Medical professionals to legislature: Women should have access to safe abortions | Opinion

Open letter to the General Assembly of Tennessee:

We the undersigned are medical doctors, nurses and health care providers who treat some of the most vulnerable populations in our great state — children. As such, we have the opportunity to interact with families and households from a wide array of backgrounds, ethnicities and medical complexities. It is a privilege to take care of these families and children when they are acutely sick, and help them grow and develop when they are healthy.

It is from this perspective that we are deeply saddened and horrified by the Supreme Court’s decision to strip women of their right to free will and bodily autonomy by overturning Roe v. Wade. The right to safe and accessible abortion allows women to make deeply personal and crucial health care decisions about their own bodies.

Many of the young women that we take care of, especially those with chronic medical conditions, can be seriously harmed or even die as a result of pregnancy and childbirth. Removing the option of abortion for these women can adversely impact their health. For other women, this forced pregnancy pushes them into unwanted parenthood, financial and emotional hardships, and negatively impacts their futures and the futures of the fetus they are dictated to carry.

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We demand that you take action to protect the rights of bodily autonomy and free will for people of your state. Codifying the right to abortion in Tennessee state law will give some of these rights back to your constituents. Forced pregnancy will ultimately affect the poorest and most vulnerable populations in this state — those without reliable access to health care, racial minorities, and those without resources to travel to other states to receive these services.

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If you truly value the lives and health of Tennessee women and the children they chose to have, you can:

• Provide free, accessible and comprehensive prenatal care for women in this state.

• Cover all birth-related hospital visits.

• Work to expand health care coverage for all children.

• Expand Medicaid and increase funding for safety-net hospitals.

We know that you are hearing from thousands upon thousands of constituents and viewpoints at this time, but we ask you to open your heart, think deeply about these issues and do the right thing.

Thank you,

Christopher Schmitt, MD, MPH

Kimberly Uchida, MD

Seerat Kapoor, PharmD

Ashley Kiene, MD

Britney Spicer

Jennifer Kramer, MD

Megan R. Williams, PharmD

Kristin Wilson, RDCS

Sharon Babb

Sarah Parkerson, MD

Amy Gregory McDonough

Jason Johnson, MD MHS

James Chang, MD

Lindsey Pierotti

Marybeth Arnold, RN

Erica Davis

Jonathan A McCullers, MD

Evan Harvey, MD

Alejandra Gabela, MD

Neil Tailor, MD

Zury Alta

Kally Patton, RCIS 

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Medical professionals: Women should have access to safe abortions