Some Women Denied Abortions Despite Pregnancy Complications

 Some Women Denied Abortions² Despite Pregnancy³ Complications

It has been five months since the U.S. Supreme⁴ Court overturned Roe⁵ v. Wade⁶. The ruling ended a 50-year-old legal right to abortion¹ nationwide. Instead, individual states now decide on whether to permit, limit or ban the medical procedure to end a pregnancy.

Some doctors in states with restrictive abortion laws say they have sent more patients go somewhere else than ever before. Some women are facing harmful, possibly deadly, delays. Doctors say they are forced to balance medical judgment⁷ with possible punishments, including prison time.

Weeks after the overturn of Roe, Dr. Grace Ferguson treated a woman whose water had broken halfway⁸ through pregnancy. The baby would never survive, and the patient's chance of developing a possibly life-threatening infection grew with every hour.

The woman had already spent two days at a hospital in West Virginia before she saw Ferguson in the neighboring state of Pennsylvania. She was not able to get an abortion in West Virginia because the state bans the procedure except in the case of a medical emergency. The patient's life was not in danger at that exact time, so doctors did not operate.

At the hospital in Pennsylvania, where abortion is legal, Ferguson was able to induce labor⁹ to end the pregnancy.

How close to death must the patient be?

Although even the strictest laws permit abortion to save a mother's life, a serious question remains¹⁰: How close to death must the patient be? "You don't automatically go from living to dead," Ferguson said. "You slowly get sicker and sicker."

It is impossible to say when that line is crossed, said Dr. Alison Haddock. She is on the board of the American College of Emergency Physicians.

"There's just no moment where I'm standing¹¹ in front of a critically ill patient where I know: OK, before their health was just in danger. But now, their life is in danger," she said.

Experts say it is hard to know the number of abortion denials when serious complications happen. Employers often tell their health care workers not to speak about such cases. Even still, The Associated Press reached several doctors and patients who shared stories of such denials.

Many doctors and researchers agree that evidence shows it is a widespread problem. In Texas, for example, a doctors' association sent a letter to the state's medical board saying some hospitals refused to treat patients with major complications because of the state's abortion ban.

Dr. Cara Heuser is a maternal¹²-fetal specialist in Utah. She recalled one patient who was denied an abortion in the neighboring state of Idaho despite developing a serious heart condition halfway through pregnancy. The woman had to be sent to Utah for the procedure.

Dr. Lauren Miller¹³ is a maternal-fetal specialist in Idaho's capital of Boise. She said she often sees patients whose water breaks at 15 through 19 weeks of pregnancy. All that doctors can do is help them make the difficult decision: "Do they stay here for their care and just wait until something bad happens, or do we facilitate them finding care out of state?"

The stories are similar when pregnancy is complicated by cancer. About 1 in 1,000 pregnant women find out they have cancer each year.

Dr. Karen Knudsen is chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society. She said some cancer doctors have questions about treating pregnant cancer patients, especially when therapies may cause miscarriage¹⁴.

Some abortion opponents say doctors may be unnecessarily denying abortions in life-threatening situations out of fear.

It comes down to intent

Dr. Patti Giebink is a former abortion doctor who described changing her opinion about the procedure in her book Unexpected Choice: An Abortion Doctor's Journey to Pro-Life. She said it comes down to intent. If you intend to save the mother and not end the life of the fetus¹⁵, she said, "you're doing good medicine."

"We're sort of in a period of time where all these questions come up," she said. "The legislatures are going to be working to solve some of these problems."

Dr. Paul LaRose is a member of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists. He said he thinks the issue is overstated.

"Most pro-life physicians would take care of the mother and do what's necessary without purposely taking the life of the unborn baby," LaRose said.

But some women say restrictive abortion laws have put them in danger.

Denied care

Mylissa Farmer is from Joplin, Missouri. In August, her water broke 17 and a half weeks into her pregnancy. She went to the emergency room. Tests showed she had lost all her amniotic fluid. The fetus she and her boyfriend had named Maeve was not expected to survive.

Despite risks of infection and blood loss, she could not get an abortion. The fetus still had a heartbeat. Doctors told her Missouri law superseded¹⁶ their judgment, medical records show.

She tried for days to get an out-of-state abortion, but many hospitals said they could not take her. In the end, an abortion helpline connected Farmer with a medical center in Granite¹⁷ City, Illinois. She drove more than four hours from home — while in labor — and had the procedure.

News organizations reported on Farmer's story. She appeared in a political advertisement. Later, the Missouri health department started an investigation¹⁸ into whether the Joplin hospital had violated federal law. The state has shared its early findings with the federal government.

Farmer said the experience was deeply traumatic. She decided¹⁹ to take a permanent step to make sure nothing like this happens to her again.

She got her tubes tied. The procedure prevents her from getting pregnant in the future.

Words in This Story

induce - v. to cause (someone or something) to do something

automatically - adv. happening or done without deliberate thought or effort

moment - n. a particular time : a precise point in time

complication - n. something that makes something harder to understand, explain, or deal with

maternal - adj. of or relating to a woman who is having a baby

facilitate - v. to help (something) run more smoothly²⁰ and effectively

miscarriage - n. a condition in which a pregnancy ends too early and does not result in the birth of a live baby

amniotic fluid - n. the fluid surrounding a fetus

traumatic - adj. causing someone to become very upset in a way that can lead to serious mental and emotional problems

1 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。

2 abortions   

n.小产( abortion的名词复数 )；小产胎儿；（计划）等中止或夭折；败育

参考例句：

• The Venerable Master: By not having abortions, by not killing living beings. 上人：不堕胎、不杀生。 来自互联网
• Conclusion Chromosome abnormality is one of the causes of spontaneous abortions. 结论：染色体异常是导致反复自然流产的原因之一。 来自互联网

3 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

4 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

5 roe   

n.鱼卵；獐鹿

参考例句：

• We will serve smoked cod's roe at the dinner.宴会上我们将上一道熏鳕鱼子。
• I'll scramble some eggs with roe?我用鱼籽炒几个鸡蛋好吗？

6 wade   

v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉

参考例句：

• We had to wade through the river to the opposite bank.我们只好涉水过河到对岸。
• We cannot but wade across the river.我们只好趟水过去。

7 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

8 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

9 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

10 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

11 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

12 maternal   

adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的

参考例句：

• He is my maternal uncle.他是我舅舅。
• The sight of the hopeless little boy aroused her maternal instincts.那个绝望的小男孩的模样唤起了她的母性。

13 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

14 miscarriage   

n.失败，未达到预期的结果；流产

参考例句：

• The miscarriage of our plans was a great blow.计划的失败给我们以巨大的打击。
• Women who smoke are more to have a miscarriage.女性吸烟者更容易流产。

15 fetus   

n.胎，胎儿

参考例句：

• In the fetus,blood cells are formed in different sites at different ages.胎儿的血细胞在不同时期生成在不同的部位。
• No one knows why a fetus is not automatically rejected by the mother's immune system. 没有人知道为什么母亲的免疫系统不会自动排斥胎儿。

16 superseded   

[医]被代替的，废弃的

参考例句：

• The theory has been superseded by more recent research. 这一理论已为新近的研究所取代。
• The use of machinery has superseded manual labour. 机器的使用已经取代了手工劳动。

17 granite   

adj.花岗岩，花岗石

参考例句：

• They squared a block of granite.他们把一块花岗岩加工成四方形。
• The granite overlies the older rocks.花岗岩躺在磨损的岩石上面。

18 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

19 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

20 smoothly   

adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• Just change one or two words and the sentence will read smoothly.这句话只要动一两个字就顺了。