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When the US Supreme Court published its decision in Dobbs vs Jackson Women’s Health Center, many media outlets spread misinformation and fear. We heard shocking stories about doctors refusing to treat medical complications in pregnancy. Some people tragically and wrongly assumed that Dobbs had compromised this kind of emergency care.
The same mistaken assumption leads people to suspect that pro-life medical professionals, those who refuse to perform or cooperate in elective abortions, also refuse to treat medical complications in pregnancy. That too is false.
When Roe permitted elective abortion in 1973, medical professionals who continued to treat medical complications in pregnancy but did not expand their services to include elective abortion emerged as pro-life doctors, nurses, and midwives. It is these professionals who have been practicing for the last half century without following the ethical and practical distortions of a Roe-shaped profession.
Their stories deserve an audience. In their hands, it is rare that a procedure to save the life of the mother ends the life of the child. These professionals strive to treat and save both patients and are usually successful.
Their stories show the human side of these professionals in the face of today’s dehumanizing rhetoric. More importantly, they educate patients about how they should be treated. Their stories explain what these professionals have learned from practicing in a Roe-shaped profession. In a practical way, these stories demonstrate the higher standards of care that lead to better outcomes for women, for example, by eliminating the overuse of pregnancy termination in medical management of complications during pregnancy. These stories illustrate the importance of conscience and rights of religious free exercise, which enable professionals to bring pregnant women the moral and medical standards they deserve. Hopefully, the stories will move legislators to write laws that help society address the problems that pregnant women face without deliberately ending the lives of their children.
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Browse all of the stories here.
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