Letter: Roe repeal will result in suffering and death

Published 8:45 am Monday, May 9, 2022

The leaked U.S. Supreme Court draft documents regarding Roe v. Wade and the issues surrounding abortion keeps me awake at night worrying about the well-being of my sisters and their families.

I am strongly opposed to repeal of Roe v. Wade because it will result in unneeded suffering and death.

Women have always had abortions. These are not frivolous choices! They choose to abort because they are challenged by problems they cannot manage: poverty, poor health, lack of access to health care, genetic problems, domestic violence, and rape. Even before Roe v. Wade, wealthy white women could usually find safe medical abortions. Even since Roe v. Wade it has been difficult for poor women, and women of color, to get the care they need. In rural areas, this can be a huge problem. As a result, desperate women risk their lives to avoid having babies.

No birth control method is 100% effective, despite one’s best efforts. Birth control is not always covered by health insurance programs. Too many people simply have no health insurance. Also, many do not know about their options to prevent pregnancy.

As a health care provider, I have seen lots of women whose lives would be damaged by repeal of Roe v. Wade. There’s the woman whose pregnancy is in the wrong place in her body and could kill her. What if her doctor is afraid of being arrested for removing it? What about the woman whose unborn baby has died and her body needs help to get rid of it? Or the one who has an incomplete miscarriage and needs an operation to clean out her womb? What about the 10-year-old incest victim whose body was not ready for sex and is really not ready to have a baby? What about the mother who lacks safe housing and enough food for the children she already has?

I am very much pro-life, and that includes the lives of mothers and would-be, could-be mothers everywhere. I also believe that women should be able to choose, without coercion, what they deem is best for their lives. Please let us not condemn women to have our choices imposed upon them and their bodies.

MARYANNE MURRAY

DNP, PMHNP-BC, FNP-BC

Ilwaco