Could an Abortion Ban Put Your Life in Danger?

What you should know about your medical rights—and what still needs to change to keep you safe.

BY GARNET HENDERSON
PUBLISHED: AUG 16, 2022

In the weeks since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, alarming stories have emerged of pregnant people being denied necessary medical care in some of the 15 states that now ban all or most abortions. To name a few: a woman in Wisconsin bled for 10 days due to an incomplete miscarriage when emergency room staff refused to remove the fetal tissue; one Texas physician said they were told by hospital management not to treat ectopic pregnancies until they ruptured (a life-threatening event); and a Louisiana woman was forced to endure painful labor after her water broke at just 16 weeks, because doctors were told they could not do an abortion procedure.

Continued: https://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a40860997/abortion-bans-medical-rights-hospital-pharmacy/

USA – The New Abortion Restriction No One is Talking About

Anti-abortion laws have traditionally allowed an exception to protect the “life of the mother.” Not anymore.

Opinion by MICHELE DEMARCO
04/28/2022

In 1942, my grandmother lay in a hospital bed in center city Philadelphia waiting to die. She was 26 years old, happily married, and pregnant with her first child. Only something went horribly wrong in the last trimester, and suddenly, both she and the baby were in a fight for life.

My grandfather, distraught but resolved, begged the attending physicians to do whatever it took to save my grandmother’s life, even if that meant the life inside her wouldn’t survive. But in those days that wasn’t always the practice; this was also a Catholic hospital, which forbade such a practice because it was considered tantamount to abortion. My grandfather was told she would be kept comfortable, and they would monitor both mother and baby, but that nothing would be done to privilege her life over that of their unborn child. In the end, my grandmother pulled through — barely — but sadly, the baby did not.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/04/28/the-new-abortion-restriction-no-one-is-talking-about-00028171

Pregnancy and Childbirth Endanger Women’s Lives and Health: “Pregnancy Is Not a Benign Condition”

Why are we warned in lurid detail about the minimal risks of abortion, but not told a word about the tremendous risks of continuing a pregnancy?

2/13/2022
by CARRIE N. BAKER, Ms. Magazine

During oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett suggested that now that all 50 states have “safe haven” laws that allow mothers to relinquish parental rights after birth, the burdens of parenthood discussed in Roe and Casey are irrelevant, and the decisions are obsolete. Putting aside the surprisingly callous assumption that giving up a baby is not burdensome, Barrett’s argument ignores the physical and psychological effects of pregnancy, labor and childbirth.

“Pregnancy is not a benign condition,” said Dr. Warren M. Hern, director of the Boulder Abortion Clinic. “Women die from pregnancy.”

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2022/02/13/pregnancy-childbirth-women-death-maternal-health-adoption/

USA – Pregnancy Kills. Abortion Saves Lives.

Pregnancy Kills. Abortion Saves Lives.
Every pregnancy poses a “serious health risk” to the mother.

By Warren M. Hern
May 21, 2019

Pregnancy is a life-threatening condition. Women die from being pregnant. We have known that for thousands of years.

They die from hemorrhage, infection, pre-eclampsia (which can lead to fatal seizures), obstructed labor, amniotic fluid embolism, thromboembolism, a ruptured uterus, retained placenta, hydatidiform mole, choriocarcinoma and many other causes that fill the obstetrics textbooks. Modern medicine can prevent and treat many, but not all, of these conditions. Some potentially fatal problems cannot be foreseen or prevented. Pregnancy always comes with some irreducible risk of death.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/21/opinion/alabama-law-abortion.html