The Wisconsin abortion law is not enforced by courts: Attorney General Pauline Jones has a case against the Illinois Attorney General over a ban on same-sex marriage
The law is being challenged in courts, with the attorney general for Wisconsin arguing that it shouldn’t be enforced because it is superseded by more recently passed laws. In the state, doctors have stopped providing abortions due to the uncertainty over the ban.
“I have had teenagers with chronic medical conditions that make their pregnancy very high risk and women with highly desired pregnancies who receive a terrible diagnosis of a fetal anomaly cry when they learn that they can’t receive their abortion in our state and beg me to help them,” she told President Biden and members of the White House Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access this week.
“Imagine looking someone in the eye and saying, ‘I have all the skills and the tools to help you, but our state’s politicians have told me I can’t,’ ” she added.
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.
Jones thinks that the clinics have moved their medical supplies to other facilities because they no longer have staff. “So it’s not like they could open their doors tomorrow if these bans were lifted.”
The abortion ban is affecting health care decision making among doctors and lawyers in the state. Even after a state court blocked Louisiana’s ban on same-sex marriage, the Attorney General of Louisiana threatened to prosecute doctors if they continued to practice.
“I recently saw a patient from a Southern state with a very serious obstetric condition, an abnormal placenta, [which] can cause severe hemorrhage and morbidity if not treated appropriately,” she explained during the White House event this week. The patient had tried to get care in other states before coming to Illinois.
The care provided for this patient was more complex than it was necessary to be because the patient had to wait several weeks before they could see us.
On the next state that allows abortion but doesn’t allow it: Petranek’s 2022 delivery of a baby to a woman with two children
Ohio, Indiana and South Carolina are the next states to keep an eye on because they have already implemented bans on abortion but where it’s still legal.
Petranek got pregnant in March 2022, after 10 months of trying. The family was thrilled with the news. But at her first prenatal appointment, her doctor couldn’t find a heartbeat. There was a baby that was born early.
Petranek has two children with her husband Daniel, a 7- and 4-year-old. Her pregnancies had been hard on her body, she says, and risky, because she is diabetic. But she and her husband still planned to have more kids – they wanted three. “I have three brothers and he has one brother – we kind of liked [a number] in the middle of that,” she says.
Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/12/09/1141404068/wisconsin-abortion-law-pregnancy-risk-miscarriage
WISENESS – A Pregnant’s View of Roe v. Wade’s Law and Its Implications for Family-Making
She went back to grieve and wait for the baby to be born. She’s done it before, miscarrying the second time. and she was anxious about possible complications. The days passed miserably, she says, as she suffered through nausea, extreme fatigue, abdominal pain and backaches. After some time, she started to feel unwell.
Since the decision was made to overturn it, news reports and affidavits have shown that this is happening everywhere in the country, including NPR’s story about a woman sent home from an Ohio ER because she was pregnant.
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 believes that more people may want abortions who can’t get them than people who want babies but choose not to have them. “But there’ll still be a group of people – like [Petranek] – who are opting out of having another baby, and that has a major impact on their own hopes and dreams about family-making.”
Pregnant patients with diabetes, like Petranek, have elevated risks of birth defects, preterm birth, preeclampsia and more. “Diabetes is managed well but it is still a risk,” she says. If doctors and nurses are worried that they will be accused of violating the law, it can make it hard for them to get the care they need.
The doctors wrote in the patient’s chart that the current law in Missouri made it unlikely that she would get an abortion even if she were at risk of infections. That hospital is now under investigation for violating a federal law that requires doctors to treat and stabilize patients during a medical emergency.
Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/12/09/1141404068/wisconsin-abortion-law-pregnancy-risk-miscarriage
The traumatic experiences of losing a baby and losing an abortion: Kaitlyn Joshua’s journey from the Louisiana abortion ban to a new family
She says that she knew she would not be able to try again. I didn’t know what to think, but I decided not to do that again if I didn’t have the confidence that I will come out another way.
A procedure known as a D&C has been used to stop the bleeding after many abortions.
Kaitlyn Joshua says she was told to wait weeks for her first prenatal appointment because of Louisiana’s abortion ban. She was sent home from two different ERs when she sought treatment for her heavy bleeding and labor-like pains but she didn’t know whether or not she was carrying a baby or not. The experiences led her and her husband to stop having children of their own.
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.”
She says it’s because of misinformation that people think the law could affect their treatment. “When we’re talking about an ectopic pregnancy, a miscarriage – these are in no way, shape or form an abortion,” she says.
The Evers-Chern-Littlewood lawsuit: It’s coming, but you can’t always have a baby
The lawsuit was supported by Tony Evers. 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.
Doctors in Wisconsin are participating in 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.”
It’s not usually up to individuals to make choices about how many kids to have or when to start trying, according to an gynecologist at the university.
She remembers that the woman said that the group was postponing the first appointment with patients since the US Supreme Court decision and that there was a gray area in Louisiana’s law.
How people process these risks, varies, Cutler explains. A single mom with four kids at home and willing to do whatever it takes in order to have a baby is more likely to risk their own health than a person who wants to have a baby and is willing to do anything for the sake of a baby.
The impact of an abortion ban on family size isn’t as big a deal as one might think, because it is harder to measure.
She says that pregnancy intentions are nuanced. “There are people who are really desperate to get pregnant, there are people who are really desperate to not be pregnant, and most people are somewhere in between,” she explains, and it’s a challenge to capture that nuance in data.
Getting Pregnant and Making the Most Of The Laws: Advice from a Woman in Wisconsin Right to Life, or Concerned about a Pregnancy Complication of Miscarriage
Anti-abortion groups think that state abortion laws can affect the care of pregnant women. Gracie Skogman, legislative director for Wisconsin Right to Life, says “it’s heartbreaking to hear of any woman who feels that she would not be able to have care for miscarriage.”
Cutler says that the concern Petranek feels about potentially not being able to get timely or appropriate care during a pregnancy complication could be very real.
“It creates a real climate of fear where people want to avoid even the perception that they are involved in any abortion care or in miscarriage management,” she says. ” I think we’re seeing physicians and health care institutions draw lines that the law doesn’t have to, so they are staying away from legal liability.”
She says that it was written at a time when antibiotics were not available, Caesareans were performed without anesthesia, and problems of pregnant and labor were poorly understood. Women in the 1850’s were second class citizens with few to no rights.
According to the patient’s perspective, it was decided by the couple that they would use condoms for now but would look into longer term options like an IUD or vasectomy for husband and wife.
Petranek is resolute about the decision, but also sad, and reminders of what she’s lost are everywhere. If she hadn’t miscarried, she would have had a baby over Thanksgiving this year. “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 she thinks about the loss of the baby this year and the loss of a family member in the future. She says, “We want a baby, we want to have a third child.”
And she says, she finds herself looking at her 4-year-old daughter in a new way. “I have to reconcile with the fact that she’s truly, always going to be my youngest child now, when I always pictured her as a big sister someday.”
“There’s a huge cultural problem with people who would call themselves pro-life, not wanting to accept that these are the consequences,” she says. Women who want to be mothers, people who go to church every week, these are the women who are going to suffer the most.
When she found out she was pregnant, she asked her doctor to stay with her doc until she was twelve weeks. Kaitlyn Joshua, an attorney, and the first ER visit to Baton Rouge General
BATON ROUGE, La. – When Kaitlyn Joshua found out she was pregnant in mid-August, she and her husband, Landon Joshua, were excited to have a second baby on the way. They have a 4-year-old daughter, and thought that was just the right age to help out with a younger sibling.
The doctor couldn’t discuss Joshua’s situation, but she says that it’s a good idea to delay a first visit until the 12th week.
“They specifically said, ‘We now no longer see women until they’re at least 12 weeks,’” Joshua recalls. “And I said, ‘Oh Lord. Is it because of what I think? They said yes.
The communications director for Louisiana Right to Life said that there wasn’t a requirement of the law for physicians to delay treatment until after 12 weeks of pregnancy. And she says the law specifically differentiates miscarriage care from abortion.
According to Joshua’s discharge papers from Baton Rouge General, she was suffering from vaginal bleeding, which can, but doesn’t always, lead to miscarriage. The staff at the hospital wrote in her medical charts that it appears that she was having a miscarriage and that she was having a complete or short-lived abortion. Her medical records also note that Joshua’s pregnancy hormone levels, called HCG, had declined from her previous ER visit, when they should have been increasing if her pregnancy was proceeding normally.
Joshua was able to pass the baby on his own. If she had been given a choice, she would have chosen care that made the experience faster, less painful, less scary, and less risky, especially as a Black woman.
Joshua remembers that a nurse told her she might be having one. We wouldn’t want to say that’s what it is. So let’s just keep watching it. You can come back again. Of course, we’re praying for you.’”
She didn’t want to return to the first ER, so she called her mother and husband and told them to meet her at Baton Rouge General in nearby Prairieville. There, a security guard put her in a wheelchair. Her jeans had blood on them. The technician told her that she had lost a lot of blood.
The doctor also said she wouldn’t refer Joshua somewhere else for miscarriage treatment, Joshua recalls, nor give her discharge papers stating she was having a miscarriage, known in medical terminology as a spontaneous abortion.
Joshua asked the doctor for treatment to alleviate her pain and speed up the process. If you’ve lost a baby, you can either take medication, which helps the fetus clear the uterus faster, or seek assistance from a doctor who can remove fetal tissue to make room for the new baby. Both of the latter treatments are also used for abortions.
For anyone who provides an abortion, the law carries stiff penalties of 10 to 15 years in jail, $100,000 to $200,000 in fines and the loss of a physician’s medical license if convicted of performing an abortion.
Doctors must certify in writing that the pregnancy has ended or is a death sentence in order for the exception to work.
Villavicencio says that doctors have been hesitant to refer patients in states with abortion bans.
The law needs clarification, she says. “Providers and patients are in danger because of that,” she says. “And to abdicate all responsibility for making the laws, before drafting the laws in a way that will work for physicians on the ground, is just irresponsible.”
Joshua signed forms allowing the hospital to comment on her care, and Baton Rouge General said that because of her symptoms, she was given instructions on how to manage bleeding and when to see a doctor.
Many people are not going to provide care for patients because of the Attorney General’s Office threatening them both criminally and civilly. We have to figure out a way to provide clear, unambiguous guidance to providers or we will see some consequences of this.
Miscarriages can be dangerous – they can cause hemorrhaging and infections that lead to sepsis – and it makes sense that patients would seek answers and treatment options from health care providers, says Monica McLemore, a registered nurse and the interim director for the Center for Anti-Racism in Nursing at the University of Washington.
“As a health care provider, I feel very strongly that we need to apologize for the harms that we’ve committed. It’s really sad that she wasn’t given the care she needed.
Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/12/29/1143823727/bleeding-and-in-pain-she-couldnt-get-2-louisiana-ers-to-answer-is-it-a-miscarria
Do We Really Need to Know What We’re Telling Us During Pregnant? Comments on the “Sacrificial Evidence” from UCLA Nurse Monica McLemore
They are trying to interpret language and pair it up to specific patients, so that they can calculate if we’ve reached this threshold yet. Have we not? she says.
Doctors also have to consider whether someone else might later disagree with their decision, she adds. “How is somebody else going to interpret that later? What is the potential interpretation of that by law enforcement or a prosecutor?
Monica McLemore, the nurse who researches racism and maternal health at the University of Washington, says research shows that Black patients are less likely to be listened to and believed.
That can cause a lot of distrust in the health system. People who don’t like how they were treated during pregnancy can be less willing to seek care in the future, she added.
“I love my kid. She makes me want another of her. It’s too dangerous for a woman to get pregnant in Louisiana right now. I don’t believe it’s worth it for the baby to die right now.
Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/12/29/1143823727/bleeding-and-in-pain-she-couldnt-get-2-louisiana-ers-to-answer-is-it-a-miscarria
WIMPs, Dark Matter and the Cosmology of the Universe: The Case of the Supernova Remnant at the T Tachyon Dome
This story was produced in partnership with WWNO and KHN. The people who edited it were Carrie Feibel, Jane Greenhalgh and Diane Webber. Meredith Rizzo and Max Posner handled art direction and design. Photographs by a woman.