By Dave Dahl
SPRINGFIELD – Let’s take a minute to step away from the discussion of whether abortion should be legal and ask for a doctor’s perspective.
When somebody says, “Abortion is health care,” what do they mean by that?
Dr. Michelle Brown of Chicago is legislative chair of the Illinois chapter of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and said, “Abortion is a way to ensure the health of the maternal population. There are pre-existing conditions in patients or complications that come up in pregnancy that can threaten the lives of women. like pulmonary hypertension, which can be incredibly dangerous. There are life threatening pregnancy complications, such as water breaking before the baby is viable.”
Brown also mentions such factors as women choosing not to interrupt work or school – or, if they already have kids, not to have another one.
Speaking of kids, do we really want that twelve-year-old to carry a baby to full term, give birth, and become a mother?
“That pregnancy is going to be incredibly dangerous for her,” said Brown. “Her body is not developed to the point where she can support her pregnancy well at twelve years old. She has a much higher rate of dying if she carries that pregnancy to term and delivers than she does if she is able to access a first-trimester abortion,” to say nothing of, for example, the toll of post-partum depression.
Brown says outlawing abortions will only outlaw safe abortions.
“Access to abortion, whether it’s legal or not, does not impact the number of people seeking abortions. “It only impacts the number of women who die from them.”
A leak of a draft document suggests the U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected].
