Threats to reproductive healthcare
8 July 2024
We now have 121 days of freedom until the November 5, 2024 election. If Trump wins, we will lose our democracy and many rights we now take for granted. This essay discusses how the election will affect reproductive health care for women and girls.
President Biden and the Democratic Party support reproductive health care for women and girls and have made this a major part of their platforms. In contrast, Donald Trump and almost all Republican Party officials oppose these rights and have worked hard to limit them at the national and state levels.
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What will Trump do as President? We should judge him by his past actions and statements, including his repeated boast that he appointed the 3 Justices who helped overturn Roe vs. Wade, which eliminated the constitutional right to abortions. We cannot rely on what he says today because he (a) repeatedly changes his public statements, (b) is a prolific liar (so much so that we ignore it) and (c) regularly denies his past statements and actions, even when confronted with videos showing what he said or did.
These are the important facts regarding reproductive health care rights:
President Biden supports abortion rights nationwide but Trump and the Republican Party support a national ban on medication-based and surgical abortions.
These abortion bans are designed to prohibit almost all abortions, including for rape and incest. These bans also delay and prohibit proper medical care for women and girls with pregnancy complications such as ectopic pregnancy, miscarriages and pending fetal deaths, even as they increase the risk of maternal infertility, other medical problems and even death.
“I’ll hope I won’t experience a pregnancy complication — one that could land me in a South Dakota hospital, where physicians will weigh my life against the risk of incarceration. I’ll hope doctors do not discover a fatal fetal abnormality on a random Thursday, forcing me to travel even further so I can have what I know to be a humane, merciful abortion that will spare my future child a short life of suffering.” Source
In antiabortion states, women wait in emergency room parking lots until their nonviable pregnancies render them “sick enough” to receive care. They miscarry alone in hospital bathrooms. They are forced to carry nonviable pregnancies to term even though the fetuses have abnormalities incompatible with life. They undergo unnecessary C-sections. Trump created this torture for women and will expand it nationwide if put back in office.
As noted by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists:
Legislation that bans abortion care for those with an ectopic pregnancy or mandates how clinicians treat ectopic pregnancies does not reflect the clinical reality of ectopic pregnancy management and could result in delays or even denials of care.
Any application of an abortion ban that affects those in need of treatment for ectopic pregnancy is inappropriate and will certainly cost lives.
As a practical matter, abortion exceptions are often meaningless because physicians and hospitals in anti-abortion states do not want to perform abortions under any circumstances to avoid being charged with a felony if the local prosecutor disagrees with their interpretation of whether the exceptions apply. This refusal to perform abortions will increase with a nationwide ban. Health care professionals should not have to navigate vague legal or statutory language to determine whether the law allows them to exercise their professional judgment and provide evidence-based care.
If Trump is elected, women and girls should expect to give up substantial control of their lives to federal and state officials if they become pregnant because Trump and the Republican Party are more interested in protecting an embryo or fetus than in protecting the lives of pregnant women or girls.
If Trump is elected, Americans will have to travel to Canada, Mexico or other countries to get an abortion, even to save their life.
If Trump is elected, IVF is likely to be limited, as it is in some anti-abortion states.
These abortion bans are even dangerous to women and girls NOT pregnant because physicians may be unable to prescribe medications and offer treatments for autoimmune diseases, cancer and other conditions that may adversely affect an embryo if they become pregnant in the future.
Other policies Trump is likely to support
Trump is likely to support Republican policies that ban travel to get an abortion. This means travel to other countries to get an abortion would be a felony.
Trump is likely to support Republican policies that ban any assistance to get an abortion. This means it would be a felony for friends, family and health care personnel to give advice, gas, money or even to provide a URL that relates to abortion. These "anti-assistance” policies will destroy our open society because people will be afraid to talk or communicate with each other for fear of prosecution.
Trump is likely to support Republican policies that ban contraceptive use, particularly hormonal birth control, the morning after pill and IUDs, which they incorrectly believe are equivalent to abortion.
Trump is likely to support Republican policies that use public schools to indoctrinate children about the “dangers” of abortions and use public dollars to fund anti-abortion centers.
Trump is likely to support Republican policies that make abortions a matter of public record.
What you can do:
Support President Biden and Democrats at the federal, state and local levels. Voting for Trump will deny tens of millions of American women and girls these rights. Conservatives will join the many prominent Republicans who support President Biden and the Democratic Party, not because they agree with all their policies but because they recognize that Biden is moral, rational and pro-democracy and Trump is not.
Become more politically active: “the greatest menace to freedom is an inert people”. Justice Louis Brandeis
Note that: “There is no leader who will make the decision you want her or him to make 100 percent of the time. Your vote is a tool of hope for a better world. Use it wisely, for it is precious. Use it for others, for they are in need of your support, too.” George H. Takei
Life is about tradeoffs - we must make the best choices we can at the time. To protect reproductive rights, maintain democracy and avoid a dictatorship, I am voting for President Biden and the Democrats and suggest that you do so also.
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