Rampant disinformation on abortion care putting lives at risk
Imagine that someone close to you is pregnant, growing their family, and looking forward to bringing their baby home. During a routine check-up, they find out that their pregnancy is impacted by a life-threatening complication for themselves or their baby, and because of the new law, there is no possibility for medical intervention.
Currently, Republicans in Tallahassee, led by our local Senator Kathleen Passidomo, are fast-tracking legislation that would bar doctors from providing critical health care to those who are experiencing serious pregnancy complications.
For over 30 years, I have provided OB-GYN care to pregnant patients. But never in my life did I think treating my community would be criminalized.
The six-week ban does not allow for caring for women with severe medical problems who should not continue their pregnancies. Please consider the implications for someone with an incomplete miscarriage that we will not be allowed to treat, and her subsequent risk of infection, sepsis and death.
Situations routinely occur in which there are severe and often fatal consequences for mothers. Unfortunately, we are not aware of severe birth defects until after 18-20 weeks. This law would force families to continue pregnancies in which their unborn child has severe life-threatening birth defects and conditions incompatible with life. They must wait, knowing their child’s life will be tragically short and painful.
The ban does not allow exceptions for cancer patients who will no longer have the option to receive lifesaving treatment during their pregnancies. Patients who receive a cancer diagnosis while pregnant must choose between saving their own lives or potentially dying and leaving their other children motherless to continue their pregnancy.
Additionally, victims of incest and rape will be forced to carry pregnancies to term. The six-week ban provides an exception, if you can provide proof in the form of a police report or other official documents. Many assaults go unreported, so what can those survivors do?
The current 15-week ban doesn’t allow for any of this either. That ban has already been devastating for our most critical patients, and their families, who are seeking health care while grappling with tragedy. Caring for these patients in their most vulnerable moments has been criminalized.
But, you wouldn’t necessarily know that.
The rampant disinformation surrounding reproductive care has gone entirely too far. Families are being forced to continue pregnancies where the fetus has severe birth defects and conditions incompatible with life. This leads to unimaginable emotional and financial strain for the entire family, and threatens the ability of parents to care for the children they already have.
If you’ve been following the news, you may know the story of Deborah Dorbert in Lakeland. She found out that her fetus would be born without kidneys and had no amniotic fluid in the womb at her early ultrasound scan. Despite knowing her baby would die hours after being born, and that the condition was painful both physically and mentally for Deborah, her doctors could not provide the abortion she requested because of how vague the exemption language is. This is the language that anti-abortion politicians point to saying “See, this abortion ban isn’t so bad.” But it is that bad, and lives are on the line.
Responding to the threat of over-policing reproductive services, in 2022 the American Medical Association adopted a policy recognizing that it is a violation of human rights when governments intrude into medicine and block access to safe, evidence-based reproductive health services including abortion and contraception. When our lawmakers are passing bills that involve science and medicine, they should listen to the professionals, not fringe extremists.
As our senator, Kathleen Passidomo, leads the Republican caucus, we plead with her to reconsider supporting this six-week abortion ban. A further ban on abortion will not have their intended effect. The bill’s sponsors claim they’re trying to save lives but, in reality, they are putting them at risk.
It seems incomprehensible that our society has such little compassion for victims that we actually require a victim of rape or incest — or a victim of cancer — or a parent of an infant affected by a condition incompatible with life to continue the pregnancy to term. To remove the right to choose for women and families can be seen as cruel and unusual punishment, and once again this impacts our most vulnerable communities: those with limited access to contraception and limited ability to travel outside the state for necessary services.
Instead of banning health care, we need to fully fund access to birth control and Plan B. We need to provide age-appropriate, comprehensive sex ed in schools to curb unintended pregnancies. And we need to expand Medicaid so people who cannot afford health care can access it.
When I became a doctor, I took an oath that I would “to the best of my ability serve humanity —caring for the sick, promoting good health, and alleviating pain and suffering.”
I will not stop fighting this cruel and dangerous abortion ban.
Dr. Betsy Brothers has been an OB-GYN for over 30 years, and currently practices in Naples, Florida.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Rampant disinformation on abortion care putting lives at risk
