‘We will not be doing state-of-the-art medicine’: Pueblo OB-GYNs rebuke anti-abortion ordinance

A proposed ordinance that would effectively ban abortions within Pueblo city limits would also restrict local doctors from providing adequate medical care, OB-GYNs said at a city council work session Wednesday evening.

The proposed ordinance, which cites a federal law from 1873 that prohibits mailing abortion-related materials, was introduced by Councilor Regina Maestri because anti-abortion activists asked her to take action after news broke of a planned abortion clinic coming to Pueblo.

OB-GYN doctors from Parkview Health System, who do not perform abortions, said the proposed ordinance would block them from providing adequate care to their patients because it states that it would be unlawful for anybody to mail “any article or thing designed, adapted or intended for producing abortion.”

“Half the stuff we use was adapted for clinical practice from people who do abortions: it's the tools of the trade,” Dr. Mike Growney told council members. “It's the same equipment, it's the same medication. We just use it in different ways.”

The ordinance provides an exception for ectopic pregnancies, fertility treatments, Plan B pills, removing a dead “unborn child” and saving the life of a baby, but the doctors said that the ordinance, as written, would block them from adequately caring for their patients.

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Growney said he was speaking on behalf of most Pueblo OB-GYN doctors, the medical staff and Parkview hospital itself against the “overly vague measure” council is considering.

“The ordinance you're considering would impede our efforts to provide comprehensive medical care to women and detract from our ability to routinely provide lifesaving services for your wife, your sisters, your moms and yourself,” Growney said.

“This proposed ordinance was written — looks like out of town, and touted by someone from Texas — who apparently has never bothered to ask a gynecologist about our tools of the trade.”

Growney said the doctors already struggle with some pharmacists refusing to fill prescriptions for misoprostol, a “common stomach ulcer medicine” that OB-GYNs use to reduce postpartum bleeding and after miscarriages because the medicine can also be used for abortions.

Dr. Joseph Castelli emphasized that council’s decision would affect all of the people in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico who rely on Parkview for health services.

“Keep in mind that you're not just making a decision for the folks that live here in your jurisdiction, you're actually making a decision for hundreds of thousands of lives from Alamosa to Trinidad, Raton to Lamar. … We will not be doing state-of-the-art medicine if this happens,” Castelli said.

The enforcement mechanism for the measure is similar to the six-week abortion ban in Texas where private citizens can sue individuals. If Pueblo City Council votes to pass the ordinance, private citizens could sue abortion providers for at least $100,000.

Mark Lee Dickson, who helped craft Pueblo’s ordinance and has helped over 60 towns and cities pass similar ordinances across the country, was also involved with that bill.

The Parkview doctors told city council the ordinance could lead to medical staff leaving and would deter incoming talent.

“The way that this law appears to be written scares us,” Castelli said, saying that the ordinance would hang like a “shadow” over their heads.

“The most important part of the Hippocratic oath is first, do no harm. I fear that the proposed ordinance will do that,” Castelli said.

The proposed abortion clinic in Pueblo’s Bessemer neighborhood will be operated by Clinics for Abortion and Reproductive Excellence, which also runs clinics in Nebraska and Maryland.

Dr. Leroy Carhart, CARE’s chief operating officer, purchased the building in September for $365,000 according to Pueblo County assessor’s records. Two medical-related business entities had been registered with the Colorado Secretary of State at that address.

Mayor Nick Gradisar has said there’s nothing the city can do to stop the proposed clinic from opening. Colorado law prohibits local governments from restricting access to reproductive health care, including abortions.

Council is scheduled to cast a final vote on the ordinance Dec. 12.

Anna Lynn Winfrey covers politics for the Pueblo Chieftain. She can be reached at awinfrey@gannett.com or on Twitter, @annalynnfrey.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo doctors urge city council not to pass anti-abortion ordinance