Last week, thousands of anti-choice advocates attended the March for Life which they claimed was a “pro-science” march. President Trump chimed in with a televised message declaring “this is a movement founded on love and grounded in the nobility and dignity of every human life.” Vice President Pence also attended, tweeting: “@POTUS has been STANDING for LIFE. We've reinstated the Mexico City Policy, allowed states to defund Planned Parenthood & nominated judges who will uphold our God-given liberties enshrined in our Constitution.”

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Spoke w/ @BenShapiro & all his listeners at @March_For_Life about how @POTUS has been STANDING for LIFE. We've reinstated the Mexico City Policy, allowed states to defund Planned Parenthood & nominated judges who will uphold our God-given liberties enshrined in our Constitution. — Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) January 18, 2019

When they talk about human life, they do not mean all lives. Restricting access to safe legal abortion will kill women. We know that, because it's already putting them at risk. In 2016, a woman in Tennessee attempted to self-induce an abortion with a coat hanger. It’s estimated that, as of 2015, 240,000 Texas women had attempted to self-induce abortions, in large part due to the restrictions placed upon obtaining an abortion in that state. And while legal abortion is very safe (the notion that it leads to complications like breast cancer is incorrect), self-induced abortions remain a leading cause of maternal mortality.

But the news is not all bleak. This week, on the 46th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Reproductive Health Act (RHA) passed in New York. The act removes abortion from the criminal code and classifies it as a medical procedure. As such, should Roe ever be repealed, abortion will remain safe and legal in New York State. The bill states that abortion is permitted in New York if “the patient is within 24 weeks from the commencement of pregnancy, or there is an absence of fetal viability, or the abortion is necessary to protect the patient's life or health.”

It was a wonderful day to witness, and a day which has taken many years to come to pass. It was also a very frustrating day, in that many of the speeches consisted of female representatives dragging themselves over emotional coals—describing their abortions, why they’d had them, the choices they made regarding reproduction—while male speakers made statements that were remarkably ill-informed—if they did not lie deliberately—including stories about how pro-choice women are in the process of committing genocide. This by men who will never find themselves faced with a similar choice.

It is not a fun time to be a pro-choice woman, but then, it really never has been.

There are certain statements that come up, in reference to the RHA, again and again by anti-choicers. In the contentious days to follow, you will hear some of these from people who strongly favor forced birth. These are responses you might wish to have at the ready.

Claim: WOMEN ARE CASUALLY MURDERING FULLY DEVELOPED INFANTS IN THE WOMB

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Late term abortion is now legal in New York. Capital punishment is illegal. Which means it is only okay to give lethal injection to infants. If that seems rational or moral to you, you're a psychopath. — Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) January 23, 2019

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Thank goodness these babies were born before the #reproductivehealthact Unbelievable that such a #RHA bill would be passed and applauded by him and other #NYsenators allowing the murder of unborn babies up to their due date! https://t.co/gdiJ2IXvN6 — Jean Marie Prince (@inspiredbless) January 24, 2019

This has been a popular point of anti-choice discourse since 2016 when Donald Trump remarked, “you can take baby and rip the baby out of the womb. In the ninth month. On the final day.” When people talk about how states are allowing women to gleefully murder their fully-developed infants, ask yourself if you know any women who would actually do that. You probably don’t, unless you spend a lot of time with some women who are willing to undergo tremendous personal discomfort and great costs—late term abortions can cost $20,000—in order to satisfy their strange bloodlust. I’ve certainly never met a woman like that. Mostly because they are, as far as I personally can tell, non-existent. There are very few women who go through three trimesters of pregnancy not expecting to have a child. Only around 1 percent of abortions take place after five months, and when they do, that is almost always because a tragedy has occurred.

Some brave women have spoken to the Guardian about their choice.

One found that her child’s brain was not developing and asked her doctor:

“What can a baby like mine do? Sleep all the time?”

“Babies like yours are not generally comfortable enough to sleep,” the neurologist said.

These women are given a choice between abortion and resigning their baby to a life of extreme pain.

Every mother interviewed agonized over their decision. No woman opts for a third trimester abortion as if it’s a fun kind of birth control. To imagine that they do is not only to misunderstand the difficulties and cost of that procedure, but to fundamentally misunderstand the nature of people.

When conservatives like Matt Walsh rather ghoulishly asked of late term abortions, “Why is it necessary to kill the baby first? Why not deliver him alive and give him a chance at least?” The answer is: because the fetus has not developed in a way that will equip it for a life outside the womb that is not brief and filled with pain. Some women choose to deliver and let their children die in their arms. Doubtless, that is one of the worst days of their lives. Some women choose to abort so their child will not have to suffer. Doubtless, that is one of the worst days of their lives. To act as though these women have casually chosen to abort that child on a whim is an unforgivable insult to every woman who has had to make that awful choice.

Claim: MOST WOMEN FEEL REGRET OVER THEIR ABORTIONS

There is currently a response to the #ShoutYourAbortion hashtag from women who regret their abortions. Some do. They have every right to say as much, and it is very sad that they made a choice that they regret so deeply. But this is not the norm. Ninety-five percent of women do not regret their abortions. There is no medical reason to think that women who have had an abortion will have more psychological difficulties than women who have not had one.

Claim: MORE RESTRICTIVE ABORTION LAWS LEAD TO FEWER ABORTIONS

They do not. Countries with stricter abortion laws have higher abortion rates. What more restrictive laws do lead to is women attempting to self-induce their abortions. Again, in America, hundreds of thousands of women are now attempting this dangerous act. What does seem to lead to fewer unplanned pregnancies is no-cost birth control, which brings the rate of unplanned pregnancies down by 62-78 percent. That would certainly be a helpful thing to push for if you’re concerned about abortion.

Claim: SCIENCE PROVES UNBORN FETUSES FEEL PAIN

This has become a major talking point for anti-choice activists. However, it is pseudo-science. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) considers the case to be closed on whether or not fetuses can feel pain before the third trimester which begins around 27 weeks—they can’t. The connections necessary in the brain to transmit signals of pain do not develop until 24 weeks.

Claim: BABIES CAN SURVIVE OUTSIDE THE WOMB AS EARLY AS 22 WEEKS

In five percent of cases, this does happen. Two percent of those babies born that premature survive without severe impairment. Many states set the abortion limit as 24 weeks not because miracles do not happen before that time, but because it is the earliest time that most babies could reasonably survive (with medical intervention).

Jennifer Wright Jennifer Wright is BAZAAR.com's Political Editor at Large.

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