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:44,720 support you, to help support your baby. 566 00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:47,640 But they need to hear that. And that's, I think the 567 00:28:47,640 --> 00:28:51,080 importance of having, you know, multiple generations around 568 00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:53,080 them, whether that's through their family unit or through 569 00:28:53,080 --> 00:28:55,280 their church. So, so important. 570 00:28:55,720 --> 00:28:59,000 There's an article on rethinkpregnancy.com that is 571 00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:01,560 called Pregnancy Doesn't Ruin Your Body, it strengthens it. 572 00:29:01,560 --> 00:29:04,360 Yeah, you've shared a little bit about this, but can you share 573 00:29:04,360 --> 00:29:07,200 how exactly does pregnancy make your body stronger? 574 00:29:07,400 --> 00:29:10,440 Yeah, absolutely. Well, we know that that women, 575 00:29:10,440 --> 00:29:13,400 first of all, I mean, you said even from your own experience 576 00:29:13,400 --> 00:29:16,040 with your first delivery, Yeah, it's like a marathon. 577 00:29:16,040 --> 00:29:21,280 So it can actually increase a woman's cardiovascular strength. 578 00:29:21,960 --> 00:29:26,520 We know that women who have full term pregnancies especially have 579 00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:29,880 a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke later in 580 00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:33,240 life. So it it can strengthen your 581 00:29:33,240 --> 00:29:35,240 heart. Now, certainly there are, you 582 00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:37,720 know, if women have heart conditions, they, they have to 583 00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:40,000 be monitored during pregnancy. But again, we're talking about 584 00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:44,240 in general, the rule here for pregnancy is that it can improve 585 00:29:44,240 --> 00:29:49,200 your cardiovascular system. It also changes your muscle mass 586 00:29:49,200 --> 00:29:53,160 and, and the structure of those muscles as well so that your 587 00:29:53,160 --> 00:29:56,320 body can support pregnancy. And then what you need to do 588 00:29:56,320 --> 00:29:59,480 after you deliver, you know, through motherhood as well. 589 00:30:00,280 --> 00:30:03,960 And it, yeah, it just, it changes your, your pelvic 590 00:30:03,960 --> 00:30:06,680 structure, makes that more stable as well. 591 00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:09,840 So just lots of different ways that that women's bodies 592 00:30:09,840 --> 00:30:13,280 actually, again, is are they going to be different? 593 00:30:13,400 --> 00:30:15,800 Yes, they are going to be different after pregnancy and 594 00:30:15,800 --> 00:30:17,960 delivery, but different doesn't mean bad. 595 00:30:18,600 --> 00:30:23,160 It actually, yeah, improves women's their their stamina as 596 00:30:23,160 --> 00:30:25,000 well. I know I've, I've heard 597 00:30:25,240 --> 00:30:28,320 interviews with really elite runners who have said that 598 00:30:28,560 --> 00:30:31,520 actually after having being pregnant and then delivering, 599 00:30:31,520 --> 00:30:34,640 they actually have more stamina in long distance running, things 600 00:30:34,640 --> 00:30:37,360 like that. So really amazing changes that a 601 00:30:37,360 --> 00:30:40,520 woman's body goes through to then be able to, you know, not 602 00:30:40,520 --> 00:30:44,480 only take care of her children, but that can impact her for the 603 00:30:44,480 --> 00:30:46,320 long run as well. It's amazing. 604 00:30:46,320 --> 00:30:49,560 I'm not a long distance runner or a short distance runner, but 605 00:30:49,600 --> 00:30:53,880 I do relate to that because the stamina piece, I mean, I'm able 606 00:30:53,880 --> 00:30:57,640 to do things I could never. I was like such a wimp before 607 00:30:57,640 --> 00:30:59,680 having kids. I feel in many ways and I 608 00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:03,200 remember after our first, having our first baby, I, I was like a 609 00:31:03,200 --> 00:31:04,360 marathon. I like, I've never run a 610 00:31:04,360 --> 00:31:08,880 marathon, but that was my marathon and I was overcome with 611 00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:11,920 another again, awe. That is the word offer the baby, 612 00:31:11,920 --> 00:31:15,280 offer the experience and awe that I was able by God's grace, 613 00:31:15,400 --> 00:31:20,400 I had help, but I was able to do that, deliver this little 1 And 614 00:31:20,640 --> 00:31:23,080 I was just like, wow, I can't I'm, I'm tougher. 615 00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:25,960 I was like, Oh, I'm stronger than I thought I was, but my 616 00:31:25,960 --> 00:31:27,440 body did it. You know, that's the other 617 00:31:27,440 --> 00:31:28,960 thing. You have to be engaged mentally, 618 00:31:28,960 --> 00:31:32,640 I think in pregnancy as a mom, but your body just knows what to 619 00:31:32,640 --> 00:31:34,720 do if you let it. Absolutely, which is also this 620 00:31:34,720 --> 00:31:37,880 incredible, almost surprise that it's so intuitive. 621 00:31:37,880 --> 00:31:40,080 But at the same time, again, we're taught, I think, to fear 622 00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:42,000 right pregnancy in our culture today. 623 00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:45,160 So if you let your body do its thing, it's just amazing to 624 00:31:45,160 --> 00:31:48,440 watch the power of the body. It is really amazing. 625 00:31:48,440 --> 00:31:50,040 I mean, I, I tell people all the time. 626 00:31:50,040 --> 00:31:54,040 I mean, obviously I'm, I'm not saying that my job is, is not 627 00:31:54,040 --> 00:31:56,080 important or that I shouldn't be there as a physician. 628 00:31:56,080 --> 00:31:59,880 But really my job in being there as a physician is to help a 629 00:31:59,880 --> 00:32:03,200 woman if something isn't going quite right with her labor. 630 00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:08,640 Because really and truly a woman's body does take over and 631 00:32:08,640 --> 00:32:12,520 it knows what to do in labour and sometimes, yes, we have to 632 00:32:12,520 --> 00:32:15,000 be there to assist with things if things aren't going quite as 633 00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:17,480 they should. But it is really amazing to 634 00:32:17,480 --> 00:32:22,400 watch that process and how, as you said, a woman's body changes 635 00:32:22,400 --> 00:32:25,800 during pregnancy, but then even in the delivery process as well, 636 00:32:26,080 --> 00:32:29,280 to be able to assist that that baby to be able to come out is, 637 00:32:29,280 --> 00:32:31,280 is truly remarkable. Yeah. 638 00:32:31,520 --> 00:32:34,240 If you've been listening to this show for a while, you know that 639 00:32:34,240 --> 00:32:37,440 Seven Weeks Coffee isn't just a sponsor, it's the coffee brand 640 00:32:37,440 --> 00:32:40,320 that we love at my house. And it's not just great taste, 641 00:32:40,360 --> 00:32:44,280 it's also the fact that Seven Weeks Coffee donates 10% of 642 00:32:44,280 --> 00:32:47,360 every sale to pregnancy resource centers, and they've donated 643 00:32:47,360 --> 00:32:51,320 over $1.5 million to date. 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It's almost here. 653 00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:25,120 The Live Action Women's Summit is coming up fast and right now 654 00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:28,240 you can use code Lila for 40% off your ticket. 655 00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:31,160 Last year was so special. There was so much honesty, so 656 00:33:31,160 --> 00:33:34,160 much conviction, and so much hunger in the room to stand up 657 00:33:34,160 --> 00:33:35,800 for life. Women came ready to be 658 00:33:35,800 --> 00:33:38,040 strengthened in their faith and grounded in truth. 659 00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:41,040 It was powerful and inspiring and we knew we had to do it 660 00:33:41,040 --> 00:33:43,960 again. So on June 20th in Irvine, CA, 661 00:33:43,960 --> 00:33:47,120 we are gathering together again. If you are a woman who wants to 662 00:33:47,120 --> 00:33:50,360 live your values boldly and who wants to be encouraged, 663 00:33:50,360 --> 00:33:52,920 challenged and equipped, this day is for you. 664 00:33:53,280 --> 00:33:56,520 You will hear from speakers like my friends Lisa Beaver, Isabel 665 00:33:56,520 --> 00:33:59,200 Brown and Emily Wilson, so please join us. 666 00:33:59,320 --> 00:34:03,520 That's LA womenssummit.com. LA women summit.com. 667 00:34:03,560 --> 00:34:07,480 Use code Lila for 40% off. Pregnancy is not a problem to be 668 00:34:07,480 --> 00:34:09,440 solved. It's not a disease to be 669 00:34:09,440 --> 00:34:11,840 treated. It is something it is actually 670 00:34:11,840 --> 00:34:15,040 evidence that a woman's body is working in the way it was meant 671 00:34:15,040 --> 00:34:17,560 to work. It actually can be a sign of 672 00:34:17,560 --> 00:34:20,800 health that our systems are working together as they're 673 00:34:20,800 --> 00:34:24,239 supposed to work together. And so we need to celebrate 674 00:34:24,239 --> 00:34:27,600 that, celebrate pregnancy, celebrate motherhood as what it 675 00:34:27,600 --> 00:34:31,760 was meant to be, which is the sign of what I think women are 676 00:34:31,760 --> 00:34:36,840 truly meant to be and to do. Not that you can't be a mother 677 00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:39,320 and also work outside the home and work in the workplace. 678 00:34:39,320 --> 00:34:41,880 Obviously, I'm a physician. I am fully supportive of women 679 00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:44,840 being able to go to school and pursue their dreams, all of 680 00:34:44,840 --> 00:34:47,920 that. But I think motherhood just 681 00:34:48,520 --> 00:34:49,840 amplifies that. It doesn't. 682 00:34:49,840 --> 00:34:51,560 It doesn't need to diminish from it. 683 00:34:51,560 --> 00:34:55,800 But when we live in a society, in a culture that says you can't 684 00:34:55,800 --> 00:34:58,880 do both, you need to be able to end your child's life in order 685 00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:02,480 to pursue these other dreams, we really are doing women a 686 00:35:02,480 --> 00:35:06,120 disservice through that. And we're not challenging. 687 00:35:06,360 --> 00:35:10,440 The other thing that I say often times is that abortion is used 688 00:35:10,440 --> 00:35:14,680 as a Band-Aid to try to cover up wounds within society or things 689 00:35:14,680 --> 00:35:17,440 that are wrong within society. But we all know band aids don't 690 00:35:17,440 --> 00:35:19,440 actually fix anything. They just kind of cover things 691 00:35:19,440 --> 00:35:22,880 up and they're a temporary, you know, quote UN quote solution. 692 00:35:23,360 --> 00:35:26,920 But one area that I think we need to be talking about more is 693 00:35:26,920 --> 00:35:30,320 this area of prenatal diagnosis. I think it is one of the most 694 00:35:30,320 --> 00:35:33,360 common situations of coerced abortions that exist. 695 00:35:33,760 --> 00:35:37,240 And unfortunately, the coercion often times is coming from my 696 00:35:37,240 --> 00:35:43,400 profession and I think a lot of doctors that are offering that 697 00:35:43,400 --> 00:35:45,400 or maybe recommending it to women. 698 00:35:45,400 --> 00:35:50,240 Honestly, it is coming from a place of misplaced compassion 699 00:35:50,960 --> 00:35:54,120 because we are trained that the compassionate thing to do in 700 00:35:54,120 --> 00:35:56,080 that situation. If that baby is not going to 701 00:35:56,080 --> 00:35:58,680 survive anyways, which by the way, often times we don't 702 00:35:58,680 --> 00:36:02,440 actually know that. But if we think that there's a 703 00:36:02,440 --> 00:36:04,960 chance that baby isn't going to survive, then the compassionate 704 00:36:04,960 --> 00:36:07,640 thing to do is why would you make that woman, you know, 705 00:36:07,640 --> 00:36:10,640 endure an entire pregnancy? And this is how we're trained. 706 00:36:10,640 --> 00:36:13,800 So I do think that many physicians think that they're 707 00:36:13,800 --> 00:36:15,640 being compassionate when they offer that. 708 00:36:15,640 --> 00:36:20,120 But what we think physicians need to understand is that our 709 00:36:20,240 --> 00:36:23,080 words carry so much weight with our patients. 710 00:36:23,480 --> 00:36:26,880 And when a doctor is saying that to you, many women see that as 711 00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:30,000 their only option when it's the first thing that's offered to 712 00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:32,640 them. Many women see that as, oh, 713 00:36:32,640 --> 00:36:34,360 that's something that I have to do then. 714 00:36:34,840 --> 00:36:38,720 And you're right, many times it comes at women and families over 715 00:36:38,720 --> 00:36:42,480 and over and over again. I had the great privilege and 716 00:36:42,480 --> 00:36:47,120 honor to meet an amazing woman at our State House in Indiana 717 00:36:47,320 --> 00:36:49,640 when we were debating our abortion law. 718 00:36:49,640 --> 00:36:53,360 And one of the big areas of debate was an exception for 719 00:36:53,960 --> 00:36:56,680 babies that have potentially life limiting conditions. 720 00:36:56,680 --> 00:36:59,800 And unfortunately, our law only got passed with that exception 721 00:36:59,800 --> 00:37:01,680 in place. We fought very hard against it, 722 00:37:02,480 --> 00:37:04,960 but this woman that I had the privilege of meeting had a baby 723 00:37:04,960 --> 00:37:07,600 that was diagnosed with a condition called anencephaly 724 00:37:07,600 --> 00:37:10,080 during her pregnancy, which is where the brain doesn't fully 725 00:37:10,080 --> 00:37:12,480 develop. And, and typically, a lot of 726 00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:14,800 times those babies will die before they're born. 727 00:37:15,560 --> 00:37:18,360 But if not, they typically die shortly after birth. 728 00:37:18,360 --> 00:37:21,040 Although there are documented cases of babies living to be two 729 00:37:21,040 --> 00:37:23,400 or three years old even with that condition. 730 00:37:24,160 --> 00:37:26,520 And abortion was not an option for her. 731 00:37:26,520 --> 00:37:28,920 You know, that was offered to her by her first doctor. 732 00:37:28,920 --> 00:37:31,160 She said no. She went back a couple more 733 00:37:31,160 --> 00:37:33,480 times. At each visit, she said my 734 00:37:33,480 --> 00:37:36,480 doctor explained the condition again to me. 735 00:37:36,480 --> 00:37:39,160 It was like she thought that I was stupid or something and 736 00:37:39,160 --> 00:37:41,640 didn't understand. She said I fully understood what 737 00:37:41,640 --> 00:37:43,680 my in fact, I probably understood more about my 738 00:37:43,680 --> 00:37:46,440 daughter's condition than my doctor did because I did so much 739 00:37:46,440 --> 00:37:47,920 research. I was so motivated to do 740 00:37:47,920 --> 00:37:49,880 research on it. So she eventually went to 741 00:37:49,880 --> 00:37:52,880 another doctor because she was tired of having to fight that 742 00:37:52,880 --> 00:37:54,520 fight every time she went to see her doctor. 743 00:37:55,200 --> 00:37:58,760 She eventually went to six doctors before she finally found 744 00:37:58,760 --> 00:38:02,360 one who was just willing to not pressure her to end her child's 745 00:38:02,360 --> 00:38:04,280 life. She had a high risk doctor. 746 00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:07,800 She wanted AC section because she wanted the best chance 747 00:38:07,800 --> 00:38:09,840 possible for her daughter to be born alive. 748 00:38:10,280 --> 00:38:12,680 And she knew, and she was correct through her research, 749 00:38:12,680 --> 00:38:16,160 that labor would likely cause enough stress that it could end 750 00:38:16,160 --> 00:38:17,600 her daughter's life during labor. 751 00:38:18,360 --> 00:38:21,800 So she wanted AC section. First of all, ACOG, the American 752 00:38:21,800 --> 00:38:24,640 College of OBGYN, says that if a woman just wants AC section for 753 00:38:24,640 --> 00:38:27,520 any reason, just an elective C-section, that after counseling 754 00:38:27,520 --> 00:38:29,120 her about the risk, we should do that for her. 755 00:38:29,560 --> 00:38:31,800 So that's the official stance of ACOG. 756 00:38:32,160 --> 00:38:35,120 She had a high risk doctor tell her that it would be a waste of 757 00:38:35,120 --> 00:38:38,440 resources to do AC section for her since her daughter wasn't 758 00:38:38,440 --> 00:38:41,240 going to live. How demeaning is that? 759 00:38:41,520 --> 00:38:43,600 Now, thankfully, she finally found a Doctor Who said 760 00:38:43,600 --> 00:38:46,320 absolutely, we'll do that. If that's your desire, we will 761 00:38:46,320 --> 00:38:48,840 do that. And she delivered her daughter 762 00:38:48,840 --> 00:38:50,400 Mia. Her story's available online. 763 00:38:50,400 --> 00:38:52,200 It's it's a really moving story actually. 764 00:38:52,200 --> 00:38:55,520 She delivered her daughter. Her daughter was born alive and 765 00:38:55,520 --> 00:38:58,240 she was able to take her daughter home for three weeks. 766 00:38:58,280 --> 00:39:02,560 She was able to breastfeed her, her son, I believe it was her 767 00:39:02,560 --> 00:39:05,880 son that she already had at home, was able to spend time 768 00:39:05,880 --> 00:39:08,880 with his little sister. And yes, they lost their 769 00:39:08,880 --> 00:39:11,200 daughter after three weeks, but she said I wouldn't have given 770 00:39:11,200 --> 00:39:13,360 up that three weeks for anything in the world. 771 00:39:13,360 --> 00:39:16,480 And my son is a better, a better child. 772 00:39:16,480 --> 00:39:18,880 He's going to be a better person because he had that three weeks 773 00:39:18,880 --> 00:39:21,320 with his sister. They have beautiful videos of 774 00:39:21,320 --> 00:39:27,120 her laughing, smiling. And, you know, it just breaks my 775 00:39:27,120 --> 00:39:29,600 heart. I, I am so grateful for her that 776 00:39:29,600 --> 00:39:31,360 she got to have that time with her daughter. 777 00:39:31,640 --> 00:39:35,240 But it breaks my heart that she faced what she faced every time 778 00:39:35,240 --> 00:39:38,520 she went into a doctor's office. And so I think it's really 779 00:39:38,520 --> 00:39:43,160 important, as you said, that we not only be looking for ways 780 00:39:43,160 --> 00:39:46,080 that, you know, eventually maybe there will be a way that we can 781 00:39:46,080 --> 00:39:48,880 better support children with anencephaly and it and it won't 782 00:39:48,880 --> 00:39:52,200 be an immediate death sentence as it kind of is now. 783 00:39:53,320 --> 00:39:56,760 But even if not that, we find ways to respect families, to 784 00:39:56,760 --> 00:39:58,720 support them, to help them understand. 785 00:39:58,720 --> 00:40:01,120 We also know women's mental health outcomes when they have 786 00:40:01,120 --> 00:40:04,760 abortions in those kind of circumstances with very wanted 787 00:40:04,760 --> 00:40:07,640 desired pregnancies, typically farther along in the pregnancy 788 00:40:07,640 --> 00:40:11,080 by the time these diagnosis are made, that their mental health 789 00:40:11,080 --> 00:40:13,000 outcomes are actually significantly worse. 790 00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:14,600 Who's talking to them about that? 791 00:40:14,800 --> 00:40:17,520 But their mental health outcomes will be better if they're 792 00:40:17,520 --> 00:40:19,320 supported through their pregnancy and through their 793 00:40:19,320 --> 00:40:21,280 delivery. That's a huge point you just 794 00:40:21,280 --> 00:40:24,280 made that I think most people do not know. 795 00:40:24,840 --> 00:40:29,520 And it's so important that if you have a poor prenatal 796 00:40:29,520 --> 00:40:32,600 diagnosis, life limiting condition, genetic condition, 797 00:40:32,600 --> 00:40:35,040 something that says that death is imminent for this baby. 798 00:40:35,320 --> 00:40:38,680 And then terminations offered that the mental health outcomes 799 00:40:38,680 --> 00:40:43,840 for mom are worse if she aborts versus letting nature take its 800 00:40:43,840 --> 00:40:46,920 course lovingly with as much medical intervention as you can 801 00:40:46,920 --> 00:40:49,640 do to help that baby, give it, give that baby a shot. 802 00:40:49,880 --> 00:40:54,080 If you let ultimately that baby have the lifespan ODD allows, as 803 00:40:54,080 --> 00:40:56,600 opposed to cutting that lifespan short, the mental health 804 00:40:56,600 --> 00:40:59,240 outcomes are going to be worse for mom with abortion than if 805 00:40:59,240 --> 00:41:01,600 she chooses life for as long as that baby may live. 806 00:41:01,680 --> 00:41:03,680 Absolutely. And there's a number of reasons 807 00:41:03,680 --> 00:41:06,000 for that. You know, part of it is because 808 00:41:06,680 --> 00:41:10,800 when the baby dies of natural causes that that happened 809 00:41:10,800 --> 00:41:12,320 because of that condition, right? 810 00:41:12,320 --> 00:41:17,080 So the parents didn't have any agency or, or participation in 811 00:41:17,080 --> 00:41:22,120 that baby dying versus when the decision is made for a pregnancy 812 00:41:22,120 --> 00:41:25,640 termination or an abortion, the parents then have agency in 813 00:41:25,640 --> 00:41:28,000 that. And I think inherently they, 814 00:41:28,040 --> 00:41:30,320 they feel that and they understand that. 815 00:41:30,600 --> 00:41:33,560 The other thing is that often times families, women are 816 00:41:33,560 --> 00:41:36,600 manipulated into that decision because they're told your baby 817 00:41:36,600 --> 00:41:39,840 is suffering and you don't want your baby to be in pain. 818 00:41:40,240 --> 00:41:43,760 This is heartbreaking to me that parents are being told, I mean, 819 00:41:43,760 --> 00:41:47,600 how emotionally manipulative. Of course, no parent wants their 820 00:41:47,600 --> 00:41:50,440 child to suffer or to ever feel pain if they don't don't have 821 00:41:50,440 --> 00:41:52,760 to. And so I think so many families 822 00:41:52,760 --> 00:41:57,120 who would never have considered abortion do it because they 823 00:41:57,120 --> 00:41:59,560 think, well, I don't want my baby to be suffering. 824 00:41:59,920 --> 00:42:03,760 That baby is not suffering inside of a mom because of any 825 00:42:03,760 --> 00:42:06,800 genetic condition. There is no evidence whatsoever. 826 00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:11,520 In fact, there's evidence that that the baby actually probably 827 00:42:11,840 --> 00:42:15,880 feels, you know, somewhat less in inside than they maybe would 828 00:42:15,880 --> 00:42:17,840 with the same condition outside. Not that they don't feel pain. 829 00:42:17,840 --> 00:42:21,440 They do feel pain, but there that's a protected environment 830 00:42:21,440 --> 00:42:22,920 and so it's helping protect them. 831 00:42:23,240 --> 00:42:26,680 What will cause them pain would be to be intentionally 832 00:42:26,680 --> 00:42:29,440 dismembered through an abortion procedure, and parents aren't 833 00:42:29,440 --> 00:42:31,840 told about that, that that's going to be a very painful, 834 00:42:32,000 --> 00:42:34,800 awful procedure for the baby. This is this is where we're 835 00:42:34,800 --> 00:42:37,240 getting into it. And I think this is incredibly 836 00:42:37,240 --> 00:42:40,840 important what you're about to share with people when we hear 837 00:42:40,840 --> 00:42:43,880 the word termination. Like your average mom who has a 838 00:42:43,880 --> 00:42:45,640 high risk pregnancy. Again, these are rare cases. 839 00:42:45,640 --> 00:42:47,880 I shouldn't say average because these are very, you know, rare 840 00:42:47,880 --> 00:42:51,760 cases, but there is this high risk situation where baby has 841 00:42:51,760 --> 00:42:54,040 this very extreme condition, let's say, right? 842 00:42:54,800 --> 00:42:56,120 First of all, that can be misdiagnosed. 843 00:42:56,120 --> 00:42:57,440 We haven't even gone into that yet. 844 00:42:57,440 --> 00:43:00,760 But for the question of pain, because they are told many women 845 00:43:00,760 --> 00:43:03,080 in this Reddit forum I'm reading, they're saying they I 846 00:43:03,080 --> 00:43:06,000 don't want baby to suffer. So I opted for termination, 847 00:43:06,160 --> 00:43:07,240 right? And I'm sitting there like, do 848 00:43:07,240 --> 00:43:09,000 you know what termination is, right? 849 00:43:09,000 --> 00:43:12,200 Can you explain what termination means? 850 00:43:12,200 --> 00:43:15,640 Yes, for a baby that has some genetic condition or life 851 00:43:15,640 --> 00:43:17,520 limiting diagnosis. Yeah, absolutely. 852 00:43:17,840 --> 00:43:21,400 Well, so how it's done is going to depend on how far along in 853 00:43:21,400 --> 00:43:24,160 pregnancy she is. But even if it's in the first 854 00:43:24,160 --> 00:43:27,440 trimester, which, you know, the, the scientific literature now 855 00:43:27,440 --> 00:43:31,960 shows that I think we can confidently say as early as 12 856 00:43:31,960 --> 00:43:34,680 weeks, babies are feeling pain. But the literature actually says 857 00:43:34,680 --> 00:43:39,000 it's likely earlier. Even when we see procedures that 858 00:43:39,000 --> 00:43:41,960 are done as early as 8 or 10 weeks where the baby 859 00:43:41,960 --> 00:43:44,280 accidentally gets kind of poked with a needle, the baby will 860 00:43:44,280 --> 00:43:47,600 withdraw from from that. So that's evidence that the 861 00:43:47,600 --> 00:43:50,720 baby's likely feeling pain even as early as 8 or 10 weeks. 862 00:43:51,840 --> 00:43:54,400 But you know, in a first trimester abortion procedure, if 863 00:43:54,400 --> 00:43:58,320 it's done via the abortion drugs that maybe is starved to death 864 00:43:58,320 --> 00:44:00,520 and and starved of oxygen and nutrients. 865 00:44:00,520 --> 00:44:03,960 So that's obviously not a pleasant way to to die. 866 00:44:04,720 --> 00:44:08,120 If it's done through a surgical procedure, AD and C in the first 867 00:44:08,120 --> 00:44:11,480 trimester, then the baby is being torn apart limb from limb. 868 00:44:12,400 --> 00:44:16,160 It threw a suction cannula. So again that while the baby is 869 00:44:16,160 --> 00:44:19,960 alive, so that baby is going to feel every bit of that. 870 00:44:19,960 --> 00:44:22,680 And remember, baby is not suffering inside of mom 871 00:44:22,680 --> 00:44:25,760 regardless of what condition he or she has. 872 00:44:26,080 --> 00:44:29,320 There is zero evidence that exists that that baby is 873 00:44:29,360 --> 00:44:33,200 actively suffering or feeling pain from that condition while 874 00:44:33,200 --> 00:44:37,280 inside of mom, but we do know that these kind of dismemberment 875 00:44:37,280 --> 00:44:39,760 procedures would cause pain. How could they I mean? 876 00:44:39,880 --> 00:44:42,480 How could they not if? There's any feeling total 877 00:44:42,480 --> 00:44:45,640 sensation, totally the feeling or sensation of being like when 878 00:44:45,640 --> 00:44:48,600 I first learned about abortion and saw like just medically 879 00:44:48,600 --> 00:44:51,680 accurate depictions of what these abortion I was, I was 880 00:44:51,680 --> 00:44:54,560 floored. I thought people, are we just 881 00:44:54,720 --> 00:44:56,720 living in La La land and pretending like this doesn't 882 00:44:56,720 --> 00:45:00,320 happen, that termination involves these things, but like 883 00:45:00,320 --> 00:45:02,880 keep going because a lot of these life, life limiting 884 00:45:02,880 --> 00:45:06,520 diagnosis happen later or they're confirmed at the 20 week 885 00:45:06,520 --> 00:45:09,360 scan as an example. That's when we're talking not 886 00:45:09,360 --> 00:45:12,040 just first trimester abortions. We're talking 2nd and and even 887 00:45:12,040 --> 00:45:13,360 third. Right, exactly. 888 00:45:13,360 --> 00:45:15,880 So the farther along in pregnancy we get, then the 889 00:45:15,880 --> 00:45:18,840 abortion procedures change a little bit in the second 890 00:45:18,840 --> 00:45:21,320 trimester, at least up to depending. 891 00:45:21,440 --> 00:45:25,320 Some people will do what's called AD and E procedure, which 892 00:45:25,320 --> 00:45:30,480 is very barbaric procedure on a on a living baby where parts of 893 00:45:30,480 --> 00:45:34,200 the baby are grasped with forceps that have teeth on them 894 00:45:34,640 --> 00:45:38,800 that grab hold and don't let go. And literally arms are ripped 895 00:45:38,800 --> 00:45:41,080 off, legs are ripped off, the torso is ripped off. 896 00:45:41,080 --> 00:45:44,520 And again, this on a living baby that can very definitely feel 897 00:45:44,520 --> 00:45:46,240 pain. Like they're crushing and 898 00:45:46,240 --> 00:45:49,400 twisting, crushing, twisting. Like someone like God forbid 899 00:45:49,400 --> 00:45:51,240 like grab me right and just tried to. 900 00:45:51,240 --> 00:45:54,120 RIP my arm arm. Powerful like source? 901 00:45:54,560 --> 00:45:56,560 Something like a machine? Right. 902 00:45:57,080 --> 00:45:57,760 It's. Unreal. 903 00:45:57,760 --> 00:46:01,120 And our families told this before when they're recommended 904 00:46:01,120 --> 00:46:04,800 to have an abortion in this situation, I think in I can 905 00:46:04,800 --> 00:46:07,280 confidently say in the vast majority of cases, no, they're 906 00:46:07,280 --> 00:46:09,040 not. I think they're told it will be 907 00:46:09,040 --> 00:46:10,760 painless. They're told that this is 908 00:46:10,760 --> 00:46:12,360 actually going to not be. Suffering. 909 00:46:12,360 --> 00:46:14,160 This is going to take away suffering, right? 910 00:46:14,480 --> 00:46:18,160 And, you know, even no matter where somebody stands on the 911 00:46:18,160 --> 00:46:22,400 issue of abortion, we should believe that if a family is 912 00:46:22,400 --> 00:46:26,960 going to make a very significant decision like this, that they 913 00:46:26,960 --> 00:46:29,920 should be making it with fully accurate information on both 914 00:46:29,920 --> 00:46:31,720 sides, right? We don't just talk about risks 915 00:46:31,720 --> 00:46:34,520 and benefits of one option. You have to talk about risks and 916 00:46:34,520 --> 00:46:37,680 benefits of all options that you're presenting to a patient. 917 00:46:38,040 --> 00:46:40,840 And part of that conversation, especially if you're centering 918 00:46:40,840 --> 00:46:44,320 that conversation around trying to prevent pain and suffering 919 00:46:44,320 --> 00:46:48,680 for someone's child, should absolutely involve. 920 00:46:48,680 --> 00:46:51,720 But if you choose abortion, this is what that's going to, this is 921 00:46:51,720 --> 00:46:54,280 going to mean for your child. And they're, I know they're not 922 00:46:54,280 --> 00:46:56,880 being told that I know because I've talked to patients and 923 00:46:56,880 --> 00:46:59,000 families who've been through this with other physicians. 924 00:46:59,920 --> 00:47:02,320 You know, the far, if we get farther along in pregnancy, if 925 00:47:02,320 --> 00:47:05,120 we start thinking about later second trimester and even into 926 00:47:05,120 --> 00:47:07,440 the third trimester, which oftentimes right, is the 927 00:47:07,440 --> 00:47:09,760 justification used for 3rd trimester abortions. 928 00:47:09,760 --> 00:47:12,560 Well, for fetal conditions, we have to be able to do this. 929 00:47:12,560 --> 00:47:15,480 First of all, no, you don't. You can deliver the baby and 930 00:47:15,480 --> 00:47:19,440 provide baby with appropriate care that may or may not be life 931 00:47:19,440 --> 00:47:21,040 saving depending on the condition. 932 00:47:21,040 --> 00:47:23,160 But as you said, we're not always right about these 933 00:47:23,160 --> 00:47:26,200 diagnosis either. And if we are dismembering that 934 00:47:26,200 --> 00:47:30,280 baby in the second trimester, we have destroyed any possibility 935 00:47:30,280 --> 00:47:32,440 of discovering that we were actually wrong about our 936 00:47:32,440 --> 00:47:34,960 diagnosis first of all. Second of all, even if the 937 00:47:34,960 --> 00:47:38,000 diagnosis is right, that child has value and worth and can feel 938 00:47:38,000 --> 00:47:41,600 pain when he or she is dismembered, so we should avoid. 939 00:47:41,680 --> 00:47:45,480 That it makes me feel sick because we wouldn't do this to 940 00:47:45,480 --> 00:47:48,200 dogs, I mean. Right, we did the new matches. 941 00:47:48,480 --> 00:47:51,400 Even disabled puppies, right, like ripping them live 942 00:47:51,400 --> 00:47:53,960 dismemberment. Like we would be like, oh, PETA 943 00:47:54,200 --> 00:47:56,520 would be all over that. Like you'd have all the advocacy 944 00:47:56,520 --> 00:47:58,600 groups like politically left and right, I think could come 945 00:47:58,600 --> 00:47:59,920 together and be like, this is wrong. 946 00:48:00,080 --> 00:48:01,840 Right. But we're doing this actively to 947 00:48:01,840 --> 00:48:04,480 babies in hospitals under the guise of healthcare today, 948 00:48:04,600 --> 00:48:06,480 right? And we all act like the Reddit 949 00:48:06,480 --> 00:48:08,040 acts like, oh, this was the loving thing. 950 00:48:08,040 --> 00:48:10,120 We opted for this because we didn't want baby to feel pain. 951 00:48:10,120 --> 00:48:14,640 I'm like, this is unreal that people misunderstand this 952 00:48:14,640 --> 00:48:16,920 because they've never been told it right. 953 00:48:17,040 --> 00:48:18,400 Absolutely. Absolutely. 954 00:48:18,680 --> 00:48:21,560 And then even if we look at, you know, how abortions are done 955 00:48:21,920 --> 00:48:25,440 later in pregnancy, maybe some people would look at that as 956 00:48:25,440 --> 00:48:28,120 more humane. But typically, what I certainly 957 00:48:28,120 --> 00:48:31,680 don't, but typically what's done is the baby's heart is injected 958 00:48:31,680 --> 00:48:35,120 with a substance that will induce a heart attack so that 959 00:48:35,120 --> 00:48:38,520 the baby dies in utero. Well, I don't know about you, 960 00:48:38,520 --> 00:48:41,000 but I personally would not want to have a heart attack induced, 961 00:48:41,000 --> 00:48:45,000 not only because it would end my life but also it's not a 962 00:48:45,000 --> 00:48:47,600 pleasant experience to go through a heart attack. 963 00:48:47,600 --> 00:48:50,440 And aren't they stabbing the child's chest with a needle in 964 00:48:50,440 --> 00:48:52,040 order to do that? Like, it's not like they just 965 00:48:52,240 --> 00:48:54,280 press the button and the baby has this heart attack, Guys, 966 00:48:54,680 --> 00:48:57,520 they have to Pierce the baby's chest cavity. 967 00:48:57,520 --> 00:49:01,640 Yes, with a long sharp needle. Like like imagine getting like 968 00:49:02,120 --> 00:49:04,880 stabbed in the chest and then you have a heart attack. 969 00:49:04,880 --> 00:49:07,520 Right, right. And it's one thing if that is 970 00:49:07,520 --> 00:49:10,480 being done for a life saving intervention, but when you're 971 00:49:10,480 --> 00:49:14,480 doing it to end a life, to kill baby, yes, that's even worse. 972 00:49:14,480 --> 00:49:17,360 So yes. So a heart attack is induced so 973 00:49:17,360 --> 00:49:20,960 that then when the woman's labor is induced, which by the way is 974 00:49:20,960 --> 00:49:23,520 another thing that I don't think gets talked about enough. 975 00:49:23,520 --> 00:49:26,840 So those of us who are pro-life often times are accused of being 976 00:49:26,840 --> 00:49:29,600 forced birthers, right? All these people that are 977 00:49:29,600 --> 00:49:33,520 advocating for 3rd trimester abortions, mom still has to go 978 00:49:33,520 --> 00:49:36,640 through labor. So she's not avoiding labor. 979 00:49:37,120 --> 00:49:39,440 The difference is she's delivering a dead baby. 980 00:49:39,440 --> 00:49:42,880 She's not delivering a live baby and a, and a baby that whose 981 00:49:42,880 --> 00:49:46,000 life was ended, you know, I would say in a pretty horrific 982 00:49:46,000 --> 00:49:48,640 way as you just described. And, and then we've induced a 983 00:49:48,640 --> 00:49:51,680 heart attack. So actually, if we truly cared 984 00:49:51,680 --> 00:49:55,160 about Women's Health and, and saving women and, you know, 985 00:49:55,360 --> 00:49:57,920 taking care of them as quickly as possible, we do deliveries. 986 00:49:57,920 --> 00:50:00,400 We don't do abortions and every doctor knows that. 987 00:50:00,400 --> 00:50:02,200 That's the thing. Every doctor knows that. 988 00:50:02,200 --> 00:50:06,960 So, so, yeah, I think, you know, parents need to understand that 989 00:50:06,960 --> 00:50:09,680 these, if they're being recommended an abortion in these 990 00:50:09,680 --> 00:50:13,160 situations, they need to understand what that truly is, 991 00:50:13,160 --> 00:50:17,080 what it means for them, for their babies, so that they can 992 00:50:17,080 --> 00:50:19,400 make decisions that are best for both of them. 993 00:50:19,680 --> 00:50:25,120 Can you explain briefly for folks what perinatal palliative 994 00:50:25,120 --> 00:50:29,400 care or Hospice is? This is a big term, but I think 995 00:50:29,400 --> 00:50:32,720 that when we're talking about suffering for baby, outcomes for 996 00:50:32,720 --> 00:50:35,600 baby, like you said, there's families that think that there 997 00:50:35,600 --> 00:50:37,920 is no other option than termination. 998 00:50:37,920 --> 00:50:39,600 They're not told what termination really is, but 999 00:50:39,600 --> 00:50:42,120 they're just told that. What are some of these other 1000 00:50:42,120 --> 00:50:46,280 options in terms of palliative care, Hospice and ways to give 1001 00:50:46,280 --> 00:50:48,160 baby a chance? Yeah, absolutely. 1002 00:50:48,520 --> 00:50:51,600 Well, so perinatal palliative care or perinatal Hospice was 1003 00:50:51,600 --> 00:50:54,720 kind of modeled after what we think of as Hospice at the end 1004 00:50:54,720 --> 00:50:56,720 of life. So if an adult, you know, 1005 00:50:56,720 --> 00:50:59,600 towards the end of their life has a condition that we expect 1006 00:50:59,600 --> 00:51:02,720 to lead to their death, then there are things that we do to 1007 00:51:02,720 --> 00:51:05,240 support them. Again, it's not just go suffer 1008 00:51:06,200 --> 00:51:09,720 and until your life is over, you know, there are comfort measures 1009 00:51:09,720 --> 00:51:12,360 that we can provide, things like that and, and a whole support 1010 00:51:12,360 --> 00:51:14,640 system. We experienced it myself with 1011 00:51:14,640 --> 00:51:16,720 my, with my dad before he passed away. 1012 00:51:16,720 --> 00:51:19,280 And it is a really great supportive environment for 1013 00:51:19,280 --> 00:51:22,280 families. So perinatal Hospice is, is 1014 00:51:22,280 --> 00:51:26,160 similar in some ways, but it's for a baby right after they're 1015 00:51:26,160 --> 00:51:28,800 born. So again, with a condition that 1016 00:51:28,800 --> 00:51:33,480 we expect may lead to a shorter lifespan, it provides support 1017 00:51:33,480 --> 00:51:36,280 through the pregnancy through a multidisciplinary approach where 1018 00:51:36,280 --> 00:51:40,440 you have doctors who can provide pain management if that's what's 1019 00:51:40,440 --> 00:51:43,480 needed for the baby afterwards, where you have neonatologists 1020 00:51:43,480 --> 00:51:44,760 involved. Because maybe this is a 1021 00:51:44,760 --> 00:51:48,800 condition that could potentially have survival with certain 1022 00:51:48,800 --> 00:51:50,760 treatments. But you might need to wait and 1023 00:51:50,760 --> 00:51:54,800 see how baby responds to interventions after delivery, 1024 00:51:54,800 --> 00:51:57,360 which is actually the most important thing I think for 1025 00:51:57,360 --> 00:52:01,120 families to know is to say, let's try to do some 1026 00:52:01,120 --> 00:52:03,840 interventions after delivery and let's see how baby responds. 1027 00:52:03,840 --> 00:52:07,360 That's actually the best predictor of how a baby will do. 1028 00:52:07,840 --> 00:52:13,480 The the biggest factor for a poor prognosis after delivery, 1029 00:52:13,480 --> 00:52:17,320 meaning baby doesn't survive, is a prenatal diagnosis. 1030 00:52:17,320 --> 00:52:19,480 Actually, there have been studies that have looked at 1031 00:52:19,480 --> 00:52:23,360 that, that when babies had the same condition, but it wasn't 1032 00:52:23,360 --> 00:52:26,040 diagnosed until after delivery, they do better. 1033 00:52:26,360 --> 00:52:28,240 Why is that? Because when we don't know that 1034 00:52:28,240 --> 00:52:30,440 they have one of these conditions, what's the automatic 1035 00:52:30,440 --> 00:52:33,280 response after delivery? Oh, baby is struggling. 1036 00:52:33,320 --> 00:52:35,560 Baby needs help, so we're going to do these interventions. 1037 00:52:35,960 --> 00:52:39,000 And again, shocker, when you do interventions, often times 1038 00:52:39,000 --> 00:52:42,920 babies will do better. So, so I think that that study 1039 00:52:42,920 --> 00:52:47,280 is actually very illuminating that the biggest factor for a 1040 00:52:47,280 --> 00:52:50,360 poor prognosis and how baby does after delivery is having that 1041 00:52:50,360 --> 00:52:53,400 diagnosis before delivery. When we don't find out about it 1042 00:52:53,400 --> 00:52:55,840 until after delivery, we automatically start 1043 00:52:55,840 --> 00:52:57,920 interventions. And then often times babies will 1044 00:52:57,920 --> 00:53:00,640 do better. But perinatal palliative care 1045 00:53:00,640 --> 00:53:03,600 can come along in those cases where maybe you've tried 1046 00:53:03,600 --> 00:53:07,320 interventions or maybe babies born so small that those 1047 00:53:07,320 --> 00:53:10,040 interventions just aren't possible, to then provide 1048 00:53:10,040 --> 00:53:13,080 supportive care to the family, to provide supportive care to 1049 00:53:13,080 --> 00:53:16,840 the baby to ensure baby isn't suffering and to walk the family 1050 00:53:16,840 --> 00:53:20,760 through that grief process. We know for grief in general 1051 00:53:21,000 --> 00:53:23,840 that mental health outcomes after grief are better when you 1052 00:53:23,840 --> 00:53:26,080 walk through those stages of grief. 1053 00:53:26,560 --> 00:53:31,400 And what abortion does is it it unnaturally truncates that 1054 00:53:31,400 --> 00:53:35,360 grieving process and doesn't allow families to really walk 1055 00:53:35,360 --> 00:53:38,480 through the stages of grief that they really need to in order to 1056 00:53:38,480 --> 00:53:40,480 appropriately grieve the loss of their child. 1057 00:53:40,880 --> 00:53:43,280 And the the other thing is that I think perinatal palliative 1058 00:53:43,280 --> 00:53:45,680 care helps them see that even though your child's life may 1059 00:53:45,680 --> 00:53:48,920 have been short, that was still your child and your child still 1060 00:53:48,920 --> 00:53:52,560 has value and worth. It gives a family an intact baby 1061 00:53:52,560 --> 00:53:55,880 to hold and to grieve, even if that baby does pass away. 1062 00:53:56,120 --> 00:53:59,040 My hospital that I work at does a great job with this, this and 1063 00:53:59,040 --> 00:54:02,200 we have so many mementos that we can do for families so that they 1064 00:54:02,200 --> 00:54:06,600 can have memories of that child. And so I just think the beauty 1065 00:54:06,600 --> 00:54:09,280 of of perinatal palliative care when it's appropriate. 1066 00:54:09,280 --> 00:54:12,280 I think a lot of times we need to be doing interventions, not 1067 00:54:12,280 --> 00:54:15,560 not just doing palliative care, but but when it's appropriate. 1068 00:54:15,560 --> 00:54:18,560 I think that the beauty of it is that it it supports these 1069 00:54:18,560 --> 00:54:22,160 families while helping them see the value of their child. 1070 00:54:22,600 --> 00:54:25,120 That's so beautifully shared. Thank you. 1071 00:54:25,120 --> 00:54:28,480 And I hope it's a good myth, Buster for people listening who 1072 00:54:28,480 --> 00:54:31,880 maybe can pass this to a friend who's facing a poor prenatal 1073 00:54:31,880 --> 00:54:34,840 diagnosis or just for everyone to have this working knowledge 1074 00:54:34,840 --> 00:54:37,200 because somebody eventually we know somebody or hear of 1075 00:54:37,200 --> 00:54:39,080 somebody and they just don't know that. 1076 00:54:39,080 --> 00:54:40,960 There are doctors that specialize in this. 1077 00:54:40,960 --> 00:54:44,360 And there are so many options for ways to value that little 1078 00:54:44,360 --> 00:54:48,880 life and take care of mom too. I want to get into the abortion 1079 00:54:48,880 --> 00:54:51,440 pill now because there's a lot in the news media about this. 1080 00:54:51,440 --> 00:54:54,080 I want to trace what's happening and then hear your expert 1081 00:54:54,080 --> 00:54:57,120 opinion on it. We're going to talk about that, 1082 00:54:57,120 --> 00:54:59,480 but we're going to get into solutions to, you know, how do 1083 00:54:59,480 --> 00:55:04,600 we get ourselves all healthier and make this country and beyond 1084 00:55:04,600 --> 00:55:07,400 a healthier place for moms to have babies, healthier place for 1085 00:55:07,400 --> 00:55:09,600 those babies. That's the end game here, right? 1086 00:55:09,840 --> 00:55:12,200 But to break it down a little bit, so recently the Supreme 1087 00:55:12,200 --> 00:55:16,560 Court did a ruling that ultimately upended the 5th 1088 00:55:16,560 --> 00:55:19,560 Circuit. So there's another court system 1089 00:55:19,560 --> 00:55:22,520 that said that the abortion pill cannot be shipped via mail 1090 00:55:23,160 --> 00:55:25,640 because there's pro-life states like Louisiana. 1091 00:55:25,640 --> 00:55:29,240 Who was the plaintiff in that case who said who has, you know, 1092 00:55:30,040 --> 00:55:31,360 pro-life? They protect babies in their 1093 00:55:31,360 --> 00:55:33,280 state. But you can ship in these drugs 1094 00:55:33,280 --> 00:55:35,920 via the postal mail system from, say, California, which is super 1095 00:55:35,920 --> 00:55:38,000 pro abortion. So in this particular case, 1096 00:55:38,000 --> 00:55:40,160 there was a young woman whose boyfriend coerced her into 1097 00:55:40,160 --> 00:55:42,760 taking the abortion drug. He ordered it for her from 1098 00:55:42,760 --> 00:55:45,920 California, forced her to take it under threat or, you know, 1099 00:55:45,920 --> 00:55:48,360 horrible. She, the baby is dead and she's 1100 00:55:48,360 --> 00:55:50,800 devastated, right? So she's also a plaintiffs with 1101 00:55:50,800 --> 00:55:52,520 the state of Louisiana in that case. 1102 00:55:53,440 --> 00:55:56,720 I share that because people look at the abortion rate today and 1103 00:55:56,720 --> 00:56:00,480 you can see it's going up and you can point directly to mail 1104 00:56:00,480 --> 00:56:03,520 order abortion, press the button, basically get it shipped 1105 00:56:03,520 --> 00:56:05,600 to you. What are the dangers of mail 1106 00:56:05,600 --> 00:56:08,800 order abortion? So there are significant dangers 1107 00:56:08,800 --> 00:56:12,040 associated with the abortion drugs even at baseline, but 1108 00:56:12,040 --> 00:56:14,440 especially with the way they're being dispensed right now 1109 00:56:14,760 --> 00:56:17,320 through the mail with no, no medical supervision. 1110 00:56:17,320 --> 00:56:18,720 I'm going to get to that. I think people need to 1111 00:56:18,720 --> 00:56:21,640 understand there is no medical supervision over these drugs 1112 00:56:21,640 --> 00:56:25,240 right now, even at their baseline, even under the quote 1113 00:56:25,240 --> 00:56:28,400 UN quote best of circumstances. So where women are being seen in 1114 00:56:28,400 --> 00:56:31,360 person before they get them, they're being seen in person for 1115 00:56:31,360 --> 00:56:34,040 follow up visits. They're only taking them early 1116 00:56:34,040 --> 00:56:37,720 in pregnancy, all of that. Even with the best of 1117 00:56:37,720 --> 00:56:41,000 circumstances, we know that abortion drugs are just 1118 00:56:41,000 --> 00:56:43,080 inherently dangerous. They have a four times higher 1119 00:56:43,080 --> 00:56:45,080 complication rate than surgical abortions. 1120 00:56:45,080 --> 00:56:46,720 When you look at international data. 1121 00:56:47,680 --> 00:56:51,680 And you know of course some recent analysis that have been 1122 00:56:51,680 --> 00:56:54,880 done of insurance claims data show that close to one in nine 1123 00:56:54,880 --> 00:56:57,920 women who take these drugs will have a serious adverse event. 1124 00:56:57,920 --> 00:57:01,200 And that data all came from the actually or the majority of it 1125 00:57:01,200 --> 00:57:04,240 came from when the in person dispensing requirement was still 1126 00:57:04,240 --> 00:57:06,880 in place. So we know that at baseline, 1127 00:57:06,880 --> 00:57:10,320 these drugs are inherently dangerous the way they are being 1128 00:57:10,320 --> 00:57:14,400 dispensed now, thanks to the Biden administration removing, 1129 00:57:14,400 --> 00:57:18,080 there was only one in person visit left that was required and 1130 00:57:18,080 --> 00:57:20,440 that was before women were given these abortion drugs. 1131 00:57:21,000 --> 00:57:25,040 Now that that's been removed, these drugs are available online 1132 00:57:25,600 --> 00:57:28,480 with no interaction with a medical professional. 1133 00:57:28,480 --> 00:57:30,680 So I think this is another really important point to make, 1134 00:57:30,680 --> 00:57:34,320 especially for any your pro-life audience, because I've heard a 1135 00:57:34,320 --> 00:57:36,640 lot of people in the pro-life movement still refer to these as 1136 00:57:36,640 --> 00:57:38,440 telehealth or telemedicine abortions. 1137 00:57:38,760 --> 00:57:40,480 We have got to stop calling them that. 1138 00:57:40,480 --> 00:57:43,520 They are not telehealth. No, no, not, not at all. 1139 00:57:43,800 --> 00:57:46,320 You know, first of all, there's no health benefit that's being 1140 00:57:46,320 --> 00:57:47,480 accomplished. But second of all, they're 1141 00:57:47,480 --> 00:57:50,400 literally exactly, definitely not for baby. 1142 00:57:50,400 --> 00:57:52,640 It's ending baby's lives. So that's not health. 1143 00:57:52,640 --> 00:57:54,800 The purpose of medicine is health, healing and wholeness. 1144 00:57:55,240 --> 00:57:58,080 Abortion does none of those things for for baby certainly, 1145 00:57:58,080 --> 00:58:00,160 but also doesn't do any of those things for mom. 1146 00:58:00,560 --> 00:58:05,640 But not only that, there is 0 interaction in most cases with 1147 00:58:05,640 --> 00:58:09,320 any kind of medical professional And to put this to a test, 1148 00:58:09,760 --> 00:58:13,200 Applog recently put out an expose video. 1149 00:58:13,200 --> 00:58:15,240 Now I feel bad talking to you about this because live action 1150 00:58:15,240 --> 00:58:18,000 is like the the experts of your expose video. 1151 00:58:18,040 --> 00:58:20,200 You really briefly, I should have already asked you to do 1152 00:58:20,200 --> 00:58:22,000 this. Can you tell people what a plug 1153 00:58:22,000 --> 00:58:23,800 is? Oh, yes, you have it beautifully 1154 00:58:23,800 --> 00:58:25,600 on your we're going to we're going to link it as well. 1155 00:58:25,600 --> 00:58:28,000 But this is absolutely along with every life behind the 1156 00:58:28,160 --> 00:58:30,360 Rethink pregnancy campaign. But what is a plug? 1157 00:58:30,360 --> 00:58:32,280 And then tell me about this investigation because it was 1158 00:58:32,280 --> 00:58:32,920 phenomenal. Yes. 1159 00:58:32,960 --> 00:58:37,280 So we are the American Association of Pro-life OBGYN's. 1160 00:58:37,280 --> 00:58:40,680 We are the largest non sectarian professional medical 1161 00:58:40,680 --> 00:58:43,080 organization for pro-life medical professionals in the 1162 00:58:43,080 --> 00:58:45,560 world. We've got just over 8000 members 1163 00:58:45,560 --> 00:58:50,080 now across the country and really I think have become the 1164 00:58:50,200 --> 00:58:53,480 medical voice for the pro-life movement to say that good 1165 00:58:53,480 --> 00:58:56,960 science, good medicine is consistent with the pro-life 1166 00:58:56,960 --> 00:58:59,520 perspective and we desire to practice life affirming 1167 00:58:59,520 --> 00:59:03,560 medicine. And so, yeah, so we decided 1168 00:59:03,560 --> 00:59:06,000 because I was, we've seen a lot of videos, including many that 1169 00:59:06,000 --> 00:59:09,640 live action had put out showing how easy it it is to get these 1170 00:59:09,640 --> 00:59:12,400 pills online. Obviously men can get them. 1171 00:59:12,400 --> 00:59:15,400 Rosalie Marquez, the the plaintiff, the Co plaintiff and 1172 00:59:15,400 --> 00:59:18,560 the case out of Louisiana, her boyfriend, as you said, got 1173 00:59:18,560 --> 00:59:22,000 online and ordered these pills. I was really interested to see 1174 00:59:22,000 --> 00:59:24,880 because they, the, the sites and the companies that are 1175 00:59:24,880 --> 00:59:29,040 dispensing these pills will say that there is medical oversight 1176 00:59:29,040 --> 00:59:31,640 still, that there's somebody, you know, who knows who because 1177 00:59:31,680 --> 00:59:34,720 nobody's name is on anything, but there's somebody reviewing 1178 00:59:34,720 --> 00:59:36,960 this and ensuring that there's some kind of medical 1179 00:59:36,960 --> 00:59:39,080 supervision. So we really wanted to put that 1180 00:59:39,080 --> 00:59:42,760 to the test. So I got on to plan C, put that 1181 00:59:42,760 --> 00:59:45,320 I was in Indiana, which is my home state where abortion is 1182 00:59:45,600 --> 00:59:49,800 almost completely illegal. And it popped up with I think 18 1183 00:59:49,800 --> 00:59:52,560 different websites where I could get these abortion drugs from. 1184 00:59:52,560 --> 00:59:56,040 So I picked Aid Access, which is one of the biggest distributors 1185 00:59:56,040 --> 00:59:59,960 of the abortion drugs online, and I just wanted to see. 1186 00:59:59,960 --> 01:00:04,040 So I went in in the end. I was a 13 year old with 1187 01:00:04,040 --> 01:00:07,920 basically every single contraindication meaning a 1188 01:00:07,920 --> 01:00:11,080 reason why these drugs would be life threatening that you could 1189 01:00:11,080 --> 01:00:14,200 possibly have. So I was a 13 year old with an 1190 01:00:14,200 --> 01:00:16,960 IUD in place which would increase my risk of ectopic 1191 01:00:16,960 --> 01:00:19,600 pregnancy with a history of ectopic pregnancy which would 1192 01:00:19,600 --> 01:00:23,000 also increase my risk further of ectopic pregnancy which is life 1193 01:00:23,000 --> 01:00:25,960 threatening and the abortion drugs don't treat it with three 1194 01:00:25,960 --> 01:00:28,360 previous C sections on blood thinners. 1195 01:00:29,200 --> 01:00:31,880 This 13 year old has been through a lot but you just put 1196 01:00:31,880 --> 01:00:34,800 it all out to trigger something and the alarm says yes. 1197 01:00:34,800 --> 01:00:39,160 I mean it was so ridiculous that at the end I looked at our 1198 01:00:39,160 --> 01:00:42,200 communications manager and we both said okay, if anyones 1199 01:00:42,200 --> 01:00:44,840 looking at this they're going to say there's no way that this 1200 01:00:44,840 --> 01:00:47,560 person actually. Not giving exactly. 1201 01:00:48,240 --> 01:00:52,560 So they would pop up warnings, but all I had to do was say I 1202 01:00:52,560 --> 01:00:55,920 acknowledge, OK, So what 13 year old is actually going to 1203 01:00:55,920 --> 01:00:59,400 understand the true risk that she is at with all of those 1204 01:00:59,400 --> 01:01:00,720 conditions? That you just say. 1205 01:01:01,000 --> 01:01:03,760 Yes, exactly, I said. I didn't know how far along I 1206 01:01:03,760 --> 01:01:06,520 was, so that's another red flag, right? 1207 01:01:06,880 --> 01:01:09,320 They said. That you would send an abortion 1208 01:01:09,320 --> 01:01:12,200 drug even from the pro-choice perspective to a woman who 1209 01:01:12,200 --> 01:01:14,200 doesn't even know how far along she is. 1210 01:01:14,200 --> 01:01:18,760 That it violates all the at least rhetoric that the pro 1211 01:01:18,760 --> 01:01:22,280 abortion side uses about safety for women because you're you 1212 01:01:22,280 --> 01:01:24,240 could be, you know, second, third trimester doing the 1213 01:01:24,240 --> 01:01:26,920 abortion drug, incredibly high risk for you. 1214 01:01:26,920 --> 01:01:28,840 And also the baby can be born alive. 1215 01:01:29,160 --> 01:01:31,360 It could be harmful to the baby. I mean, I mean, it is harmful to 1216 01:01:31,360 --> 01:01:33,080 the baby period, but in a special way harmful. 1217 01:01:33,080 --> 01:01:35,760 It's insane. Baby could be born alive out, 1218 01:01:35,760 --> 01:01:39,400 you know this is marketed as needed or necessary for women in 1219 01:01:39,400 --> 01:01:41,720 rural areas that don't have access to healthcare. 1220 01:01:42,080 --> 01:01:44,160 Well those are exactly the women that are going to suffer the 1221 01:01:44,160 --> 01:01:46,320 most complications and babies that are going to suffer the 1222 01:01:46,320 --> 01:01:48,480 most. You know what if she is 26 weeks 1223 01:01:48,480 --> 01:01:50,800 along, well, if she delivered in a hospital, they could take care 1224 01:01:50,800 --> 01:01:53,000 of her baby. If she delivers 3 hours away 1225 01:01:53,000 --> 01:01:55,160 from the hospital, her baby will die. 1226 01:01:55,160 --> 01:01:57,880 And we know that this is happening and women are seeing 1227 01:01:57,880 --> 01:02:01,560 their babies and seeing their babies either, you know, maybe 1228 01:02:01,560 --> 01:02:04,840 they are 10 or 11 weeks, but they still can see their baby 1229 01:02:04,840 --> 01:02:07,800 and see that that's their baby, not just a clump of cells, which 1230 01:02:07,800 --> 01:02:10,440 of course is what they're told or see. 1231 01:02:10,440 --> 01:02:13,080 They're much farther along baby and then realize, Oh my 1232 01:02:13,080 --> 01:02:15,400 goodness, what did I do? So, you know, the mental health 1233 01:02:15,400 --> 01:02:18,320 impact that that has, not to mention the physical impact. 1234 01:02:18,320 --> 01:02:20,200 You know, we know that the farther along in pregnancy a 1235 01:02:20,200 --> 01:02:22,240 woman is when she takes these drugs, the higher the risk of 1236 01:02:22,240 --> 01:02:26,760 complications for her as well. And so even when I said I didn't 1237 01:02:26,760 --> 01:02:30,000 know how far long I was, they literally have a back button 1238 01:02:30,000 --> 01:02:32,280 built into their system. So this is not the back button 1239 01:02:32,280 --> 01:02:34,640 on the web browser. This is built into their system 1240 01:02:35,040 --> 01:02:36,720 that they said, well, give us your best guess. 1241 01:02:36,720 --> 01:02:41,000 So I went back and then I picked a last period that I knew would 1242 01:02:41,000 --> 01:02:44,560 make me about 12 weeks and then I could proceed. 1243 01:02:45,720 --> 01:02:50,360 And so then you get to the end. They have all of these things, 1244 01:02:50,360 --> 01:02:52,640 the patient agreement form that you have to read and agree to, 1245 01:02:52,640 --> 01:02:56,440 but then they have their own things, complete lies, saying 1246 01:02:56,560 --> 01:03:00,680 pregnancy is very dangerous to your health, abortion is much 1247 01:03:00,680 --> 01:03:05,440 safer, which is untrue. And again, how manipulative, 1248 01:03:05,440 --> 01:03:08,600 right, of some young scared girl that gets on this website to 1249 01:03:08,600 --> 01:03:10,720 order these drugs because she's pregnant and she's scared. 1250 01:03:11,480 --> 01:03:15,200 And then it said that once I submitted my request that it 1251 01:03:15,200 --> 01:03:17,840 would be reviewed by a healthcare professional and that 1252 01:03:17,880 --> 01:03:21,760 if then I was approved, then I would receive an e-mail with a 1253 01:03:21,760 --> 01:03:23,640 payment link and to confirm my address. 1254 01:03:23,920 --> 01:03:26,960 So I hit submit literally within a minute and a half. 1255 01:03:27,240 --> 01:03:30,520 I had an e-mail in my inbox with the payment information and to 1256 01:03:30,520 --> 01:03:32,880 confirm my address. So you know. 1257 01:03:32,960 --> 01:03:36,080 There was no. Doctors automatically generated 1258 01:03:36,560 --> 01:03:39,520 because also if anyone with any kind of medical background, 1259 01:03:39,520 --> 01:03:42,200 honestly if anyone had looked at that, they'd be like, this is 1260 01:03:42,320 --> 01:03:44,760 crazy, a 13 year old with this history. 1261 01:03:45,120 --> 01:03:47,680 But obviously if anybody with a medical background had checked 1262 01:03:47,680 --> 01:03:50,960 it, they would have said no, you can't receive these pills until 1263 01:03:50,960 --> 01:03:52,800 you've been evaluated by a physician. 1264 01:03:53,360 --> 01:03:57,400 And so I submitted my payment and within about 3-2 and a half, 1265 01:03:57,400 --> 01:04:01,960 three days, the pills were in my mailbox in Indiana again, where 1266 01:04:01,960 --> 01:04:07,520 abortion is illegal from shipped from Los Angeles, CA with no 1267 01:04:07,520 --> 01:04:11,200 name associated with it. And then just AQR code with very 1268 01:04:11,200 --> 01:04:14,600 when you scan the QR code, it was very minimal instructions of 1269 01:04:14,600 --> 01:04:19,160 how to take the pills. And, you know, clearly said, if 1270 01:04:19,160 --> 01:04:22,280 you you feel like you're having complications, go to the 1271 01:04:22,280 --> 01:04:24,080 emergency room. You can just tell them that 1272 01:04:24,080 --> 01:04:26,040 you're having a miscarriage. That was right there. 1273 01:04:26,040 --> 01:04:29,480 They're telling women to lie to the doctors like me, who then 1274 01:04:29,480 --> 01:04:31,200 show up in the emergency room to take care of these 1275 01:04:31,200 --> 01:04:33,960 complications. And also then they're coded as 1276 01:04:33,960 --> 01:04:37,400 pregnancy complications. This is the other thing just in 1277 01:04:37,400 --> 01:04:40,480 our reporting data that is such a light that I had a 1278 01:04:40,480 --> 01:04:43,760 misunderstanding is we are we are because of legalized 1279 01:04:43,760 --> 01:04:46,800 abortion. It makes it look like pregnancy 1280 01:04:46,800 --> 01:04:50,120 is more dangerous because any complication with abortion is 1281 01:04:50,120 --> 01:04:53,280 coded as a pregnancy complication medically as 1282 01:04:53,280 --> 01:04:54,840 opposed to an abortion complication. 1283 01:04:54,840 --> 01:04:56,560 Absolutely. And a lot of people don't know 1284 01:04:56,560 --> 01:05:01,600 that the CDC actually does not track maternal deaths by 1285 01:05:01,600 --> 01:05:05,720 specific pregnancy outcome. So we which we absolutely should 1286 01:05:05,720 --> 01:05:06,840 be doing. And again, this is something 1287 01:05:06,840 --> 01:05:08,800 people on both sides of this issue should be in agreement 1288 01:05:08,800 --> 01:05:10,520 about. If we care about Women's Health, 1289 01:05:10,880 --> 01:05:13,760 why wouldn't we want to know what is the mortality rate and 1290 01:05:13,760 --> 01:05:15,840 complication rate related to live birth? 1291 01:05:16,040 --> 01:05:17,600 What is it related to miscarriage? 1292 01:05:17,600 --> 01:05:21,080 What is it related to abortion? These are just basic statistics 1293 01:05:21,080 --> 01:05:23,080 that if we want to improve Women's Health, we should want 1294 01:05:23,080 --> 01:05:25,920 to know. But who fights the tracking of 1295 01:05:25,920 --> 01:05:28,800 it by specific pregnancy outcome every time? 1296 01:05:29,120 --> 01:05:31,640 It's the abortion industry and their allies within the medical 1297 01:05:31,640 --> 01:05:35,680 community every single time. And you know, I remember a few 1298 01:05:35,680 --> 01:05:38,640 years ago Indiana passed an abortion complication reporting 1299 01:05:38,640 --> 01:05:41,520 law, which has actually been wonderful for our state because 1300 01:05:41,520 --> 01:05:46,000 now we can track complications. But of course, the abortion 1301 01:05:46,000 --> 01:05:48,720 industry, Planned Parenthood, ACOG, they all fought it. 1302 01:05:49,120 --> 01:05:51,680 And I actually said in my testimony, if they are so 1303 01:05:51,680 --> 01:05:56,480 convinced that abortion is as safe as they say that it is, why 1304 01:05:56,480 --> 01:05:58,480 aren't they supporting this? Because they could prove me 1305 01:05:58,480 --> 01:06:01,560 wrong If we tracked complications and it really is 1306 01:06:01,560 --> 01:06:04,720 as safe as they say that it is, then they should be supporting 1307 01:06:04,720 --> 01:06:06,520 this so that they could have the chance to prove me wrong. 1308 01:06:06,520 --> 01:06:10,320 I think it's very telling that they are the ones that want to 1309 01:06:10,560 --> 01:06:15,080 avoid having good data on abortion outcomes for a 1310 01:06:15,760 --> 01:06:17,520 movement. You know, the pro abortion 1311 01:06:17,520 --> 01:06:20,240 movement, for a movement that claims to care about women and 1312 01:06:20,240 --> 01:06:23,880 want to empower women, this is the least empowering thing I can 1313 01:06:23,880 --> 01:06:28,280 imagine. It is the most, gosh, I don't 1314 01:06:28,280 --> 01:06:32,880 even know a strong enough word. It's the most just demeaning and 1315 01:06:32,880 --> 01:06:36,200 crippling thing, I guess that I can think of for a woman to say. 1316 01:06:36,320 --> 01:06:38,880 You have to do this all by yourself, go through this 1317 01:06:38,880 --> 01:06:42,480 horrendous experience and then know that you made a decision 1318 01:06:42,680 --> 01:06:45,440 that led to your child's life being ended. 1319 01:06:46,520 --> 01:06:49,840 And, and that's what's going to fix the problems that you're 1320 01:06:49,840 --> 01:06:51,080 facing. And that's what's going to make 1321 01:06:51,080 --> 01:06:53,720 your dreams possible. And, you know, we're seeing the 1322 01:06:53,720 --> 01:06:56,440 emotional fallout from that and the the mental health fallout 1323 01:06:56,440 --> 01:06:58,760 from that. And, and it really, I think, you 1324 01:06:58,760 --> 01:07:01,400 know, if we truly care about women, we should care about 1325 01:07:01,800 --> 01:07:03,640 helping them avoid that situation. 1326 01:07:04,120 --> 01:07:07,200 No woman should feel alone when she's pregnant or feel like 1327 01:07:07,280 --> 01:07:09,400 there aren't people that want to help her no matter her 1328 01:07:09,400 --> 01:07:12,440 situation. There's an option line number 1329 01:07:12,440 --> 01:07:15,520 that I want to just say right now and people listening can 1330 01:07:15,520 --> 01:07:17,600 maybe write this down. Save it in your notebook on your 1331 01:07:17,600 --> 01:07:19,560 phone. Because if you know someone or 1332 01:07:19,560 --> 01:07:22,440 you hear of someone even like on social media who is facing an 1333 01:07:22,440 --> 01:07:25,280 unplanned pregnancy and they feel alone, there are people 1334 01:07:25,280 --> 01:07:28,160 that want to provide free confidential care material, 1335 01:07:28,160 --> 01:07:31,960 resources, even prenatal help, all the things she may need to 1336 01:07:31,960 --> 01:07:34,560 not be alone and be able to choose life for her baby. 1337 01:07:34,760 --> 01:07:41,600 The number IS180712 HELP 1800 seven 1-2 HELP or 1338 01:07:41,600 --> 01:07:45,400 1-800-712-4357. We'll put this also in the show 1339 01:07:45,400 --> 01:07:47,240 notes along with your amazing site. 1340 01:07:47,240 --> 01:07:49,360 But I think what you're saying is so key. 1341 01:07:49,360 --> 01:07:51,400 We should all know this and everyone should be aware of 1342 01:07:51,400 --> 01:07:53,680 this. A few more questions just on the 1343 01:07:53,680 --> 01:07:57,520 current mechanics of the abortion pill and its risks to 1344 01:07:57,520 --> 01:08:00,720 women. 100% of the time, almost dangerous for baby. 1345 01:08:00,960 --> 01:08:02,760 Sometimes the baby survives by the way, and they have to go 1346 01:08:02,760 --> 01:08:05,680 back for a second abortion. Or you can save the baby's life 1347 01:08:05,680 --> 01:08:09,920 through abortion pill reversal. But the FDA label for the 1348 01:08:09,920 --> 01:08:13,640 abortion pill warns women that one out of every 25 of them will 1349 01:08:13,640 --> 01:08:16,399 end up in the emergency room. And there's more recent studies 1350 01:08:16,399 --> 01:08:18,359 that have been done than it could be as few as one out of 1351 01:08:18,359 --> 01:08:22,000 every 21 women. Why are women going to the 1352 01:08:22,000 --> 01:08:23,880 emergency room after taking the abortion pill? 1353 01:08:24,279 --> 01:08:26,960 Yeah, well, this is, I think it's really important for people 1354 01:08:26,960 --> 01:08:28,960 to understand how common this is. 1355 01:08:29,240 --> 01:08:32,439 So when some of the newer data came out, I was interviewed 1356 01:08:32,439 --> 01:08:35,560 about it and asked if it surprised me and I said no. 1357 01:08:35,640 --> 01:08:38,960 I practice in a state where abortion is illegal and our 1358 01:08:38,960 --> 01:08:41,960 group is regularly called down to the emergency room to take 1359 01:08:41,960 --> 01:08:43,960 care of complications of the abortion drugs. 1360 01:08:43,960 --> 01:08:47,439 So, and in fact, when I go down there, often times the emergency 1361 01:08:47,439 --> 01:08:50,840 room doctors will say doctors that aren't pro-life even, we'll 1362 01:08:50,840 --> 01:08:52,640 just say, gosh, there's another one. 1363 01:08:52,760 --> 01:08:56,920 I mean, it just, it's so common. So women are going to the 1364 01:08:56,920 --> 01:08:59,399 emergency room. I mean, sometimes, and this is a 1365 01:08:59,399 --> 01:09:00,880 claim that will be made by the other side. 1366 01:09:00,880 --> 01:09:03,600 Well, yes, women go to the emergency room because they're 1367 01:09:03,600 --> 01:09:05,760 having an abortion and they're just afraid. 1368 01:09:06,600 --> 01:09:09,160 Yes, that's true. But what does that say to you? 1369 01:09:09,160 --> 01:09:11,600 That says that she probably received a little to no 1370 01:09:11,600 --> 01:09:14,880 appropriate counseling to understand what she was going to 1371 01:09:14,880 --> 01:09:17,399 actually go through. So that is certainly some of the 1372 01:09:17,399 --> 01:09:18,760 women that are going to the emergency room. 1373 01:09:18,760 --> 01:09:22,359 But I don't want to diminish still the severity and the 1374 01:09:22,359 --> 01:09:25,760 importance of that because it means that they are not getting 1375 01:09:25,760 --> 01:09:28,600 support either and have no medical supervision. 1376 01:09:28,600 --> 01:09:30,720 So the emergency room is the only place they have to go to. 1377 01:09:31,479 --> 01:09:35,720 But more commonly we see women coming in with potentially life 1378 01:09:35,720 --> 01:09:38,200 threatening bleeding. Even so, hemorrhage we know is a 1379 01:09:38,200 --> 01:09:41,359 significant risk of these drugs, especially if they take them 1380 01:09:41,359 --> 01:09:45,160 farther along in pregnancy. Retain tissue or an incomplete 1381 01:09:45,160 --> 01:09:48,040 abortion where not all of the baby is passed from the uterus 1382 01:09:48,040 --> 01:09:51,399 or not all of the pregnancy tissues like placenta membranes, 1383 01:09:51,399 --> 01:09:53,800 things like that. And so retain tissue is there 1384 01:09:53,800 --> 01:09:56,200 that can lead to more bleeding, can lead to the need for 1385 01:09:56,200 --> 01:09:59,680 emergency surgery. Infection is actually a major 1386 01:09:59,680 --> 01:10:02,560 risk from these drugs and a really atypical kind of 1387 01:10:02,560 --> 01:10:05,280 infection that and this isn't talked about a lot, but I think 1388 01:10:05,280 --> 01:10:07,760 it's really important. This is actually what 1389 01:10:07,760 --> 01:10:10,440 precipitated the black box warning that is still on 1390 01:10:10,440 --> 01:10:13,320 Mythopristone right now. So after Mythopristone was 1391 01:10:13,320 --> 01:10:18,480 approved, there were 4 documented deaths of women in 1392 01:10:18,480 --> 01:10:22,360 here in the state of California from all from the same kind of 1393 01:10:22,360 --> 01:10:24,360 infection. So it's a particular kind of 1394 01:10:24,360 --> 01:10:28,520 sepsis that is really dangerous because it's very difficult to 1395 01:10:28,520 --> 01:10:31,680 diagnosis sepsis because women don't present with the typical 1396 01:10:31,680 --> 01:10:34,680 symptoms that we would see in the typical findings of sepsis. 1397 01:10:35,000 --> 01:10:38,000 They kind of look like they maybe have the flu or just like 1398 01:10:38,000 --> 01:10:41,880 they're just don't feel great, but they don't, they oftentimes 1399 01:10:41,880 --> 01:10:43,720 don't have fevers. A lot of the other things that 1400 01:10:43,720 --> 01:10:45,960 we look for to to diagnose sepsis. 1401 01:10:46,360 --> 01:10:50,240 And then they progress from that to being dead oftentimes within 1402 01:10:50,240 --> 01:10:52,760 24 hours. So it's rapidly progressive. 1403 01:10:53,000 --> 01:10:56,680 It's very difficult to treat once it really becomes severe. 1404 01:10:57,120 --> 01:11:01,040 And in fact, we have heard stories in the news in the last 1405 01:11:01,040 --> 01:11:04,120 couple of years of I don't have these women's medical records, 1406 01:11:04,120 --> 01:11:07,160 but I can almost guarantee Amber Thurman, many people will 1407 01:11:07,160 --> 01:11:10,960 remember hearing her story. A woman out of Georgia who was 1408 01:11:10,960 --> 01:11:13,280 pregnant with twins, who travelled to North Carolina was 1409 01:11:13,280 --> 01:11:16,000 given the abortion drugs and she ended up dying. 1410 01:11:16,560 --> 01:11:19,120 Now, Pro Publica tried to claim that it was because of Georgio's 1411 01:11:19,120 --> 01:11:22,480 abortion law, but it was 100% because of the abortion drugs 1412 01:11:22,480 --> 01:11:25,440 that she took in. Pro Publica actually laid out 1413 01:11:25,440 --> 01:11:28,080 her, her timeline once she presented to the hospital 1414 01:11:28,080 --> 01:11:31,360 actually relatively well. And from looking at that, I and 1415 01:11:31,360 --> 01:11:34,440 many other physicians are pretty convinced that she died of, of 1416 01:11:34,440 --> 01:11:37,720 this particular kind of sepsis. It's called Clostridium is the 1417 01:11:37,720 --> 01:11:40,880 the bacteria that causes it. And then around the same time, 1418 01:11:40,880 --> 01:11:44,560 there's another woman, Alana Dixon, in Las Vegas, who also 1419 01:11:44,560 --> 01:11:48,080 died from a rapidly progressive sepsis picture that again, I 1420 01:11:48,080 --> 01:11:51,240 don't have her medical records, so I can't say 100%, but I think 1421 01:11:51,240 --> 01:11:52,880 was likely the same kind of sepsis. 1422 01:11:53,360 --> 01:11:55,680 So, you know, those are just women that we know about because 1423 01:11:55,680 --> 01:11:57,640 their stories happen to make it into the news. 1424 01:11:57,800 --> 01:12:01,520 And, and wildly, just to interject really quick what you 1425 01:12:01,520 --> 01:12:03,120 just said, which is so important. 1426 01:12:03,520 --> 01:12:07,640 The media framed these stories that made it into the news as a 1427 01:12:07,640 --> 01:12:12,960 reason why pro-life laws are bad and why we need abortion, when 1428 01:12:12,960 --> 01:12:16,120 it's abortion that is very likely responsible for killing 1429 01:12:16,120 --> 01:12:18,800 not just the babies but the women in these situations. 1430 01:12:18,800 --> 01:12:21,000 Absolutely, absolutely wild. It's like the. 1431 01:12:21,040 --> 01:12:24,400 Amount of gaslighting, right? The American people. 1432 01:12:24,400 --> 01:12:27,440 This is what's happening when it's the absolute opposite. 1433 01:12:27,440 --> 01:12:29,640 It's actually abortion that's responsible for the death. 1434 01:12:29,720 --> 01:12:31,080 Exactly. It's crazy. 1435 01:12:31,080 --> 01:12:32,920 Exactly. And where were the people that 1436 01:12:32,920 --> 01:12:35,560 gave these women the drugs? You know, when I was in my 1437 01:12:35,560 --> 01:12:39,520 medical training, it was drilled into us that if we prescribed a 1438 01:12:39,520 --> 01:12:43,280 medication, if we did a surgical procedure, did any kind of 1439 01:12:43,280 --> 01:12:46,680 intervention on a patient, that patient was our responsibility. 1440 01:12:46,680 --> 01:12:49,480 So she has a complication. It's your responsibility. 1441 01:12:49,480 --> 01:12:53,360 Your responsibility to her as your patient is to manage that 1442 01:12:53,360 --> 01:12:56,200 complication. And how many times do we as pro 1443 01:12:56,200 --> 01:12:59,360 lifers get accused of your intervening in the physician 1444 01:12:59,360 --> 01:13:02,160 patient relationship? I think we need to make it very 1445 01:13:02,160 --> 01:13:04,840 clear there is no physician patient relationship when it 1446 01:13:04,840 --> 01:13:08,040 comes to abortion, especially now with the way these drugs are 1447 01:13:08,040 --> 01:13:10,400 being shipped through the mail. Again, when I got them, there 1448 01:13:10,400 --> 01:13:12,600 was no doctor's name on it. And we have states like 1449 01:13:12,600 --> 01:13:15,880 California and New York that have shield laws to protect 1450 01:13:15,880 --> 01:13:20,080 these doctors from any repercussions from honestly, 1451 01:13:20,080 --> 01:13:23,920 frank, medical malpractice. And but there, you know, 1452 01:13:23,920 --> 01:13:26,480 there's, there's no physician patient relationship here. 1453 01:13:26,480 --> 01:13:29,120 These women get abandoned to their local emergency rooms. 1454 01:13:29,760 --> 01:13:33,480 Often times they either lie because they've been told to lie 1455 01:13:33,480 --> 01:13:36,240 or maybe the physician that sees them doesn't even ask. 1456 01:13:36,240 --> 01:13:37,920 I think that happens a lot of times too. 1457 01:13:37,920 --> 01:13:40,480 It's just assumed she's having a miscarriage. 1458 01:13:40,480 --> 01:13:44,120 They don't just don't even ask. And you know, the important 1459 01:13:44,120 --> 01:13:46,600 thing about that and, and why women should understand why you 1460 01:13:46,600 --> 01:13:49,240 shouldn't lie about it actually when you go into the emergency 1461 01:13:49,240 --> 01:13:52,120 room is because there have been studies that have looked at 1462 01:13:52,120 --> 01:13:55,480 outcomes when women, when we know from insurance data that 1463 01:13:55,480 --> 01:13:59,640 women took abortion drugs. And then if their complication 1464 01:13:59,640 --> 01:14:03,360 was miscoded as a miscarriage complication, those women 1465 01:14:03,360 --> 01:14:05,320 actually have higher hospitalization rates. 1466 01:14:05,520 --> 01:14:08,680 They have worse outcomes. This infection that I just 1467 01:14:08,680 --> 01:14:10,960 talked about, we don't see that with first trimester 1468 01:14:10,960 --> 01:14:13,640 miscarriages. You only see it with abortions 1469 01:14:14,160 --> 01:14:16,360 in the first trimester due to these abortion drugs. 1470 01:14:16,360 --> 01:14:19,680 So it's important for that doctor that's taking care of you 1471 01:14:19,760 --> 01:14:22,560 as the woman to have accurate information. 1472 01:14:22,880 --> 01:14:25,920 And yet this is another way that the abortion industry, I think 1473 01:14:25,920 --> 01:14:29,280 is, is showing that they don't care about Women's Health, is 1474 01:14:29,280 --> 01:14:31,440 they're telling women to lie about it and they're not 1475 01:14:31,640 --> 01:14:34,000 providing for ongoing medical care for women. 1476 01:14:34,240 --> 01:14:36,600 Why were the multiple doctors visits originally when the 1477 01:14:36,600 --> 01:14:39,800 abortion pill was approved? I think 2000 there were multiple 1478 01:14:39,800 --> 01:14:42,640 doctors visits. They've all been removed, the 1479 01:14:42,640 --> 01:14:44,920 last one being removed under Biden administration like you 1480 01:14:44,920 --> 01:14:46,560 mentioned. And unfortunately, the Trump 1481 01:14:46,560 --> 01:14:49,800 administration has still done nothing to reinstate nothing. 1482 01:14:50,480 --> 01:14:52,000 Why? Why did that happen? 1483 01:14:52,400 --> 01:14:54,240 Well, so they were originally put into place. 1484 01:14:54,240 --> 01:14:57,440 So you know, many people and I know you guys have done some 1485 01:14:57,440 --> 01:15:00,840 great work showing what happened with the approval of the 1486 01:15:00,840 --> 01:15:02,680 abortion pill under the Clinton administration. 1487 01:15:02,680 --> 01:15:04,600 It was very much politically motivated. 1488 01:15:04,960 --> 01:15:07,520 It went through an expedited process that typically is 1489 01:15:07,520 --> 01:15:11,200 reserved for life saving drugs. Imagine a drug that whose sole 1490 01:15:11,200 --> 01:15:15,560 purpose in this circumstances to end a life was was approved 1491 01:15:15,560 --> 01:15:18,760 through an expedited process. But because of that, the FDA 1492 01:15:18,760 --> 01:15:21,000 recognized there are real inherent risks here. 1493 01:15:21,000 --> 01:15:23,160 And so we need to do something to minimize those risks. 1494 01:15:23,160 --> 01:15:26,040 So they actually originally had three required visits, one 1495 01:15:26,040 --> 01:15:29,280 before the woman was given the drugs, and then two follow up 1496 01:15:29,280 --> 01:15:32,000 visits because they knew that there was a high rate of 1497 01:15:32,000 --> 01:15:34,280 complications of incomplete abortions. 1498 01:15:34,280 --> 01:15:36,720 And so women needed follow up care to screen for these 1499 01:15:36,720 --> 01:15:39,040 complications and make sure that they were doing OK. 1500 01:15:39,560 --> 01:15:42,560 And then with time, with subsequent, first under the 1501 01:15:42,560 --> 01:15:45,120 Obama administration and then under the Biden administration, 1502 01:15:45,120 --> 01:15:48,880 these were removed. And so now there's no in person 1503 01:15:48,880 --> 01:15:52,440 care required whatsoever. And you're right, the all the 1504 01:15:52,440 --> 01:15:55,840 Trump administration would have to do would be to go back to how 1505 01:15:55,840 --> 01:16:00,640 it was under the first Trump administration to undo what the 1506 01:16:00,640 --> 01:16:04,160 Biden administration did to at least put back into place that 1507 01:16:04,160 --> 01:16:05,440 in person dispensing requirement. 1508 01:16:05,440 --> 01:16:08,280 Now, of course, that's, that's not enough that it's going to 1509 01:16:08,280 --> 01:16:10,920 slightly mitigate the risk for women, but it's it's not. 1510 01:16:11,080 --> 01:16:14,480 And it will save some some lives of preborn children as well. 1511 01:16:14,480 --> 01:16:16,800 You can't ship them from pro abortion states into pro-life 1512 01:16:16,800 --> 01:16:19,360 states, so you're going to also prevent all the law breaking 1513 01:16:19,360 --> 01:16:21,160 that's happening. Exactly, exactly. 1514 01:16:21,160 --> 01:16:22,520 I mean it. Will it will help towards that 1515 01:16:22,520 --> 01:16:25,280 you'll still have black market abortion drugs being shipped by 1516 01:16:25,280 --> 01:16:27,680 all kinds of people, right? Which is effectively happening 1517 01:16:27,680 --> 01:16:30,240 now, which that's another enforcement mechanism that needs 1518 01:16:30,240 --> 01:16:33,720 to clamp down on that because you can, you can enforce laws 1519 01:16:33,720 --> 01:16:36,640 and actually clamp down on these, you know, big pharma 1520 01:16:36,640 --> 01:16:39,160 groups that are making all this money from black market 1521 01:16:39,160 --> 01:16:41,960 abortions. But the in person doctor visit 1522 01:16:41,960 --> 01:16:44,640 will help stem some of that. Of course, the drug shouldn't be 1523 01:16:44,640 --> 01:16:45,640 on the market. Right. 1524 01:16:45,880 --> 01:16:48,800 Exactly, exactly. It's dangerous, it carries no 1525 01:16:48,800 --> 01:16:53,600 health benefit for women and it's ending the lives of 1526 01:16:53,600 --> 01:16:55,920 millions of, of preborn children. 1527 01:16:56,560 --> 01:16:59,400 But right, there's already a law actually on the books that if 1528 01:16:59,400 --> 01:17:01,720 the federal government would enforce it, we could put a stop 1529 01:17:01,720 --> 01:17:05,280 to this, the Comstock Act, which is still on the books, which 1530 01:17:05,280 --> 01:17:08,880 prevents the, the mailing of abortion inducing drugs. 1531 01:17:08,880 --> 01:17:12,920 So, so there are mechanisms that could be used on a, on a federal 1532 01:17:12,920 --> 01:17:15,160 level to, to help put a stop to this. 1533 01:17:16,040 --> 01:17:19,520 And you know, and again, I think that it, a big part of this is 1534 01:17:19,520 --> 01:17:22,760 that more people need to be aware that this is going on. 1535 01:17:22,760 --> 01:17:25,840 I think people, again, they hear telemedicine and they think, 1536 01:17:25,840 --> 01:17:28,120 well, you know, I've had telemedicine visits with my 1537 01:17:28,120 --> 01:17:30,600 doctor. It seemed like it was okay, but 1538 01:17:30,600 --> 01:17:32,480 they don't really. I think I understand what's 1539 01:17:32,480 --> 01:17:34,160 actually happening with these drugs right now. 1540 01:17:34,360 --> 01:17:37,800 I've got to ask this. We touched on it, but I want to 1541 01:17:37,800 --> 01:17:41,720 really hear you explain this for folks because it's so important. 1542 01:17:42,080 --> 01:17:45,960 We are told that abortion is safer than pregnancy. 1543 01:17:47,080 --> 01:17:50,320 Why is that false? And what's the truth about the 1544 01:17:50,320 --> 01:17:53,360 risks of abortion? There is a common narrative out 1545 01:17:53,360 --> 01:17:56,760 there that really stems from one study put out by Doctor Daniel 1546 01:17:56,760 --> 01:18:01,200 Grossman, who is an abortionist, that said that abortion is 14 1547 01:18:01,200 --> 01:18:04,320 times safer than childbirth. And that line unfortunately 1548 01:18:04,320 --> 01:18:08,520 really took off and, and now I've heard repeated by so many 1549 01:18:08,520 --> 01:18:10,640 people. The problem with that, in order 1550 01:18:10,640 --> 01:18:13,920 to explain the problem with that study is that you actually have 1551 01:18:13,920 --> 01:18:15,520 to go back to sort of basic math. 1552 01:18:15,640 --> 01:18:17,960 So if we all remember when we learned how to compare 1553 01:18:17,960 --> 01:18:22,120 fractions, we learned that in order to compare 2 fractions, 1554 01:18:22,120 --> 01:18:25,040 what has to be the same, your denominator in those fractions 1555 01:18:25,040 --> 01:18:28,400 has to be the same. This study compared 2 fractions 1556 01:18:28,400 --> 01:18:31,120 with different denominators is the simplest way to explain it. 1557 01:18:31,120 --> 01:18:35,320 So, so out of the sort of four variables, so if you're thinking 1558 01:18:35,320 --> 01:18:37,320 about the two fractions, you've got 2 numerators, 2 1559 01:18:37,320 --> 01:18:39,960 denominators. Out of those 4 variables, 1560 01:18:39,960 --> 01:18:43,240 there's actually only one out of the four that we accurately 1561 01:18:43,240 --> 01:18:46,040 track in the United States, and that is the number of live 1562 01:18:46,040 --> 01:18:49,120 births. And so it actually biased the 1563 01:18:49,120 --> 01:18:54,080 study towards looking like there are more deaths associated with 1564 01:18:54,080 --> 01:18:59,560 live births on a percentage basis than than associated with 1565 01:18:59,840 --> 01:19:02,800 abortions. There are many, many problems 1566 01:19:02,800 --> 01:19:04,840 with our reporting in the United States. 1567 01:19:04,840 --> 01:19:07,480 We actually do a very bad job collecting data. 1568 01:19:08,320 --> 01:19:10,560 One of them is that we don't actually know the number of 1569 01:19:10,560 --> 01:19:12,840 abortions that are happening in the United States because 1570 01:19:12,840 --> 01:19:15,520 there's not a universal reporting requirement. 1571 01:19:15,520 --> 01:19:18,480 And some of the states like California that are doing 1572 01:19:18,680 --> 01:19:21,760 probably the most abortions, we think, aren't reporting their 1573 01:19:21,760 --> 01:19:23,680 data. So we don't actually know how 1574 01:19:23,680 --> 01:19:26,600 many abortions are happening. We also don't know how many 1575 01:19:26,600 --> 01:19:29,080 deaths are occurring after abortions. 1576 01:19:29,560 --> 01:19:33,120 And part of that is because abortions are happening with 1577 01:19:33,560 --> 01:19:36,800 physicians that are often times itinerant physicians. 1578 01:19:36,800 --> 01:19:38,680 So they're traveling around the country, they're popping in, 1579 01:19:38,680 --> 01:19:42,560 they're doing abortions, or now they're just prescribing or 1580 01:19:42,560 --> 01:19:45,000 sending abortion pills from a far away state. 1581 01:19:45,000 --> 01:19:49,800 How are they ever to know if the woman who takes those drugs dies 1582 01:19:49,800 --> 01:19:51,240 after taking them? They don't know. 1583 01:19:51,240 --> 01:19:52,720 That's not reported back to them. 1584 01:19:52,720 --> 01:19:54,400 It's not reported back to the company. 1585 01:19:54,560 --> 01:19:59,440 It's likely not reported to the FDA, so we're not tracking those 1586 01:19:59,440 --> 01:20:03,040 outcomes very well either. We also honestly aren't doing a 1587 01:20:03,040 --> 01:20:08,240 great job of tracking maternal deaths after live births even. 1588 01:20:08,240 --> 01:20:11,040 And now there have been some efforts in the last decade or so 1589 01:20:11,280 --> 01:20:14,000 to improve that, like a check box on a death certificate if a 1590 01:20:14,000 --> 01:20:15,920 woman was pregnant within the last year or so. 1591 01:20:16,120 --> 01:20:19,120 That has helped a little bit. But there was new data that came 1592 01:20:19,120 --> 01:20:22,760 out from the CDC actually on maternal mortality, which needs 1593 01:20:22,760 --> 01:20:25,400 a lot of work in this country. But there are a lot of really 1594 01:20:25,400 --> 01:20:27,600 interesting findings that actually don't support the 1595 01:20:27,600 --> 01:20:30,440 abortion narrative. One of them is that the vast 1596 01:20:30,440 --> 01:20:32,720 majority of maternal deaths are preventable. 1597 01:20:33,200 --> 01:20:37,840 And that doesn't mean they're preventable by aborting a baby. 1598 01:20:38,080 --> 01:20:40,800 It means they're preventable if we will do appropriate 1599 01:20:40,800 --> 01:20:43,600 interventions, if we'll treat conditions appropriately, if 1600 01:20:43,600 --> 01:20:46,960 women will get access to the actual care that they need. 1601 01:20:47,320 --> 01:20:48,960 And I'm going to put a pin in that and come back to that in 1602 01:20:48,960 --> 01:20:52,720 just a second. The other thing is that a lot of 1603 01:20:52,720 --> 01:20:57,320 deaths that are reported as maternal deaths are actually due 1604 01:20:57,320 --> 01:21:01,480 to mental health disorders, so suicide or due to drug 1605 01:21:01,480 --> 01:21:04,840 overdoses. So while maybe that was 1606 01:21:04,840 --> 01:21:08,600 exacerbated by the pregnancy and the stress of delivery, maybe 1607 01:21:08,600 --> 01:21:09,680 not. Because if you look at other 1608 01:21:09,680 --> 01:21:12,160 data, it actually says that, you know, women who've had 1609 01:21:12,160 --> 01:21:15,400 deliveries and, and our mothers actually have better mental 1610 01:21:15,400 --> 01:21:18,240 health outcomes. So or maybe it just happened to 1611 01:21:18,240 --> 01:21:21,400 be associated in the time frame of within a year after delivery. 1612 01:21:21,400 --> 01:21:24,760 So that doesn't mean that pregnancy is inherently more 1613 01:21:24,760 --> 01:21:26,920 dangerous. It means that we've got a mental 1614 01:21:26,920 --> 01:21:29,240 health crisis in this country that we need to do a better job 1615 01:21:29,240 --> 01:21:31,640 of treating. Doesn't mean that an abortion 1616 01:21:31,640 --> 01:21:33,520 will improve that. In fact, we know that it'll 1617 01:21:33,520 --> 01:21:37,040 worsen it because women that have pre-existing mental health 1618 01:21:37,040 --> 01:21:40,520 disorders have worse mental health outcomes after abortions 1619 01:21:40,520 --> 01:21:42,920 than if they were to carry their pregnancies to term. 1620 01:21:43,640 --> 01:21:45,120 So there's a lot of factors in there. 1621 01:21:45,120 --> 01:21:47,280 There's a lot of things that are being included in that maternal 1622 01:21:47,280 --> 01:21:49,720 mortality number that aren't actually due to actual 1623 01:21:49,720 --> 01:21:52,480 complications of the pregnancy. And like we talked about 1624 01:21:52,480 --> 01:21:56,600 earlier, we're not tracking outcomes of maternal deaths 1625 01:21:56,600 --> 01:21:58,520 based on particular pregnancy outcomes. 1626 01:21:58,520 --> 01:22:01,200 So some of these may be after an abortion, but they're not 1627 01:22:01,200 --> 01:22:03,960 getting counted as a death after an abortion. 1628 01:22:04,720 --> 01:22:07,080 The other thing that I think people are not talking about 1629 01:22:07,080 --> 01:22:11,400 enough is we're hearing a lot about closures of Labor and 1630 01:22:11,400 --> 01:22:13,920 delivery units across the country and maternal healthcare 1631 01:22:13,920 --> 01:22:15,520 deserts, which are a very real thing. 1632 01:22:15,800 --> 01:22:18,280 I've seen it even within my own hospital system. 1633 01:22:18,280 --> 01:22:21,320 So the hospitals that I work at now, we're getting patients from 1634 01:22:21,320 --> 01:22:24,840 communities that are an hour and a half away even because that 1635 01:22:24,840 --> 01:22:26,680 were their closest labor and delivery unit. 1636 01:22:27,160 --> 01:22:29,880 That's a real problem. It means that women aren't 1637 01:22:29,880 --> 01:22:31,880 getting good prenatal care when they need it. 1638 01:22:31,880 --> 01:22:34,720 They're not getting management of their blood pressure, their 1639 01:22:34,720 --> 01:22:38,320 diabetes, things like that that they need during their pregnancy 1640 01:22:38,320 --> 01:22:42,320 because it's too far for them to travel to get to a labor and 1641 01:22:42,320 --> 01:22:46,320 delivery care or to an OBGYN. Why is that happening? 1642 01:22:46,480 --> 01:22:49,480 Well, the pro abortion side will say that it's because of 1643 01:22:49,480 --> 01:22:51,720 pro-life laws. They'll point to pro-life States 1644 01:22:51,720 --> 01:22:54,680 and they'll say, look, they've had this many labor and delivery 1645 01:22:54,680 --> 01:22:56,160 closures. Well, the problem is they're not 1646 01:22:56,160 --> 01:22:58,880 looking at the 20 years leading up to it where that was already 1647 01:22:58,880 --> 01:23:01,280 starting. Why are they closing? 1648 01:23:01,280 --> 01:23:04,160 There's a variety of reasons, but one of the big driving 1649 01:23:04,160 --> 01:23:06,840 reasons is a falling number of births. 1650 01:23:07,360 --> 01:23:09,640 A falling number of pregnancies, yes. 1651 01:23:10,000 --> 01:23:13,400 And labor and delivery units are expensive to run, so you need to 1652 01:23:13,400 --> 01:23:16,080 have a certain number of deliveries every year in order 1653 01:23:16,080 --> 01:23:18,200 to maintain a labor and delivery unit. 1654 01:23:18,200 --> 01:23:22,120 In order to attract an OBGYN to your community or midwives, you 1655 01:23:22,120 --> 01:23:24,040 need to have enough business to keep them busy. 1656 01:23:24,400 --> 01:23:27,240 Why are our birth rates falling? Well, partly because of all the 1657 01:23:27,240 --> 01:23:30,440 abortions that we're doing, you know, last year what we had, So 1658 01:23:30,440 --> 01:23:33,560 what was it close to 1.1 million abortions in the US and that's. 1659 01:23:33,640 --> 01:23:35,240 Just what's reported, we don't know. 1660 01:23:36,160 --> 01:23:40,200 Those 1.1 million abortions actually resulted in births. 1661 01:23:40,480 --> 01:23:43,560 We could then reopen a lot of these labor and delivery units. 1662 01:23:43,560 --> 01:23:46,480 We know that fertility rates are falling, you know, from a 1663 01:23:46,480 --> 01:23:48,440 variety of reasons. Of course, that's 1664 01:23:48,440 --> 01:23:51,640 multifactorial, but that's actually what's leading to 1665 01:23:51,640 --> 01:23:54,640 closure of Labor and delivery units, which then is leading to 1666 01:23:54,640 --> 01:23:57,360 worsening of maternal health outcomes because we don't have 1667 01:23:57,360 --> 01:23:59,480 enough care. And so that's actually the 1668 01:23:59,480 --> 01:24:01,280 problem in abortion and is contributing to that. 1669 01:24:01,280 --> 01:24:03,280 And that's actually something that I don't think that people 1670 01:24:03,280 --> 01:24:05,560 are talking about enough. That's such an incredibly 1671 01:24:05,560 --> 01:24:08,760 important point that you made and it requires a shift, a 1672 01:24:08,760 --> 01:24:11,680 mindset shift that instead of like seeing pregnancy as some 1673 01:24:11,680 --> 01:24:14,000 burden, a disease, something to end, right? 1674 01:24:14,000 --> 01:24:16,280 Because we were going to terminate the baby or whatever 1675 01:24:16,280 --> 01:24:19,360 it is, seeing it and said as let's care for both patients. 1676 01:24:19,360 --> 01:24:21,440 Yes, absolutely. And that is possible. 1677 01:24:21,440 --> 01:24:24,440 It's being done by pro-life OBGYN's like yourself. 1678 01:24:24,440 --> 01:24:26,920 And the thousands that exist in this country that are doing that 1679 01:24:26,920 --> 01:24:29,360 work are pregnancy resource centers, the thousands of those 1680 01:24:29,360 --> 01:24:33,480 that exist that provide free, confidential care for moms and 1681 01:24:33,480 --> 01:24:36,840 babies and young families. What gives you hope in the 1682 01:24:36,840 --> 01:24:40,600 landscape of all of this? That we can rethink pregnancy as 1683 01:24:40,600 --> 01:24:42,840 a culture and really care for both mom and baby. 1684 01:24:43,040 --> 01:24:46,880 Yeah, well, I think just even talking about pregnancy from a 1685 01:24:46,880 --> 01:24:51,520 different framework is so important, not only to help moms 1686 01:24:51,520 --> 01:24:56,440 choose life who are pregnant, but also to help women who are, 1687 01:24:57,160 --> 01:25:00,520 you know, getting married in their early 20s and thinking, 1688 01:25:00,520 --> 01:25:02,960 oh, maybe I want to delay pregnancy for a variety of 1689 01:25:02,960 --> 01:25:04,920 reasons. Thinking about it from a 1690 01:25:04,920 --> 01:25:07,480 different perspective and saying, you know, we we're 1691 01:25:07,480 --> 01:25:09,160 partnered with every life in this campaign. 1692 01:25:09,160 --> 01:25:11,200 And I love their slogan, Make more babies. 1693 01:25:12,000 --> 01:25:14,200 It's it's smart for them from a business standpoint. 1694 01:25:14,200 --> 01:25:16,640 It's smart for us as OBGYN's, of course we want that. 1695 01:25:16,640 --> 01:25:20,280 But it's also smart for us as a culture, because that's what's 1696 01:25:20,280 --> 01:25:23,480 going to actually grow and strengthen our culture is, is 1697 01:25:23,720 --> 01:25:26,680 getting that fertility rate back up, helping strengthen families, 1698 01:25:26,680 --> 01:25:30,800 build families, but also helping women and men to see pregnancy 1699 01:25:30,800 --> 01:25:33,520 through a different lens. And I think if we do that, 1700 01:25:33,520 --> 01:25:36,560 again, not only is it going to help women make better choices 1701 01:25:36,840 --> 01:25:40,160 once they are pregnant, but it's going to help them think more 1702 01:25:40,160 --> 01:25:42,680 about maybe I want to start a family sooner than I had 1703 01:25:42,680 --> 01:25:44,720 originally thought. Because look at all the benefits 1704 01:25:44,720 --> 01:25:46,760 of that. Maybe I want if I'm in a 1705 01:25:46,760 --> 01:25:49,600 position to do so. And, and you know, I don't have 1706 01:25:49,600 --> 01:25:51,400 any children myself. So I fully understand that 1707 01:25:51,400 --> 01:25:53,280 sometimes that's out of your control. 1708 01:25:53,560 --> 01:25:56,600 But if you're in a position to do so, you actually, for your 1709 01:25:56,600 --> 01:25:59,560 health benefits, want to think about getting pregnant, having 1710 01:25:59,560 --> 01:26:02,160 babies before the age of 30 if you can, because that's going to 1711 01:26:02,160 --> 01:26:03,960 reduce your your cancer risk even more. 1712 01:26:04,560 --> 01:26:06,480 That's going to give you that much more time with your 1713 01:26:06,480 --> 01:26:08,680 children. And so it gives me hope that I 1714 01:26:08,680 --> 01:26:10,720 do think that we're seeing this switch. 1715 01:26:10,720 --> 01:26:13,840 I think that we're seeing a lot in our culture of a desire from 1716 01:26:13,840 --> 01:26:17,360 women for something more, something different. 1717 01:26:18,040 --> 01:26:21,520 I think, you know, especially women in their 20s and 30s have 1718 01:26:21,520 --> 01:26:24,760 their their parents and their grandparents to look at and what 1719 01:26:25,040 --> 01:26:28,360 our generations have done and say, you know what, that didn't 1720 01:26:28,360 --> 01:26:30,160 seem to really bring them more happiness. 1721 01:26:30,160 --> 01:26:33,320 And so I do think that we're seeing a a switch a lot in our 1722 01:26:33,320 --> 01:26:36,640 culture now to say maybe we want to do something different. 1723 01:26:36,640 --> 01:26:39,120 And it's kind of radically counter cultural right now to 1724 01:26:39,120 --> 01:26:41,320 get married young and to have babies young. 1725 01:26:41,960 --> 01:26:44,320 But I think the wonderful thing about that is it's going to 1726 01:26:44,320 --> 01:26:46,400 improve outcomes for moms for babies. 1727 01:26:46,400 --> 01:26:48,120 It's going to make for happier families. 1728 01:26:48,520 --> 01:26:51,640 So that gives me a lot of hope for the future. 1729 01:26:51,880 --> 01:26:54,440 Also, just the fact that I think there are a lot more groups that 1730 01:26:54,440 --> 01:26:56,720 are so interested in looking at this. 1731 01:26:56,720 --> 01:26:59,520 You know, let's really take a deep dive into Women's Health 1732 01:26:59,920 --> 01:27:02,080 and have accurate information about Women's Health. 1733 01:27:02,080 --> 01:27:05,400 And a big part of that has to be what are the benefits of 1734 01:27:05,400 --> 01:27:08,000 pregnancy? What are things we can do to 1735 01:27:08,000 --> 01:27:11,000 help continue to make pregnancy outcomes even better? 1736 01:27:11,960 --> 01:27:14,480 And what are the sort of breaking technology things that 1737 01:27:14,480 --> 01:27:16,160 we can look at? One of the other things we talk 1738 01:27:16,160 --> 01:27:19,360 about in this campaign is something called microchymerism, 1739 01:27:19,360 --> 01:27:22,920 which I think is fascinating. It's where cells from the baby 1740 01:27:23,840 --> 01:27:26,440 actually get into the mom's bloodstream and stay with her 1741 01:27:26,440 --> 01:27:29,120 for decades. And there's emerging science now 1742 01:27:29,120 --> 01:27:32,360 to show that those cells might actually help in healing for mom 1743 01:27:32,360 --> 01:27:34,760 when she's wounded or has some sort of disease. 1744 01:27:34,760 --> 01:27:38,760 They may help prevent chronic autoimmune conditions, things 1745 01:27:38,760 --> 01:27:40,560 like that. So there's there's just this 1746 01:27:40,560 --> 01:27:45,040 whole amazing horizon out there that if we can value life, value 1747 01:27:45,040 --> 01:27:48,680 pregnancy, value family formation and really prioritize 1748 01:27:48,680 --> 01:27:52,400 that, I think that we'll see a much larger cultural and 1749 01:27:52,400 --> 01:27:55,080 societal benefit. Thank you for your work, Doctor 1750 01:27:55,080 --> 01:27:57,360 Francis. It's so important and I'm so 1751 01:27:57,360 --> 01:28:01,280 excited to see the fruit of people feeling more safe and 1752 01:28:01,280 --> 01:28:06,360 supported and able that they can be mothers and that this is a 1753 01:28:06,360 --> 01:28:09,400 beautiful part of our design and not something to attack us in 1754 01:28:09,400 --> 01:28:11,120 any way. Thank you so much for your work. 1755 01:28:11,200 --> 01:28:13,080 Absolutely. Thanks so much for having me. 1756 01:28:13,080 --> 01:28:16,360 It's a pleasure to be here. A big thank you to our channel 1757 01:28:16,360 --> 01:28:20,440 partner EWTN. EWTN is the world's largest 1758 01:28:20,440 --> 01:28:23,400 religious broadcast network, reaching millions of people 1759 01:28:23,400 --> 01:28:26,520 every single day with the beautiful truth of the gospel. 1760 01:28:26,600 --> 01:28:30,800 You can be the first to watch new Lila Rose Show episodes 24 1761 01:28:30,800 --> 01:28:35,960 hours before YouTube over at ewtn.com, slash on demand and on 1762 01:28:35,960 --> 01:28:37,040 the EWTN app.