Peter Barker
February 4, 2023

Maureen Farrell worked as a midwife in West Virginia for two years and as a doula for six years. But this fall, she noticed a dramatic shift in her day-to-day life: More clients than ever were seeking miscarriage assistance — not because more of them were miscarrying, but because of the way these patients have been treated since September, as lawmakers said West Virginia has voted to ban abortion in virtually all circumstances.

“The actual medical care they received is the same. But vendor attitudes are understandably very different,” says Farrell. Under West Virginia’s new law, providers who perform abortions will be prosecuted, including prison terms. And since mifepristone and misoprostol — the same two-drug therapy used to terminate unwanted pregnancies — are prescribed to patients who are miscarrying, some doctors are wary of administering them even in perfectly legal circumstances. Farrell says one of her clients was forced to undergo three separate ultrasound appointments that confirmed her pregnancy was not viable before doctors finally prescribed the medication she needed to treat her symptoms. “Everyone’s nervous — and patients are paying for it,” says Farrell.

Continued: https://localtoday.news/va/can-capitalism-save-abortion-access-89613.html