7 abortion myths to check before you vote tomorrow
Tomorrow, November 3, voters in four states will weigh in on abortion.
- Missouri’s Amendment 3 would repeal the abortion rights amendment voters passed in 2024. It would ban most abortions, with exceptions for medical emergencies, fatal fetal anomalies, and rape or incest through 12 weeks.
- Nevada will hold its second required vote on an amendment that guarantees abortion until viability, and after viability to protect the mother’s life or health.
- Idaho’s Proposition 1 would create a right to abortion before viability, and after viability in certain cases. Idaho abortion activists have made doctor shortages a central argument. Planned Parenthood’s campaign page says Idaho “lost 35% of its OB-GYNs” and urges a yes vote “to bring health care providers back to Idaho.”
- Virginia already allows abortion for any reason through the second trimester. Under current law, a third-trimester abortion requires three physicians to certify that continuing the pregnancy would likely kill the mother or “substantially and irremediably impair” her health. Question 1 would cut that to one physician. It would also bar the state from prohibiting third-trimester abortions whenever a doctor finds a risk to the mother’s physical or mental health. Virginia isn’t restoring abortion access. It’s widening the loopholes for abortion in the third trimester.
In the final days before voting, the same misleading or straight false claims keep showing up. Here’s a quick guide to bring with you to the polls, with links to our full analyses.
Myth 1: Idaho’s abortion law is driving OBGYNs out of the state.
Verdict: Misleading.
The 35% figure comes from a research letter reporting that 94 of Idaho’s 268 OBGYNs have left since 2022. Dr. Kristin Lyerly, an OB-GYN and abortion provider, helped spread the stat in a viral video.
The study has no control group. The authors didn’t compare OBGYN losses to other specialties in Idaho, to Idaho’s trends before Dobbs, or to any other state. The letter itself admits its small sample limits how far the results apply.
Advocates also point to Bonner General Health in northern Idaho, which closed its maternity ward. The hospital gave its own reasons: no pediatrician coverage, declining births, an aging population, and patients choosing a better-equipped hospital (still in Idaho!) about an hour away.
Idaho has had one of the lowest ratios of doctors to residents since at least the late 1970s, and low pay for maternity care and the consolidation of doctors into hospital systems and private equity groups make it worse.
National data also undercut the Idaho exodus story. Researchers from Stanford, Berkeley, and other schools studied OBGYN movement across all states and found “no evidence of such an exodus.” The share of physicians who are OBGYNs actually dropped less in pro-life states than in pro-choice states. The researchers also found that reporters kept interviewing the same group of about 15 doctors, out of tens of thousands nationwide. This August, Dr. David Hackney, a physician who supports abortion rights, listed the OBGYN exodus among the post-Dobbs predictions that haven’t come true.
[Read more – Are OBGYNs fleeing Idaho because of abortion laws?]
[Read more – There’s no mass exodus of OBGYNs from pro-life states]
Myth 2: Later abortions only happen in medical emergencies.
Verdict: False.
Some later abortions involve devastating fetal diagnoses, and those cases deserve compassion. But providers themselves describe a broader picture.
- The RISE Collective, a Colorado clinic, told patients “your reason is yours” at any stage of pregnancy. Colorado has no gestational limits.
- Dr. Warren Hern, a longtime (recently retired) Colorado later-abortion provider, told The Atlantic that at least half of his patients didn’t have serious fetal diagnoses. He typically took cases up to about 32 weeks.
- Dr. Shelly Sella in New Mexico described two groups of patients: those with fetal abnormalities, and those with “healthy, viable babies” whose circumstances make the baby feel impossible to cope with.
- A Maryland clinic advertised abortions up to 34 weeks, including for people who didn’t realize they were pregnant until after the first trimester.
I’ve seen this firsthand. When I was 27 weeks pregnant with a healthy daughter, I made an appointment at a DC clinic while filming undercover. DC has no gestational limits. At no point did anyone with the clinic ask me my unborn daughter’s health or ask me for any reason why I was seeking a third trimester abortion.
Reasons for later abortion matter especially for Virginia’s ballot tomorrow. A “mental health” standard certified by a single doctor gives the same kind of broad discretion later abortion clinics in other states already use.
[Read more – Abortion clinic website dispels pro-choice myths about later abortion]
[Read more – “There are no OB-GYNs out there who are going to perform an abortion on a viable baby.”]
Myth 3: Later abortion is only 1% of all abortions.
Verdict: Misleading.
The U.S. has roughly one million abortions a year, so even 1% is about 10,000 abortions a year.
But that figure probably runs low. RHAvote, an abortion rights account, called it “a junk stat based on a misreading of CDC data.”
The CDC’s figure leaves out jurisdictions that don’t report abortion data: California, Connecticut, DC, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York State outside New York City, and Wisconsin. Together they hold about 109.9 million people. With a U.S. population of about 334 million, that means the CDC misses about 33% of the country. All of these places allow elective abortion after 21 weeks, several have no limit, and they are home to clinics that perform abortions after 24 weeks.
Among reporting states with later limits, the share of abortions after 21 weeks runs higher than 1%:
- Colorado: 1.5%
- Vermont: 1.6%
- Minnesota: 1.9%
- Oregon: 1.9%
- Washington: 2.0%
- New Mexico: 8.6% in 2021, when a local clinic still performed third-trimester abortions
We can’t say exactly how much higher the true national share is. We can reason that the 1% figure doesn’t capture it.
[Read more – Is later abortion only 1% of all abortions?]
Myth 4: Abortion after viability is just an early delivery.
Verdict: False.
Elective post-viability abortion doesn’t mean delivering a baby early and providing comfort care. Providers induce fetal demise first, usually with an injection, so that no live birth occurs. The RISE Collective’s website laid out a three-day process past 28 weeks: an injection on day one, more dilation on day two, and breaking the water on day three. The clinic called the first step “end the pregnancy.” The baby stays in the mother’s body for another day or two after that.
Dr. Diane Horvath of the Maryland clinic told The New Yorker plainly: “We induce demise.”
[Read more – Abortion clinic website dispels pro-choice myths about later abortion]
Myth 5: Abortion bans increase maternal mortality.
Verdict: False.
On average, pro-life states do have higher maternal mortality rates than pro-choice ones. But those rates depend on many factors, including maternal age, rural populations, insurance coverage, chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension, and postpartum Medicaid policy. Many pro-life states had poorer outcomes long before Dobbs allowed them to restrict abortion.
A 2026 JAMA Network Open study, “US Abortion Bans and Pregnancy Associated Mortality,” tested the claim directly. It found no statistically significant relationship between abortion bans and pregnancy-related mortality, maternal mortality, or non-obstetric deaths. With pro-choice states as the reference point, pro-life states showed very slightly lower maternal mortality, though that difference also wasn’t statistically significant. Dr. Hackney agrees that researchers haven’t documented a post-Dobbs increase.
[Read more – Study: abortion bans aren’t increasing maternal mortality]
[Read more – Maternal mortality rates in pro-life vs pro-choice states]
Myth 6: Abortion bans are doubling ectopic pregnancy deaths.
Verdict: Misleading.
In September, ProPublica ran this headline: “Ectopic Pregnancy Deaths Have Nearly Doubled. It’s Worse in States With Abortion Bans.” ProPublica’s own experts said bans alone “can’t explain” the national rise, and that more research is needed. Further, ProPublica compared 18 “strict ban” states to 27 states plus DC, but never tracked each state before and after its own law took effect. And its comparison included 2020 and 2021 as “post-ban” years, but those are before most new abortion restrictions took effect. ProPublica’s headline implies a lot more than its article can demonstrate.
[Read more – Are abortion bans doubling ectopic pregnancy deaths?]
[Read more – ProPublica identifies their medical experts a little too subtly.]
Myth 7: Pro-life laws don’t reduce abortions.
Verdict: Misleading.
National abortion numbers have gone up since Dobbs, but national totals reflect many forces at once. Laws restricting abortion push numbers down. Laws that let providers mail abortion pills anywhere in the country push numbers up. Both kinds of laws affect abortion rates.
Even Dr. Hackney’s essay shows the tension. He wrote that “laws don’t stop abortions” yet, a few sentences later, wrote that “legions in restrictive states are not accessing care.” If people in pro-life states aren’t getting abortions, the laws are working.
[Read more – Responding to post-Dobbs predictions]
[Read more – WeCount says abortions increased after Dobbs. What does this mean?]
We’re happy to do the homework.
Checking these claims takes time. We read the full studies, track down the statutes and hospital statements, research the experts’ affiliations, and show our math so you can check it all for yourself (or show the work to skeptics in your own life).
If this guide helped you sort things out for yourself or have a better conversation with pro-choice friends, please support the efforts behind it. Readers like you fund this research. The most effective way to support us is to become a monthly donor. You can also give a one-time donation here or volunteer with us here.
