Among trusted circles of fellow physician friends, I choose the word termination, but rarely abortion.
Eight days before myabortionin 2016, I was picking out baby names with my husband.
I ran errands that morning, and my 20-week anatomy scan was set for that afternoon.
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I spent that Christmas week weeping in clinic waiting rooms and on padded exam tables.
An exact diagnosis was elusive but still devastating for the baby we hoped for.
I majored in English in college before I became a doctor.
The second line is seared into memory: You remember the children you got that you did not get.
Nearly every day I think of the child I got but did not get.
But even in my lasting grief, I feltand still feelenormous relief.
And I have no regret.
How tragic that this couple wanted this baby, faced bad news, and proceeded with a sad choice.
I do not want to be pregnant is as valid as This fetus has an intracranial abnormality.
Privileged people of means like me will always be able to get abortions.
Draconiananti-abortion lawsdisproportionately hurt poor people,especially people of color.
Abortion rights are civil rights, and in this capitalist society these rights are an economic issue.
A persons zip code, income, or race should not dictate whether they can readily access abortion care.
The extraordinary care I received should be ordinary.
It should be available to everyone in America.
Abortion is health care and abortion is a human right.
COVID-19 has exposed the fault lines of our society and exacerbated its economic andracial inequities.
Abortion bans like SB8 compound them.
As a gastroenterologist, Ive seen enough to know when a patients rigid belly and mottled skin are life-threatening.
More recently Florida, West Virginia, and Arizona have bills poised toban abortion after 15 weeksof pregnancy.
Like Texas, Oklahoma has passed asix-week abortion ban.
Like other parents I know, all I want is to build a better world for my children.
I look at my little girl and vow to fight even harder.
If my rage is fire, then my grief is the gasoline and the match.
We wont go back.
That is my promise to her.
