If you’ve turned on the news or perused social media in the last week, you’ll have certainly heard about Roe vs. Wade being overturned in the United States – a law that since 1973 protected a pregnant woman’s right to abortion across all states until June 24, 2022.
The U.S. supreme court’s recent ruling gives individual states the power to set their own abortion laws. According to reports, almost half the states are expected to outlaw or severely restrict women’s access to abortion.
Not only will abortion become entirely unsafe for American women, but those women, doctors, pharmacists, health-care workers, friends, and family could be criminalized for a pregnancy that doesn’t end with a healthy live birth.
In my opinion, this isn’t just a step back 50 years. It’s much worse, and takes us to the possibility of any pregnancy loss potentially being investigated as a crime.
This topic has proven to be very controversial and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to add my own voice to the arguments that are already out there. Instead of ranting about the recent decision in the U.S., I thought I would share a bit about my own recent experience.
I’m currently pregnant with twins, in my third-trimester, and it has not been easy. My husband and I were shocked and thrilled earlier this year to find out we are having twins, but they have come with their fair share of complications.
Not once, but twice during this pregnancy, we were given several options by our doctor that included terminating the pregnancy due to complications the twins were presenting. During a recent hospital stay, a doctor sat down with me to discuss the potential outcomes of one of those complications. He told me that if I couldn’t mentally take this on, if I didn’t have the means to handle this, or if my baby just wouldn’t make it, that he and my entire health-care team would stand behind me if I faced the decision to terminate.
Hearing someone say this to me, well past viability, was really difficult. Luckily, tests came back with good results and the twins are both doing OK now.
As difficult and shocking as it was to be faced with those options, I look back feeling thankful for a health-care team that was ready to support me no matter what. I know there are women who do have to make that choice for whatever reason. Taking away a woman’s right to decide what to do with her body would make those difficult situations a million times worse.
No matter what the circumstance, no matter what gestational age, or health status of the fetus, I believe termination of a pregnancy is already the hardest decision a woman could face. We need the support of our medical teams, no matter what.
We’ve seen Canada follow American trends in the past, and I truly hope this isn’t one of them.
