Post-Roe v. Wade, more patients rely on early prenatal testing as states toughen abortion laws

by: LAURA UNGAR and AMANDA SEITZ, Associated Press
Feb 12, 2024

WASHINGTON (AP) — In Utah, more of Dr. Cara Heuser’s maternal-fetal medicine patients are requesting early ultrasounds, hoping to detect serious problems in time to choose whether to continue the pregnancy or have an abortion.

In North Carolina, more obstetrics patients of Dr. Clayton Alfonso and his colleagues are relying on early genetic screenings that don’t provide a firm diagnosis.

The reason? New state abortion restrictions mean the clock is ticking.

Continued: https://www.westernslopenow.com/news/national-news/ap-post-roe-v-wade-more-patients-rely-on-early-prenatal-testing-as-states-toughen-abortion-laws/


USA – At 18 weeks pregnant, she faced an immense decision with just days to make it

October 27, 2022
Selena Simmons-Duffin
11-Minute Listen, with transcript

In April, Karla Renée got a surprise positive on a pregnancy test. She and her husband Sam had tried unsuccessfully to get pregnant before and had expected they'd need fertility treatments.

"For it to just happen naturally felt like a miracle," she says. "We were ecstatic."

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/10/27/1131410832/abortion-law-exception-fetal-anomaly


Byron Calhoun says abortion is never necessary to save a mother’s life. He’s the only high-risk OB/GYN in central West Virginia.

By Caroline Kitchener
Sept. 10, 2021

At a 2019 antiabortion conference in Ontario, Canada, Byron Calhoun was introduced as a “messenger of God.”

The doctor assumed the podium in a pinstripe suit and bow tie, his high forehead glinting underneath the hotel ballroom’s bright fluorescents. Dozens of conference-goers clapped, then grew quiet, eyes fixed on Calhoun and the statistic that brought them all there, blown up on a banner behind him: “1 out of every 5 babies is killed by abortion.”

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2021/the-lily/antiabortion-doctor-obgyn-care/


The Abortion Conundrum: How Far Israelis Go to Make Sure Their Babies Are Born Perfect

The Abortion Conundrum: How Far Israelis Go to Make Sure Their Babies Are Born Perfect
What do parents do if they discover the baby could be born deaf? Or sterile? Or suffer from a disease? Israelis choose to terminate such pregnancies much more frequently than in other Western countries

By Shany Littman
Jun 13, 2019

It was Yael’s second pregnancy. She had received a sperm donation and gave birth to her first child, a daughter, four years earlier, and went through the same procedure this time, too. All the tests were good but now, because she was 44, the single mother also underwent amniocentesis and paid 2,000 shekels ($550) for a CMA (“DNA chip”) test. The result indicated a problem in the fetus’ genetic sequence.

“The doctor talked about possible intellectual disability and autism, about delayed development and attention deficit problems,” recalls Yael, who lives in the center of the country. (Some of the names in this article have been changed to protect the interviewees’ privacy.) “He showed me a list of all kinds of disabilities, which had a 30-percent probability of happening. That sounded very high. I cried but we reached the conclusion that it would be out of the question for me to give birth to a baby with disabilities. I am a single parent with limited resources. There was no way I could cope with that.”

Continued: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-the-abortion-conundrum-how-far-israelis-go-to-ensure-their-babies-are-born-perfect-1.7362524


Abortion law in Poland: Pro-death, no future

by Dorota Głażewska
Sept 26, 2016

A few days ago a 12-year old girl gave birth to a child in Kielce. The doctors are in a state of shock. Newspapers are in a state of shock. And I am pissed off. If the bill is passed, such stories will become common occurrence, completely normal and no one should express surprise. In Polish schools there is no sex education and young girls do not have access to gynecological care. Even if there were a gynecological service for girls, but the law was introduced, girls would be forced to continue with their pregnancies, and if any of the doctors tried to save them at an early stage, they could be sentenced to a few years in prison. If girls miscarried, as they’re too young, would they face 2-years’ imprisonment or only a juvenile detention center? Only in this year, in one hospital in Wroclaw, fourteen girls have given birth to children – remarked Barbara Nowacka, leader of the Save Women initiative, in the Sejm. Is Poland supposed to be a country with a more restrictive anti-abortion law than Afghanistan or Iran?

[continued at link]
Source: Political Critique