I am a retired physician and current board chair of the education and advocacy organization Grandmothers for Reproductive Rights. I practiced women’s medicine in Farmington for 30 years, during which time it was my immense privilege to care for thousands of people during pregnancy, and to have delivered many babies. That care has involved listening to, advising and supporting the medical decisions patients have made along the way, including abortion. Some of those decisions are breathtakingly hard and very personal.

L.D. 1619 would say to all that we, in Maine, trust people to make their own medical decisions. In consultation with their medical providers, we trust them to determine what is best for their lives, their families and the health of both. Also, it would mean that we will not criminalize the providers who care for them; we will not allow the privacy of their care to be violated, and we’ll assure their safety and bodily autonomy. We should enthusiastically do that.

When I have talked with patients ending pregnancies after the first trimester, they have universally said that what gets them through the excruciatingly difficult situation is being supported by those they care about, near home. Seven other states already have no gestational limits on abortion services. Still, less than 1% of abortions nationally are after 22 weeks. These are rare interventions but incredibly important to those involved, and more humanely accomplished with the support of loved ones and trusted providers.

Murky or restrictive laws put providers at risk of imprisonment or sanction for making even needed interventions in a pregnancy. Delaying or denying such care can lead to hemorrhage, sepsis, organ failure and even death.

Patients and providers often have difficult conversations about individual health care and make plans based on numerous biological and ethical variables. They discuss choices, implications, risks. Decision-making can be nuanced and complex.

Government does not interfere when that discussion is about cancer treatment, hospice care or surgery, and it should not interfere in reproductive health care. Mainers should be able to direct their own care, including abortion, without barriers, legal threats or judgment.

These decisions belong in an exam room, not in a legislative chamber, and not in a courtroom.

 

Connie Adler, M.D.

Chesterville

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