Elective abortions are only part of the equation.
My heart sank last week when I saw that the Supreme Court was leaving Texas's restrictive abortion law, S.B. 8, in effect. The law essentially outlaws abortion after six weeks gestation, which is before many women know they're pregnant. |
I wondered if the reason more Americans were not incensed by the possibility of Roe falling was because they figured it would not affect them. They personally would not choose to get an elective abortion, so it wasn't top of mind. But we know from countries where abortion is restricted that there are many unintended consequences that deeply and sometimes tragically affect women's health. |
In my newsletter on Wednesday, I wrote about how miscarriage care may be affected by abortion restrictions. When I had a miscarriage in 2014, it took two weeks after my first bad sonogram for doctors to be certain that my pregnancy was not viable. I was offered three options for care: I could continue to wait and see if my body would miscarry on its own without intervention, I could take medication and end the pregnancy at home, or I could have a surgical procedure to empty my uterus, known colloquially as a D. and C. (The last two options are the same choices offered to abortion patients.) |
Because miscarriage and abortion care can look identical, there is a chilling effect in countries like Malta and Poland, where abortion is outlawed. Doctors in those countries are understandably concerned about being prosecuted for anything resembling elective abortion — so many women miscarrying are offered no choice. They must simply wait, at great emotional and physical cost, for their bodies to miscarry on their own. In the worst case scenarios, women have died from lack of treatment when they were experiencing pregnancy complications. |
I hope a few readers — even ones who are not supporters of abortion rights — might read my column and understand the knock-on effects of blunt force laws that do not consider delicate and liminal situations like mine. Those two weeks I had to wait were among the worst of my life. The ability to choose to end the pregnancy at least somewhat on my own terms helped me cope with the loss. That's all I want for other families going through their own worst moments. |
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