The Pain of Abortion: The Case of a Californian Woman Who Cannot Have Their Abet in the Light of the Supreme Court’s Decision
I live in a state where the realities of abortion are stark and politicized. I have been frightened about what will happen to patients like mine since the Supreme Court made their decision in June.
She told President Biden that she had had teens with chronic medical conditions that make their pregnancies high risk, and women with highly desired pregnancies who receive a terrible diagnosis of a fetal anomalies cry when they learn that they can’t receive their abortion in our state.
“Imagine looking someone in the eyes and saying, ‘I have all of the skills and tools to help you’ but our state’s politicians have told me I can’t’,” she said.
While 40 of the clinics in these states are still open for other services, the Guttmacher analysis found 26 clinics had completely closed down, which means they might never reopen.
“These clinics don’t have staff anymore, they probably moved their medical supplies to other facilities,” Jones explains. If the bans were lifted, it would not be possible for them to open their doors tomorrow.
It can be difficult to get care when you have to travel out of state. This has already happened to patients Dr. Sadia Haider treated in Illinois, a state surrounded by states that ban or restrict abortion.
She talked about the patient she recently saw who had a very serious OB/Gyn condition, an abnormal placenta, which can cause severe hemorrhage and morbidity if not treated appropriately. The patient tried to get healthcare in her own state before coming to Illinois.
“We were able to provide the care required for this patient, which was unfortunately more complex than it needed to be because there were several weeks that ensued before the patient sought care and eventually saw us,” Haider said.
The Arizona Supreme Court’s Ninth Circuit Case for a Childbirth-Avoiding Abortion After 15 Weeks of Pregnancies
Already, since Tara and Justin’s experience, this law that forced them to travel out-of-state has been put on hold by a judge’s preliminary injunction, which means it will not be enforced while litigation over it is still pending. The upcoming elections will have a major impact on what happens next. I coordinate abortions out-of-state in other states so I have to keep up with the laws there as well.
When Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, proposed a national ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, the bill sparked controversy across the political spectrum. But few discussed the impact it might have on the number of women who are having children in their 30s.
If she got a second baby and had a serious stillbirth, she believes her doctors would be hesitant to give her aD&C because of the risk that they would be accused of violating the abortion ban.
The median childbearing age in the United States has increased in recent decades, reaching 30 in 2019, up from 27 in 1990. But older mothers are more likely to conceive fetuses with chromosomal abnormalities, and the test most commonly used to detect those disorders can only be performed after a pregnancy is 15 weeks along, beyond Mr. Graham’s proposed window for abortion.
“For over 100 days, Arizonans have experienced pure chaos and confusion and it has been traumatic for our physicians and staff who have been forced to notify patients that they can no longer care for them,” said president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Arizona Brittany Fonteno. “The court’s decision to issue a stay while the legal process continues to unfold will allow Planned Parenthood Arizona to resume abortion care services. This 150-year-old law has to be removed from the books for good, that’s what is at stake, and that’s what Planned Parenthood Arizona is fighting for.
On Friday, Judge Peter Eckerstrom wrote in the order that “Arizona courts have a responsibility to attempt to harmonize all of this state’s relevant statutes.”
“The court further concludes the balance of hardships weigh strongly in favor of granting the stay, given the acute need of healthcare providers, prosecuting agencies, and the public for legal clarity as to the application of our criminal laws,” the order stated.
The Arizona Attorney General is aware of the emotional issue, and they will look at the court’s ruling to decide on the next step.
With such a big operation as abortion provider in the Tuscon area, it is hard to resume abortion care, Fonteno said.
The Ohio decision extends an earlier, temporary suspension of the law that was set to expire next week. The ruling means that the state’s abortion ban is suspended while the court case proceeds, providing a bit more certainty for abortion providers and women.
These moments of hope, often covered in grief, help those of us wearied by the political trenches to stand up one more time. Our sails are supported by a wide spectrum of people including the public, our colleagues in other specialties and the governing bodies of many different medical associations that are against abortion bans.
They are the graduate student who needs to finish their meticulous experiments before grant money runs out, the new mother of twins who had been misinformed that breastfeeding was a foolproof form of contraception and cannot take on a third child, the rape victims, the newly pregnant hospitality worker who lost her job due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the patient whose escape plan from their abuser did not include being tied to them forever through a child, the patient for whom pregnancy was not a goal at this time.
I am worried that the next lawyer will not understand the case or the patient who needs an abortion will be denied. I worry they will lack the time, money, transportation, and support to get the care they need. This denial, which is not in alignment with my medical opinion, will change their life forever. I am afraid they will die.
Patients drive over 12 hours to seek care at this clinic. I am proudest to ensure patients who need abortion care for other reasons can access it, just as I am proud to care for my medically high-risk patients. They have a choice to live their lives, and I support them in that decision.
Petranek says she had been paying attention to how this was playing out in Texas, which had banned abortion after about six-weeks, back in 2021. There were repercussions on pregnancy care from that ban.
Similar problems are unfolding in Wisconsin, according to the woman. “There are delays in care because physicians are hesitating, thinking twice, calling legal counsel, conferring to make sure – where the direction from a medical perspective seems very clear, but is it legal?”
Every time I am forced to turn a patient away, that burning candle inside me, once a roaring and passionate fire in a young student excited to embark upon a career of helping others, dims ever so slightly. Even when I can’t do anything else, I can’t recover from a serious violation of my duty as a physician.
But I still experience joy in my job sometimes. The trembling hands of a college student, suddenly still after swallowing the first pill of their medication abortion regimen, whispering with increasing confidence, “I’m going to be ok.” The tears of a transplant recipient dry when she knows she won’t have to go back on the transplant list when her already tenuous kidney fails again during another pregnancy.
It is no longer necessary for a single mom to have an unwanted pregnancy to have the enormous weight lifted from her shoulders. I take some comfort from knowing that the shattered hearts of Tara and Justin – who desperately wanted the baby they had to say goodbye to – can finally start to heal now, knowing they did what was right for Tara’s health and spared their baby, who could not have lived, a short lifetime of pain.
This battle has a high cost for us all. Patients seeking abortion care and providers of that care should not be leveraged as political pawns or pushed to the forefront of national elections.
The government should not interfere with the decisions that patients make about their health and faith. They should be able to get the compassionate care they need, no matter which state they live in. And doctors should be allowed to simply be doctors. I should be allowed to care for my patients without fear of retaliation or legal jeopardy.
The Moment Petranek Found out about the Supreme Court Opposition on Abortion and Its Influence on Her Family: Pregnancies and Miscarriage
The moment Petranek knew she wouldn’t be trying to get pregnant came when she was lying on her couch. She found out about the Supreme Court opinion on abortion on her phone.
Petranek, 31, and her husband Daniel have two children – a 7-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter. She says her pregnancies were hard on her body and that she was diagnosed with diabetes. She and her husband were planning to have more kids. She and her brother liked that number in the middle of his brothers, and they’re both siblings.
She went back to wait for the problem to be solved. She had previously miscarried. She was worried about something that could happen. She had nausea, abdominal pain and backaches as the days passed. She began to get a rash after a few days.
Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/12/09/1141404068/wisconsin-abortion-law-pregnancy-risk-miscarriage
Telling the tale of a woman’s miscarriage when abortion became illegal, but it took too long for doctors to realize that abortion had become illegal in Wisconsin
We want to hear from you: NPR is reporting on personal stories of lives affected by abortion restrictions in the post-Roe era. Do you have story about how your state’s abortion laws impacted your life? Share your story here.
Resting under a heating pad, she tried to distract herself from the miscarriage by scrolling through Twitter, and that’s when she saw the leaked Supreme Court opinion indicating that Roe v. Wade could imminently be overturned.
She was aware of the fact that an old law on the books could potentially make abortions illegal in Wisconsin. Petranek had no intention of ending her pregnancies, she was focused on her family. But she realized right away that if abortion became illegal, that could affect how doctors cared for her if anything went wrong.
Pregnant patients with diabetes, like Petranek, have elevated risks of birth defects, preterm birth, preeclampsia and more. “Even though my diabetes is well managed, it’s always a risk,” she says. It can be difficult to get a checkup in places that ban abortion if doctors are afraid of being accused of violating the law.
In Missouri, hospital doctors treating a woman whose water broke at 18 weeks wrote in her chart that “current Missouri law supersedes our medical judgment” and so she could not receive an abortion procedure even though she was at risk of infection, according to a report in the Springfield News-Leader. The hospital is under investigation for violating a federal law that requires doctors to treat and stabilize patients when there is an emergency.
Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/12/09/1141404068/wisconsin-abortion-law-pregnancy-risk-miscarriage
Defending Wisconsin’s Abortion Law at the Turn of a Woman’s Age: Medical Decision Making and the Attorney General’s Case
“That was the moment I knew I couldn’t try again,” she says. “It wasn’t even a conscious decision, it was just like – I will not put myself through that again if I don’t have the confidence that I will be able to come out the other side.”
A D&C procedure is used to stop the bleeding during abortions, as was done to Petranek during her first miscarriage.
She says the fact that her pregnancies have been physically and emotionally draining weighs into her calculus as well: “It’s kind of like – I will fall apart.”
The state law: Wisconsin’s abortion ban was written in 1849, just one year after Wisconsin became a state. The law classifies abortion as a felony, punishable by up to 6 years in prison and a maximum fine of $10,000. Rape or incest can’t be exceptions to the rule that rape and incest must be stopped to save the life of the mother.
Democratic Governor Tony Evers supports the lawsuit against the 1849 ban. But the Republican-controlled legislature has made it clear it wants it to remain in place, and rejected the governor’s call to overturn it in a special session in June. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Leaders Devin LeMahieu and Chris Kapenga – all Republicans – declined NPR’s requests for an interview for this story.
Three doctors are part of the lawsuit. In affidavits shared with NPR, they say the law and their fear of prosecution has already impacted their medical decision making and their “ability to provide necessary and appropriate care in Wisconsin.”
Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/12/09/1141404068/wisconsin-abortion-law-pregnancy-risk-miscarriage
Pregnancy and the Risk of Miscarriage – a Physician’s Compensation in Wisconsin Family, Friends, Family and Friends
What is at stake is the decision about how many children to have, when to start trying, how close in age children should be, and so on, according to Dr. Cutler, who teaches at the University of Wisconsin medical school.
She explains that those decisions are usually made with other people in the context of families, romantic relationships, extended family or friends. She wants to add more to the equation, such as state laws regarding where people live and whether they have access to adequate healthcare during the birth of their child.
Personal risk tolerance might be what determines how that calculus plays out. At least one in five women have a miscarry or have an abortion, according to Cutler, who notes that many women think they’re pregnant when they really are. High blood pressure, depression, and ectopic pregnancies are some of the risks in pregnancy. The maternal mortality rate in the U.S. is higher than in many other industrialized countries.
Meanwhile, researchers are trying to measure the many different effects of abortion restrictions – such as how many additional babies will be born, how many people will cross state lines for care, and more.
Pregnancy intentions are nuanced, she says. “There are people who want to get pregnant, there are people who want to not get pregnant and most of the population are somewhere inbetween,” she says, and it’s a challenge to capture that.
Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/12/09/1141404068/wisconsin-abortion-law-pregnancy-risk-miscarriage
Wisconsin Right to Life vs. Wisconsin Pro-Life Law: A Patient’s View of Miscarriage and Pregnant Health
As the case works its way through the courts, there’s also the possibility that the state legislature will move to change the law. “We have a large majority in both state houses that are pro-life, that are in favor of the current law,” says Skogman of Wisconsin Right to Life. “We realize that our law may need to have further discussions on strengthening the medical emergency language so that it’s very clear to women and medical providers that those cases are not in violation of the law.”
Petranek is concerned that she may not be able to get timely or appropriate care for a pregnancy related problem.
It was written only by men, at a time when antibiotics weren’t widespread, C-sections were not done without anesthesia, and problems of pregnant women and labor were poorly understood. Women in the 19th century were second class citizens with few to no rights.
The patient’s perspective: Kristen Petranek and her husband have started regularly using birth control – condoms for now, but she’s looking into longer-term options like a vasectomy for her husband or an IUD for herself.
Petranek is determined to go ahead with the decision, but she is also sad and has memories of what she lost. She would have had a baby over Thanksgiving this year if she had not miscarried. “It was good that I had the distraction of the holiday but I kept thinking, ‘I would have been holding a newborn right now,’” she says.
She says that she is thinking about the loss of the fetus this spring and the loss of a family member in the future every day. “We wanted a baby – we wanted to have a third child,” she says, through tears.
She says that she finds herself looking at her daughter in a different way. I have to reconcile with the fact that she is my youngest child and will always be when I want her to be a big sister.
Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/12/09/1141404068/wisconsin-abortion-law-pregnancy-risk-miscarriage
Using abortion restrictions to improve conditions in adolescent children: a case study of a young woman from South Carolina, Adoption and Life in the Wild
If people favor abortion restrictions know the impact they can have on people who are facing situations like hers, that would be great. She explains that she was raised an evangelical Christian – she now goes to a Presbyterian church every Sunday.