In an exclusive commentary published by Breitbart, Janet Morana, executive director of Priests for Life and co-founder of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, rejected a ProPublica investigation that linked a rise in ectopic pregnancy deaths to pro-life laws. Morana argued that the real culprit is the increased availability of chemical abortion pills ordered online and delivered by mail — a shift she tied to a rule change under former President Joe Biden.
Morana’s piece responds to ProPublica’s finding that 200 women died from ectopic pregnancies between 2020 and 2025, compared with 100 in the six years prior. The report, according to Morana, attributes the spike to laws protecting unborn babies rather than to the growth of telehealth abortion, and it relies on the stories of two women who were turned away from hospitals in Texas and Arkansas.
Disputing the Research
Morana took particular aim at Ushma Upadhyay, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, who is quoted in the ProPublica report saying that telehealth clinics screen out patients at higher risk of ectopic pregnancy and follow up with those they treat to monitor for symptoms. Morana called that statement a lie, arguing that UCSF studies on abortion generally find the procedure safe under any circumstances. She did not provide specific evidence to support her characterization of Upadhyay’s claim beyond her assertion that the university’s research is biased.
To illustrate how easily abortion pills can be obtained, Morana cited cases in which men posed as women to order the drugs online. She also described an experiment by Dr. Christina Francis of the American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, who went to the website of the overseas distributor Aid Access and posed as a 13-year-old girl with a long list of risk factors: she was taking blood thinners, had an intrauterine device in place, and had a history of three prior cesarean sections and an ectopic pregnancy. According to Morana, Aid Access sent the pills to her mailbox in a state where abortion pills are banned, despite what Morana described as numerous red flags.
Morana did not name the state or provide further details about the timing of that episode.
Critique of ProPublica
Beyond the specific findings, Morana questioned ProPublica’s credibility on abortion. She pointed to the outlet’s 2024 investigation into the deaths of two Georgia women who had taken abortion pills. That report, she wrote, blamed Georgia’s Heartbeat law for the deaths because the women would have had surgical abortions if the law had not been in effect. Morana disputed that conclusion, asserting that at least one of the women died because chemical abortion is unsafe and that the other had multiple drugs in her system at autopsy. She maintained that chemical abortion, not pro-life laws, was responsible.
Morana also scrutinized ProPublica’s funding, noting that the outlet describes itself as “an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism with moral force.” She alleged that it functions as a mouthpiece for progressive causes favored by its donors. Specifically, she wrote that from 2020 to 2023 ProPublica received a $1 million grant from the Mariposa Foundation, a family foundation that has also given $800,000 to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Claire Bernard, a member of ProPublica’s board of directors, is the president of the Mariposa Foundation, Morana noted. She further cited a 2023 Washington Examiner report on left-leaning megadonors to ProPublica, including George Soros, whose Foundation to Promote Open Society has given $3 million to the outlet, according to Morana’s account.
ProPublica did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Breitbart published Morana’s commentary as an exclusive.
Broader Implications
Morana’s op-ed arrives amid ongoing national debates over abortion access, telehealth prescribing, and the safety of medication abortion. The ProPublica investigation highlighted cases in which women were denied care in states with restrictive abortion laws, but Morana contends that such narratives obscure the role of abortion pills in ectopic pregnancy deaths. She called for more thorough study of ectopic pregnancy deaths while insisting that ProPublica’s framing does a disservice to women by blaming pro-life laws.
“Women dying from abortion is an outrage. Women dying from ectopic pregnancy is tragic and certainly needs to be more thoroughly studied and better understood,” Morana wrote. “ProPublica does a disservice to all women by blaming these deaths on pro-life laws.”
The dispute reflects a larger battle over how to interpret maternal mortality data and the effects of abortion policy. ProPublica’s report has been cited by abortion-rights advocates as evidence that restrictive laws endanger women, while pro-life groups argue that the data point to the risks of chemical abortion and inadequate screening by telehealth providers. Morana’s commentary adds a prominent pro-life voice to that argument, though it remains to be seen whether it will shift the broader narrative.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/10/03/exclusive-janet-morana-ectopic-pregnancy-deaths-were-not-caused-by-pro-life-laws/