There was a fleeting expectation that abortion clinics would be closed by COVID-19 restrictions. However, it soon became apparent that in most places, the abortion industry would get a pass on these restrictions. The majority of Planned Parenthood facilities stayed open. The organization’s website stated, “Abortion care is time-sensitive and essential, and nurses and doctors are doing the best they can to continue to provide abortions.” As hospitals postponed vital procedures like heart surgeries, abortion clinics went on killing babies….

Eleven states tried to temporarily ban abortions, declaring them non-essential….But by late April, COVID-19-related abortion restrictions remained in only one state, Arkansas, which required abortion patients to show a negative COVID-19 test before the procedure.

… Abortion clinics quickly began using social-distancing restrictions to harass pro-lifers. In the two weeks between March 25 and April 7, there were at least eight incidents in which individuals praying or counseling outside abortion clinics were threatened with citation or arrest if they remained….

As restrictions swept the US, a flurry of headlines attested to the abortion lobby’s freak-out: “House Republicans Tried to Capitalize on Coronavirus to Sneak Anti-Abortion Language Into Law” (Mother Jones, March 13); “Texas, Ohio Officials Use COVID-19 as an Excuse To Restrict Abortion” (Reason, March 24); “Abortion is Essential Healthcare” (Wisconsin Examiner, March 25); “States Are Using the Cover of COVID-19 to Restrict Abortion and Health Care for Women” (Rolling Stone, March 30) .

The headlines became downright hysterical as the weeks went on: “‘Sadness Beyond Tears’ as COVID-19 Abortion Ban Brings Chaos to Texas Clinics” (Re-wire News, April 2); “COVID-19 Could Permanently Hurt Abortion Access,” (Time, April 2); “Texas women forced to travel 20 times farther for abortion under coronavirus ban” (The Hill, April 3); “Abortion Access Thrown into Jeopardy by Coronavirus” (CNN, April 9).

From early March, articles and opinion pieces linking abortion and COVID-19 restrictions appeared in hundreds of online and print publications. Time, Newsweek, Forbes, even publications like Foreign Policy, Business Insider, and The Economist, all had their piece—and sometimes multiple pieces—on COVID-19’s impact on abortion access. A May 4 op-ed piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer laments the restrictions placed on abortion due to the pandemic; a May 11 Forbes article proclaims, “Women Must Be Able to Have Abortions at Home”; and a May 13 Rewire editorial complains that abortion patients in Arkansas must take a COVID-19 test. The Hill asks, “Is defunding the WHO really just a backdoor attack on sexual and reproductive health?” (May 26), while the UN News details in its special report, issued May 26: “US states ‘manipulating’ COVID-19 pandemic to restrict abortion access, rights experts charge.”

….A common theme in the media was the increased demand for abortion during the pandemic. An April 13 Associated Press article quoted Dr. Jen Villavicencio, an abortionist in Michigan: “I hear it in my patient’s voices and questions daily… They’re worried about how they will make their rent, feed their family, access a ventilator if the need arises.” The article cited reasons why abortion rates might spike, from financial considerations, to concern about high-risk pregnancies, to infants with special needs.

The extraordinary wave of coverage indicated fear on several levels: fear that restrictions on non-essential medical procedures would close abortion clinics, fear that even with clinics open, fewer women would choose abortion, and concern that laws spawned by the pandemic would erode abortion rights in the long term….

The above comes from a June 4 story by Monica Seeley in Catholic World Report.