I Could Have Died

 Apologies if I offend anyone, but I need to share this. I am not a fan of what they call “on-demand” abortion. In other words, I think it is morally wrong to terminate a pregnancy for no other reason than it’s not convenient to have a child. I also understand the financial and physical demands of pregnancy and child-rearing, and that’s why I try to vote for candidates who understand that and work to create/fund programs that provide single mothers with resources that enable them to care for their babies/children. No child should have to grow up in poverty in the one of the richest countries in the world.

While many states with abortion bans have exceptions for life-saving procedures, physicians are often hesitant to perform certain procedures, such as D&C, post miscarriage, that could save a woman’s life, for fear of legal repercussions.

I had a miscarriage in Ohio before my oldest was born. My doctor chose not to do a D&C, even though there was no ban on abortion there at that time. She wanted to see if I would expel the fetal material naturally. Well, I didn’t.

Instead, I began to hemorrhage, and I had to be rushed to the E/R to have an emergency D&C performed. Thankfully, I was okay (obviously). The doctor who performed the emergency D&C questioned why my regular doctor didn’t just schedule it immediately after, which she said is standard practice. We’ll never know, but I do know that given the current law and political climate around abortion now, she and other doctors would almost certainly not do the D&C right after. And that’s scary to me. What if I had not made it to the E/R on time? What if the E/R doctor had been scared to do a D&C for fear of being arrested? What if I had bled out? I could have died.

I completely understand being morally against abortion. But I also think there needs to be more thought and discussion around it than simply banning it outright. Pro-life shouldn’t mean protecting “fetal material” at the expense of the mother’s life. Pro-life shouldn’t mean putting a woman’s life in danger who has other children at home who need their mama. Pro-life shouldn’t mean forcing a woman to have a baby, only to have her child grow up in poverty. 

We are smarter than that. We are better than that. Let’s stop the partisan B.S. and come up with real solutions for both women and their babies.

Thank you for reading.