A waiting period. An ultrasound. A requirement that a physician perform the abortion.

A new study grouped measures like these under one category: abortion restrictions and linked states with more restrictions to higher maternal mortality.

That sounds alarming. But Dr. Christina Francis, a board-certified OB-GYN and CEO of AAPLOG, raises a basic question: how do these policies actually cause maternal deaths?

She joins Scott and Marcie to examine what the headline leaves out. How does requiring an ultrasound increase maternal mortality? Why is giving a woman more time before a major decision treated as a health risk? And why is physician involvement being framed as a restriction?

The conversation also turns to abortion-pill complications, including research finding that 83.5% of post-abortion-pill emergency room visits were miscoded as miscarriages and 76% of emergency room visits following the abortion pill were coded as severe.

Dr. Francis explains why those findings matter, what could happen as physician-only requirements are removed, and the challenges doctors face when they question the dominant abortion narrative within medicine.

Watch the full episode of Dear Jane to get the full conversation.

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1:15 — When Maternal-Fetal Medicine Chooses a Side

3:27 — Do Abortion Restrictions Cause Maternal Deaths?

5:08 — Is a Waiting Period Really a Health Risk?

6:12 — How Does an Ultrasound Cause Maternal Death?

9:15 — What Actually Causes Maternal Death?

10:19 — 80% of Maternal Deaths Are Preventable

12:49 — When Pregnancy Isn’t the Cause

14:23 — Should Non-Physicians Provide Abortions?

16:20 — The Reality of a D&E Abortion

19:22 — How Safe Is the Abortion Pill?

22:00 — When an Abortion Is Coded as a Miscarriage

23:05 — The Trauma No One Warns Women About

23:50 — What Pro-Life Doctors Risk by Speaking Up

24:45 — 93% of OB-GYNs Don’t Perform Abortions

25:58 — Who Stands With Pro-Life Doctors?