Abortion. Let me say it again. ABORTION. Abortion. IS. healthcare. This is not a “mention every now and then” issue. It affects women, couple and families across this country every single day. We need to keep bringing it up again and again. So…
Dear Supreme Court:
I hope you are happy, sitting smugly in your offices in the Capitol. You overturned Roe vs Wade. And now women are dying because of the ridiculously restrictive laws that you encouraged and that many states have put in place, which means doctors have to wait until some condition gets severe enough, and ONLY THEN they can step up and help.
The doctors cannot do their jobs, and they would, but again, can’t, because they could be subject to a lawsuit and jail, losing their income and tearing their lives apart. They are right alongside the women who they can’t help, the women who are also having their lives and very souls torn apart. The draconian rules set in place for the longest time period to have a procedure done, expire before the woman ever *knows* that there’s a problem. Women have traveled thousands of miles to have an abortion that is critical to their lives. ONLY a few can afford to do that.
So, in many states, they have to suffer with the little bit of healthcare they can get, since many of the obstetric practices have shut down or moved out of state, because of how much they would risk by getting “caught”. It hurts them; but really, their hands are tied. Let us not forget not only the women that have died, but also the women that had to wait, and have their reproductive organs damaged beyond repair. Many of these women CHOSE to have a child. They WANTED a child. And now there’s a very little chance they could get pregnant again, because they had to wait for the situation to get “bad enough”.
Anti-abortion organizations don’t seem to consider the life of the mother, only the life of the unborn. And embryos count as living? Whaaaaaaat?
There have been stories in the news about how women died, or nearly died, but that’s only a tiny fraction of the women who don’t have someone to support and advocate for them. They die, except no one counts that number. I would guess at a loss of life in the thousands, at a minimum. Why are women, as well as others too numerous to count still treated as second-class citizens because we are not white, usually rich, males? How many more draconian laws must we suffer under that are oh, so subtly, and yet also blatantly, against us?
As for the question in the title, for any men reading this who have someone they love, a wife or daughter, or another relative or someone they know from work, church or some other way change just one word: Change the word “you” to she” so it reads “Will SHE live or die?”
Very well put Susan. Thank you.
How many lawsuits have been filed against doctors and hospitals for wrongful death or injury, when they deny treatment because of these laws? Not only does this harm healthcare availability for women, but it will increase medical costs for EVERYONE. And not a single embryo or fetus is “saved” by allowing the mother to die.
I wondered about this too. Better target for lawful.death suits: the AG of the state, the governor, and every legislator who voted for the law. Bankrupt them. Let them feel.some pain in the only thing they care about: money