"19 Kids & Counting" parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar raised their mega-family according to the dictates of a highly conservative Baptist group, and their faith holds that only God can decide whether a child should be born. Their Instagram feed includes photos like the one seen above (Joseph Duggar's T-shirt reads: "I am the generation that will abolish abortion") and this one from a local March for Life event. Both Jim Bob and Jedidiah Duggar have also unsuccessfully run for local office on anti-abortion platforms.

That's why Jessa Duggar Seewald felt obligated to respond to those who argued that her procedure was no different from abortion. "Women have D&Cs for many reasons, not all of which involve killing a living human being," she wrote in the YouTube comments. "The ultrasound revealed that I had a missed miscarriage. My baby's heart had stopped beating 3 weeks before I had a D&C." To clear up the confusion, The List reached out to North Dakota-based obstetrician Alan Lindemann, M.D., creator of Pregnancy Your Way. 

As he explained, "Whether Jessa's recent procedure is considered a D&C or an abortion is a misunderstanding of medical definitions." Jessa's D&C was what's known as a "therapeutic" abortion: A removal of fetal tissue in a case where the fetus is no longer viable. "Jessa was not terminating a life," Dr. Lindemann clarified. By contrast, an "elective" abortion is performed for non-medical reasons, and the fetus may still be viable.