Why Abortion Is Health Care

[marmar]

Why Abortion Is Health Care
It’s not just about extreme cases—pregnancy can have a lifelong impact on well-being.

BY DAKOTA E. MCCOY AND MADISON SHARP
MAY 09, 20223:52 PM


(Slate) Tiffany was 17 weeks pregnant when her water broke while she walked to her car. The fetus wasn’t viable. Her OB-GYN team recommended an abortion—the standard of care, given the high risk of infection and death associated with her condition. While she considered her options, her blood stopped clotting properly—a possibly deadly complication. Doctors intubated her and rushed her to the ICU for a prolonged stay, where she had an emergency abortion. Without access to abortion, Tiffany would have died.

Tiffany, whose name we have changed, is an extreme example. In conversations around abortion rights, such extreme examples often come up as to why abortion is health care. And it’s true: Abortion can be an acutely lifesaving tool.

But carrying a fetus is inherently risky, even in normal pregnancies. The risk that something will go drastically wrong for the mother in pregnancy, or that there will be harmful lifelong health consequences, is unavoidable: Fundamental evolutionary forces have etched these risks into our genes. If you talk to five pregnant people in the USA, statistically one of them will experience a potentially serious complication, like high blood pressure or gestational diabetes.

Many of us are willing to take our chances, with the support of medical care, for the joy of childbirth. But if laws erase the choice to have an abortion, pregnant people will be legally required to put their health, and even lives, at risk. Biology makes sure of that.

The reason is simple: Sometimes what is good for the embryo is not good for the mother. Embryos extract resources from their mothers to improve their own health, which can at times come at the expense of maternal health. From the perspective of the embryo, the benefits of this “selfish” evolutionary strategy outweigh the corresponding costs—the chance of harm or death to the mother. Biologists have a term for this: “parent-offspring conflict.” ..........(more)

https://slate.com/technology/2022/05/abortion-access-health-care-pregnancy.html

[Solly Mack]

1. I always want to smack people who say, "as natural as childbirth".

Or speak of how women have been giving birth for thousands of years, when trying to advance their argument that childbirth is just so natural.

Not all women can get pregnant and just because a woman/girl can get pregnant doesn't mean they should be pregnant.

And pregnancy can and too often does kill a woman/girl. It can cause lifelong damage to a woman/girl.

Nothing "natural" about it.

[arlyellowdog]

2. Doctors dump high risk women

The target of the right wingers is the doctors. The women who need the doctors desperately want a baby. A woman hears her baby’s heartbeat at 6 weeks, the most beautiful sound she’s ever heard. Then, at 8 weeks finds out the fetus has stopped developing, but there is still a heartbeat. The doctor says the fetus is basically on life support. She is come back in a week and wait for the heartbeat to stop. Yes, there are risks to the mother, but we have to protect the doctor. Then, after the sadness, the doctor says, you are too high risk, if you get pregnant again, I will not care for you. How often does this happen? What are the odds of miscarriage at a certain age? 20% 40%. I know women who will not go to a doctor until they are 12 weeks pregnant so they are not rejected. A woman must be brave to try for a baby now.

[LeftInTX]

4. Oh F....I believe it!

Women with history of maternal drug abuse often are dumped. When I worked at the county hospital we had many mothers come in with "no prenatal care".

One mom told me, "I could not find a doctor because of my history". I believe she may have been on methadone and was clean for other drugs etc.

[arlyellowdog]

5. Not that it's different

But, doctors don’t discriminate that much in dumping women. And the goal of the legislation is to force doctors to choose their license over any consideration.

[LeftInTX]

7. I was dumped when I was pregnant!

I have fibromyalgia and inquired about some meds.

That was it, she dumped me.
I felt pretty hopeless!

This was in 1992.

Fortunately, I found another doctor.

[LeftInTX]

3. Absolutely

Great article

Women who have had previous pregnancies, women who are obese and have pre-existing conditions such as diabetes or hypertension are at risk for having complications in the first and second trimester of pregnancy.

Usually these problems are an issue in the third trimester, but sometimes they can cause problems earlier.

[MineralMan]

6. Of Course It Is!

That's why there are OB/GYN specialists.