Sen. Warren sounds the alarm on abortion rights at SouthCoast health roundtable talk

WAREHAM — U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren met with healthcare advocates in Wareham on Tuesday afternoon to support efforts to ensure access to reproductive health for all.

The Massachusetts Democrat was at Health Imperatives in Wareham, one of several locations including New Bedford, Brockton, Plymouth, Hyannis, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, to hear from local leaders and discuss strategies for improving care in vulnerable communities.

“Even here in blue Massachusetts, access to abortion services is limited in areas that are not near one of the major cities, and this meeting was with people who are expanding that access to the Cape, the Islands, to Greater Plymouth area, and I want celebrate and thank them for their work,” she said.

The need for public education was highlighted due to what the roundtable participants cited as the emergence of so-called fake abortion clinics, numbering three to every one “licensed authentic clinic,” and their use of deceptive practices to make it difficult to differentiate between the two.

“When I meet with people who are working so hard to make sure that everyone gets access to the health care they need, it makes me even prouder,” Warren said. “These are a group of people who have really committed their lives to helping people who are sometimes are in terribly difficult circumstances.”

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Massachusetts Department of Public Health Director Dr. Robert Goldstein said the department released a memo in early January to all licensed clinics and all licensed providers to make it clear that you cannot deceive people in a healthcare setting or legally promote a practice that will cause harm.

Goldstein said some claim to be health care providers when they are not. To provide healthcare, he said, they must be licensed by the DPH.

“What we see in these anti-abortion centers is not just that they’re deceiving, but actually their procedures, their diagnoses, are bringing harm to women,” he said.

Goldstein cited the case of a woman who went into an anti-abortion center in Worcester and was erroneously diagnosed with a viable pregnancy. She had an ectopic pregnancy a week later and showed up at UMass Memorial Medical Center with a catastrophic outcome.

He said that never should have happened because the nurse in that facility did not have the scope of practice to make that diagnosis, and that information should not have been shared directly with the woman, and they could have intervened at an early time.

“The people are allowed to make the case against abortion, but they’re not allowed to deceive people and to put them in harm’s way, at least not in a medical setting,” he said.

Goldstein said it’s the health department’s responsibility to ensure the facilities provide high-quality, safe medical care.

“It’s our responsibility to make sure that’s happening in facilities, and if you’re not able to do that, which we think anti-abortion centers are not able to do that, you can’t operate in this state,” he said.

Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts CEO Dominique Lee said it’s really important to combat these pop-up clinics and deceptive practices.

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Warren speaks to the national discussion on abortion

Warren said the second reason she wanted to meet was to sound the alarm that abortion is on the ballot in 2024 if the Republicans gain control of government and ban abortion nationwide.

“That means no one is safe anywhere, even in a place like Massachusetts,” she said. “It means that politicians will be making the decisions that doctors and patients should be making themselves.”

Warren said Republicans have been open about their desire to ban abortion nationwide, with former president Donald Trump, Sen. Mitch McConnell and House and Senate leaders having said out loud that if they get the chance, politicians, not patients or doctors, will make decisions about abortion.

She said as discussed by experts during the roundtable discussion, people from Massachusetts and people from other states who are young, don’t speak English and people in poverty who are overstressed are particularly vulnerable and don’t have the option to shop extensively for medical care.

Warren said one of her takeaways from the conversation between the state and nonprofit groups was that patients and doctors make medical decisions, not distant politicians. She also offered her help at the federal level, leaving the meeting with a list of tasks.

Warren has introduced legislation to prohibit Google and other companies from selling location data, because that information could be used to track who is in an abortion clinic for several hours. She said she also wants to increase funding for health care access for everyone in Massachusetts.

Standard-Times staff writer Kathryn Gallerani can be reached at kgallerani@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @kgallreporter. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Standard-Times today.

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Warren meets with healthcare advocates, talks abortion rights