24 June 2022 Blog Post: Overturning Roe v. Wade
On May 3rd I wrote a blog about the, then, leaked Supreme Court majority opinion on overturning Roe v. Wade which has now become reality (link: https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/roe-wade-abortion-supreme-court-ruling/h_9a4458b69569b8f7ff46c76cb2238577). Even more disturbing (if such a thing is even possible) is that the ruling further opens the door to the reconsideration of same-sex marriage and contraception. As the dissenting opinion points out:
“The right Roe and Casey recognized does not stand alone,” they wrote. “To the contrary, the Court has linked it for decades to other settled freedoms involving bodily integrity, familial relationships, and procreation. Most obviously, the right to terminate a pregnancy arose straight out of the right to purchase and use contraception. In turn, those rights led, more recently, to rights of same-sex intimacy and marriage.”
Stated simply woman’s right to access competent and safe pregnancy termination care is, quite simply, a public health issue and those that voted in an administration permitting this travesty, have mixed politics and health.
As it stands, maternal mortality in the United States has already increased in every ethnic group (Figure below) since 2018 with statistically significant rises in the aggregate for both 2019 and 2020. For all US women, a total of 23.8 women die per 100,000 live births.
Countries with better training of and access to abortion providers have lower maternal mortality rates. We suffer (as with most healthcare outcomes) disastrously by comparison (Figure 2 below; 2018 data).
Access to safe abortion care is an essential component of health care, not politics. As it stands, hundreds of pregnant American women die unnecessarily each year and that will only get worse. The Supreme Court can frame their opinion as constitutional law, but in reality, they have strayed far out of their lane. Evidence-based health policies and good reproductive health care from well trained professionals is needed – not a dangerous majority opinion from political appointees.
What’s worse, is that their overreach has only just begun.
𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗨𝗽 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿
By submitting this form you indicate you have read and agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Please contact us for more information.
2 Comments
Dr. Bretsky, you are just a great physician (with excellent bedside manner by the way), you a great human being.
Thank you. It warms our hearts to see comments such as yours. Glad we could be of help any time.