Reproductive healthcare IS healthcare
Long ago, the mother of a good friend of mine learned that the baby in her womb had died. Her doctor would not remove the dead fetus, saying he would not perform an abortion, and sent her home to expel the fetus on her own. That didn’t happen. She became septic and died, leaving several children born earlier without their mother. His father eventually remarried but his new wife was not able to care for all of his children, especially after she began having more of her own. My friend was sent to Boy’s Town, where he was raised in an institution.
Another woman I know learned she was pregnant in 1966. The embryo had implanted itself in her fallopian tube. Her doctor refused to perform an abortion. It was illegal back then. While some doctors still performed them, calling them a D&C, hers wouldn’t. She almost died. Of course, the embryo did, too.
A young woman I know was excited to learn she was pregnant. She got a call from her doctor after some routine test revealed something was amiss. She and her husband made an appointment for an ultrasound. The screen revealed that the baby she carried had an extreme case of gastroschises. This means that some of the baby’s organs were growing outside of the abdomen. It can be mild. Two of my sisters-in-law were born with a little bit of their intestines sticking out. The doctors moved them back to where they belonged and stitched them up. Not so with this woman’s baby. All of the abdominal and chest organs were displaced and pulling the heart out. There was no fix to this, only the cruel decision to either wait or abort. This was a child she very much wanted. She had named him. Her cousin was also pregnant and they were excited about their children being born close together and growing up together as the cousins had done. Her family, devout Catholics, rejected her heartbroken decision to abort, one made out of mercy for the doomed child. This only added to her pain, and estranged her from some family members at a time when she needed them more than ever.
One of my sisters became pregnant before she turned 20. The father was not someone she felt she could raise a child with, and she was not ready to be a mother herself. She arranged what she was told would be an open adoption. The adoptive parents misled her and never intended for her to know her child.
Some girls become pregnant long before they are ready to be mothers. The fathers go on with their lives, yet the girls often face health complications and even healthy births doom the mother to a life in poverty.
I see abortion as a tragedy for everyone involved. A decision that is not made lightly or callously. I fully support access to age-appropriate sex education so that young people can make informed choices. I fully support access to contraception to prevent unwanted pregnancies. I do not think that legislators or anyone other than the mother should make decisions about whether she is forced to carry a pregnancy to full term. Bodily autonomy is demanded by those who refuse to wear masks during a pandemic. What right do they or anyone else have to take this autonomy away from women?
