Opinion: OB-GYNs could have solidified abortion as health care after Roe. They missed their chance
If 50 years ago the field of OB-GYN had not been so skittish about abortion, things might be different today.
Reflecting on this first anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs to overturn Roe v. Wade, I think first about the unconscionable health risks faced by pregnant people in states where abortions are now banned, when their pregnancies turn dangerous.
But the decision has also been a nightmare for physicians (mainly OB-GYNs) in those states. These doctors — not all of whom identify as “abortion providers” — are caught in the untenable position of choosing between properly caring for their patients and risking imprisonment if convicted of performing an unauthorized abortion. (In Alabama and Texas, they might face life sentences.) This situation has become so difficult for physicians and other health professional professionals that a new phrase is increasingly heard in OB-GYN circles in banned states: “moral distress.” But the story of abortion in America might have been different, if the medical profession in 1973 had taken women’s health care needs more seriously.
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