The Duggar family is hyper-evangelical and, for decades, their big “political” focus was legislating forced-birthism and advocating, in unequivocal terms, that women do not have the right to choose their own reproductive care. They are some of the most hard-right anti-abortion activists in the country, endlessly using their platform to argue that all abortions are wrong and that the state should force every woman to give birth every time. Now, in the post-Roe era, that means that many states refuse to allow women to get abortions or “D&Cs” (dilation and curettage procedures) even when their lives are at risk or there are fatal abnormalities with the fetus. Enter Jessa Duggar Seewald.
Jessa Duggar Seewald revealed that she suffered a miscarriage over the holidays. In the nearly 19-minute YouTube video, the 19 Kids and Counting alum, 30, shared the tragic journey of her latest pregnancy, from informing her kids about the new baby to dealing with the aftermath of the news that she had miscarried. Jessa documented in one scene on camera that she had been concerned early on in the pregnancy because she had been “spotting” blood. She relayed that her family sang the devotional hymn “Day by Day” to cheer her up.
However, upon arriving at her next ultrasound appointment, the doctor broke the terrible news that the baby did not “look good.”
“Nothing could have prepared me for the weight of those words in that moment,” Jessa said. “At that moment I was just in complete shock. I didn’t have words. I just immediately started crying.”
She said her husband, Ben Seewald, put his arms around her as the technician left the room to let them “process through the loss.”
“We were just sitting there holding hands and crying, like, ‘what do we do from here,’ ” Jessa recalled. “I feel like in some ways miscarriages can be so jarring because you don’t have clear signs of something going wrong. I had minimal spotting for 24 hours, and that was it.”
Due to risks of complications with passing the fetus at home, she said she decided to check in to a hospital to perform a dilation and curettage procedure to remove the fetus from her womb. Jessa tearfully recalled the moments leading up to the procedure, saying, “I was able to thank God in that moment for giving us this life, even if we wouldn’t be able to hold this baby in our arms.”
She… had an abortion procedure. A member of one of America’s most famous anti-abortion, forced-birth Evangelical families had a D&C. Remember when Chrissy Teigen spoke about how she also had a D&C/abortion when she was miscarrying her son Jack? The Duggar types were trolling her endlessly and brutally about it. Now, I absolutely believe that Jessa had every right to get a D&C and I’m glad that she was able to make the decision alongside her husband and her doctor. That’s what I believe: that reproductive healthcare is a freedom and a right of all people, that Jessa’s decision to have a D&C was hers alone. The problem is that Jessa doesn’t believe that anyone else should have that right.
Just want to point out Jessa Duggar got what is considered an illegal abortion in Arkansas, as it was not too save the mother's life. It appears she may have not done the 72 hour waiting & counselling period as well.
Remember abortion will always be "legal" for the wealthy. https://t.co/Uy76F3jKOa pic.twitter.com/DECp1tXArX— ChudsOfTikTok (@ChudsOfTikTok) February 26, 2023
Screencap courtesy of YouTube.
She is following the Evangelical Right Wing handbook: rules for thee but not for me.
While I sympathize with her for losing a pregnancy and then having to have a medical procedure to complete the miscarriage (happened twice to me), her literal holy than thou attitude is just disgusting.
I suppose she would justify it because the fetus was dead. So she’s not “aborting” the pregnancy.
Good example of why these decisions should be between a woman and her doctor ALONE.
She just said she was told the fetus “didn’t look good,” which seems to me to be deliberately ambiguous.
And yet in my state they STILL won’t do a d&c if that’s the case. They won’t do anything until the body releases it on its own or you’re dead.
Jinger like Ginger. All those 19 and Counting kids had to start w/ J — just part of their schtick.
if it was dead she would make damn sure to point that out. it was not dead. she did the exact thing that her people want to prevent others from being able to do.
the hypocrisy stinks to high heaven.
So her state allows for D&C abortion procedures? All states should and the fact that they don’t makes me so so angry.
I think she lives in California now.
How convenient if she does.
That’s Jinger . Jessa is still in Arkansas.
No, Jessa is still in Arkansas. Jinger is the one who moved to California.
Sorry. Someone’s actual name is Jinger? Pronounced like Singer? Or like Ginger? Either way it’s just so dumb.
Surprise surprise. The anti abortion way of thinking and legislating is idiotic and harmful.
She doesn’t get it. For her it’s not an abortion. It’s, errr, assisted miscarriage.
My irrationally angry self wants to scream at her that’s she’s a baby killer just like those heinous protestors at Healthcare clinics. The fact that she’s not saying “oh wow I see how this is necessary and I am wrong and horrible” makes me so angry. Horrible cruel hypocrite.
I’m paraphrasing here, but this reminds me of the saying “there’s no good abortion, except my abortion”. Their hypocrisy is infuriating.
I’ve read several articles about Pro-Lifers even having abortions, some at the very same clinics they protest. They basically walk off the picket line to get it and then back out there the very next day. The audacity!
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-women-who-leave-anti-abortion-picket-lines-to-get-abortions
Anti-abortion activists, in my experience, think of women who have abortions as women who are too lazy for birth control and just decide to get an abortion at 38 weeks pregnant because they changed their mind.
Jessa Duggar isn’t going to consider that she underwent an abortion procedure because it doesn’t fit with her preexisting idea of what abortion is and what kind of women get abortions. So its really easy for her to sort of twist her experience to put it in a non-abortion box because she knows she’s not the kind of woman who would have an abortion.
They’re not even justifying their decision because they dont think they have to because she’s in a different category entirely.
@ Becks1, that is exactly what she is doing here. How fortunate that Jessa was ABLE to have a D&C whereas many women across the country are BANNED from such a procedure?? Jessa should be grateful that she had the privilege to have a D&C whereas thousands of women are BANNED from this deserving, medical and empathetic choice.
Jessa can suck it.
I don’t follow them so did Jessa make a lot of anti-choice comments. The family overall may be anti-choice but individuals may not be. She probably doesn’t think of it as abortion but finishing the miscarriage.
She was one of the Duggars who were incredibly nasty to Chrissy Teigen when she talked about realizing her D&C for her miscarriage was an abortion. So yeah… she knows.
She knows. That’s why she announced it – so they would have a shot at controlling the narrative and the terminology used to describe her abortion.
She is one of the worst of the bunch, fully immersed in the hateful cult. She is extremely smug and judgmental. Definitely a rules for thee and not for me, every abortion is wrong except for mine etc, way of thinking.
Every time I see this story, I feel like screaming.
I’m glad she was able to get the health care she needed.
Now… let’s make sure all people get the health care they need. It shouldn’t be a luxury.
But she is very vocal about keeping other women from getting the healthcare they need. It’s disturbing
Politicans policing reproductive health care leads to such hypocrisy. It inevitably ends up privileging some over others which appears to be the case here.
Always. It’s also forced population control. Gotta have enough people born so they can do manual labor as well as fill the prisons and make the wealthy wealthier.
Exactly, we can’t have these people controlling not only if they want a family but also their family size and being able to afford education so that they end up questioning and realizing that voting for the right is against their own interest. The rich need the poor to stay poor and uneducated.
I almost don’t want to get into the technicalities because imo she and every other woman and person with a uterus should be able to do whatever they want to and need to. But did she miscarry or was she in the middle of it? And does that make a difference in her state? I tried to google the Arkansas law re reproductive rights and abortion but to a non-lawyer it seems weird and murky. It doesn’t read like her life was at risk though.
Also, is she stupid or rather trying to pull a Jinger? I fear it’s the former.
“It does not look good” is not the same as “you miscarried.” Sounds like the ultrasound showed the fetus would not be viable but she hadn’t actually miscarried yet. She’s just using that word to make herself sound better
I once had a pregnancy that ““did not look good”. She is now an aggressively healthy teenager. (I had heavy bleeding VERY early in my pregnancy and the Doogie Howser looking doc at the ER thought I was miscarrying. It turned out that was bleeding from implantation.
Like you said, she is using language that doesn’t mean anything medically and she is doing it on purpose. I just think it is ironic because in my case, the opposite was going on.
I don’t want to defend her in any way, but when I read her comments I assumed “it did not look good” was a euphemism for the foetus having no heartbeat or similar. I’m not American and only vaguely know who she is, but if she’s anti-abortion and wanted the baby surely she would not have terminated unless there was absolutely no chance of the pregnancy containing. Regardless, the procedure she had should be available for women everywhere, and I get the outrage that someone who has campaigned against reproductive rights would show such hypocrisy. I feel like some people who are anti-choice really refuse to understand that there are shades of grey and the same medical procedures that are used in abortion are also used in cases of miscarriage… they think that because the pregnancy was wanted or planned that it’s categorically different. I suspect there’s nothing that would convince her that what she had was actually an abortion.
People can come at me for this but I have to say it plainly: these people are sick and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if “didn’t look good” meant an abnormality of some kind but otherwise healthy and they only want “perfect” children. How else can they justify their white supremacist/breeder propaganda? Repulsive.
The people who are anti-choice KNOW there are shades of grey and don’t care. They know exactly what they’re doing. Some people deserve the benefit of the doubt. NONE of the Duggars do except the ones who are distant or estranged.
@C- I also thought “abnormality” when I read the words “didn’t look good”. Again, it’s her choice (lucky she can make it) but aborting because your child isn’t 100% healthy is always demonized by these fundy freaks so the hypocrisy is extra-infuriating.
I thought I recall reading somewhere she was told the heartbeat stopped a few weeks earlier and the fetus was dead.
@Kitten you’re kinder than me. In her state, partly because of her own lobbying on it, it is NOT her choice. I am incensed that *she* got to make the choice that was right and easiest for her while other women in her own state, again because of her own political work, are being sent home to hemorrhage more until the forced birther laws consider their pregnancy well and truly beyond the point of saving. The hypocrisy is enraging.
Did Chrissy have a D&C? I thought her abortion was induced to give birth to Jack. I ask bc I remember the photos and during my d&c I was put under in an OR.
Because of her and people like her, women die.
But she felt completely comfortable doing what she wants to criminalise for other women, with no remorse or afterthought.
The lack of emphaty for other women in a similar situation is shocking
Yeah she is anti-choice and has made some terrible comments to people (I am going by what others have said), and maybe this experience will change her opinion. But I just can’t get behind *anyone* who has suffered the loss of a wanted pregnancy being trolled or mocked about it.
Nah, I’m more concerned with the women whose losses of wanted pregnancies will cause them to die because of the words of people like her helping take away their rights and access to medical care. And this whole family just needs to not exist. I said what I said.
Eh. I feel like I need more clarity here. Was it “the baby didn’t look good and you will lose it” so let’s abort with a D&C or was the baby already dead? I had a D&C after a routine scan revealed no heartbeat and that my baby had likely been dead for a couple weeks at that point. It was a risk for me to have dead matter (or William as I think of him) in my uterus that long and there were no signs my body would expel as placenta was still growing, no spotting etc. I do not consider that an abortion. I’m totally pro choice for any reason but I don’t agree all D&C’s are abortions.
It’s not a question of what you consider an abortion. That conclusion is pretty much up to you.
It’s the fact that the medical procedure in this particular circumstance itself is the same as when you get an abortion (well, depending on the type, given that medication abortions count for so much etc) and it is being misrepresented as a question of immorality with the arbitrary reasoning of religious fascism.
I’m with you C. The Duggars are anti-choice, they are loathsome, they are a huge reason why everything is a huge mess right now, and I want them to get heat for acting as if their abortions are suddenly acceptable abortions because of word salad. I’m furious.
Brompton, these people want to outlaw ALL D&C even if the baby has passed. Even if it will kill the mom to not have it done. Because the tools and training might be used on a “viable fetus” so it shouldn’t be available at all anywhere. Thats what makes this so incredibly hypocritical
I’m with you. I’m tired of being asked to have sympathy for bigots. They made their hateful-ass bed now they can go lie in it.
Unlikely – this decision will likely make her double down on her current anti stance
I’m a firm believer in receiving what you give out. Jessa chose to come after others for making very similar choices so she needs to feel some blowback for this because it shows her hypocrisy. No one is saying she deserved to lose her baby, but she absolutely needs to feel the negativity that her & her family has been putting out there.
I’m interested in following this story to see what happens.
I could only read about 1/2 of this story.
Talk about brainwashing and cults. That family is really something else, so much damage in that family.
The US has gone backward in reproductive rights.
The turnover of Roe vs. Wade still shocks me.
I am obviously Pro-Choice.
This is the mindset: D&Cs are for good Christian women. Abortions are what sluts get.
while I’m glad she got the healthcare that she needed, I don’t think for a moment that her experience will soften her hardline views that she seems so willing to impose on everyone else.
You are 100% right, this won’t change anything for her, her family, or that hateful group of people.
A great essay on this topic is “The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion” which speaks to why anti-choice people get abortions.
This is infuriating because this exact medical treatment should not be controversial or withheld and yet it is because of people just like her knowing there will always be ways around it for them. The hypocrisy. The life endangering hypocrisy.
Do as I say not as I do. The Duggar Motto.
On the one hand I feel terrible for her because she was dealt a terrible hand with sh!t parents and an abusive brother. On the other hand, she herself is a miserable, miserable person who is on track to become her mother and father 2.0. All this to say, I’m not sure how I feel. I guess, I wish all women could stand together and support women’s access to health care. She has a great platform to do good but instead she does what she did.
What gets me is that the people legislating women’s health know nothing about womens bodies. They think that ectopic pregnancies can be re-implanted in the uterus. They think abortions can be reversed (um…???). I’m fairly certain that they think that women pee out of their vaginas. Take a poll in congress and I would expect that 90% of those seated on the Republican side believe this (men and women) and 60% of the men on the democratic side believe this. That’s how poorly understood womens’ anatomy and reproductive health are understood in the US. One of the multiple factors why we have the worst maternal death record of developing nations in the world.
But it all comes back to that old standard: fascism requires an in group for whom the laws protect but don’t bind, and an out group for whom the laws bind, but don’t protect. So fellow white fascist women can have D and Cs, but WOCs, LGBTQ+, unmarried women (aka sluts) have abortions.
Very well said lanne!
^^^ All of this.
Oh I’ve been so heated about this for days. She posted about it last night too saying it’s not an abortion and yada yada yada. She’s missing the point, she got to choose what happened in her body. She screeches about “gods plan” nonstop so why not leave the tissue inside of her and see what god had planned for her? Maybe it would’ve expelled on its own, maybe she would’ve gotten sepsis and died, by her own words it wasn’t her call, it was gods. These people voted to legally force other women to live by Christian beliefs and it’s sick, then they go and do this shit and use it for content on YouTube, disgusting hypocrites.
All of this but I’d argue that she’s not “missing the point” but being deliberately obtuse. It doesn’t fit her bible-thumping narrative so she’s going to say that her experience is somehow the exception (it’s not).
She’s disgusting and I’m sorry but I don’t feel bad for her–I just don’t. She was luckier than so many women to have the wealth and resources to get the healthcare she needed yet she still thinks other women don’t deserve the same. She’s f*cking vile.
I went through something very similar after the New Year. (No heartbeat at our 9 week scan, and the fetus had stopped growing weeks earlier.) I had a D&C a few days later, and the entire experience strengthened my already strong pro-choice views. I hope this experience opens her eyes, but I doubt it will. Abortion is healthcare, period.
If you go to her Instragam stories (she posted it yesterday so it might not be there), she had a response to the “haters” about admitting she had a D&C basically stating that a D&C after a miscarriage isn’t an abortion. I suggest you not read it because it made me want to slap her. She was able to get a D&C (probably because she has connections) but many medical providers in red states are refusing to give D&Cs to women who are in the process of miscarrying until it’s very dire because they are afraid of being arrested for simply doing a necessary medical procedure. She even had the gall to say that a D&C after a miscarriage wasn’t an abortion and that new pro-life laws weren’t banning D&Cs after miscarriage (or she reposted someone else saying that, can’t remember). I feel torn because I do feel bad she’s dealing with this pile on after a very emotional time. At the same time she can’t have it both ways, chanting that abortion is wrong when she chose to get a procedure that terminates a pregnancy, even if she had a miscarriage. Had I been her, I would have kept quiet.
I refuse to click on the YouTube link because it would mean a payday for her. She choose not to keep it quiet because she needs to be paid. I’m sure she’s loving the controversy, her moral high horse and resulting pay check.
Apparently we live in a world where some rando person’s invisible sky god gets to dictate what medical procedures we are allowed to have.
This whole family is such a mistake. I just CANNOT with them.
The hypocrisy is just unreal!
I prefer my doctors homeschooled
Too bad for her – in medical terms this is an abortion and will be listed that way in her medical records. GPA stands for gravida para aborta. Notice there’s no distinction for aborta. You either had the kid or you didn’t. Welcome to the club, dum dum.
I’ve wondered if the way to get around this (temporarily probably) would be to change the medical term from abortion to induction. I was induced at 37 weeks but it was coded as an abortion even though it produced a living child. My pregnancy was aborted not the child.
I don’t really have more to add to this conversation. But I’ve got a few questions about medical care experiences if you’re willing to share.
I’ve had an abortion and a miscarriage (both 2022). Both times when I had an ultrasound the techs informed me they couldn’t say anything and I had to wait for the Dr to inform me of what was on it and to answer any questions. So I’m a little surprised about that part of Jessa’s story. Have any of you dealt with that before or were the technicians allowed to tell you what they saw?
When I got abortion, the tech asked me if I want to see the ultrasound or not. I said yes then she asked me if I wanted a copy of it.
This is weird and personal and nobody except my husband knows this until now, but I still carry a small card in my wallet with the ultrasound on it.
❤️ Sending a hug, if you want it
And how many more kids will this Duggar pop out? Yes, losing a baby is a tragedy. But she’s had enough children. Save your tears for the women who can’t have any children or miscarry again and again. These Duggars just make me sick looking for sympathy
And she used a Christian socialism scheme to pay the medical bill.
I didn’t read all of the comments. This pisses me off and should piss all of the other females in america off. This is the life saving shit you dumbasses outlawed. Thanks for putting others lives at risk. I could explode. Where’s some pot brownies when I need them?
I’m no fan of the Duggars, but I think she is the one who actively distants herself from the rest of the family? Not saying that she isn’t an anti-choice hypocrite, but just wanted to point out that she and her husband aren’t welcomed at home by the family because they have questioned the brainwashing, particularly how her parents covered up her brother’s rape of her as a child. (And yes, I hate myself for knowing too much about these people, but I have a hate obsessions’ with them). Regardless, I am glad she was able to get the procedure she needed to save her life. I wish every other woman had that opportunity.
Jill is the sister you’re thinking of. Jessa is still very intertwined with the family.
Jinger and her husband have also distanced themselves and she seems to have come out in favor of birth control.
right
I’ve had three abortions for children I so badly wanted but miscarried. I took medication for the first two because 1.) I was afraid of anesthesia for the D&C and 2.) I just wanted it to be in the privacy of my own home next to my husband. For my third miscarriage, I had gone through IVF and everything was initially ok until my 12 week scan when they told me I’d miscarried. I couldn’t stand to be awake for losing that one so I braved the anesthesia and the D&C. It is insane that any state would outlaw D&C’s for miscarriages. Be damned your outlook on abortion, the baby is already dead and the mother and her doctor should make this decision together.
Jessa had complications at home and needed this D&C. She shouldn’t be so judgmental now.