Women must have the right to choose

Ilearned today that U.S. Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan shared his story of the abortion that he and his first wife had after her water broke early in pregnancy. They were told to go home and wait for a natural miscarriage. However, that did not happen naturally, and she was at risk to lose her uterus and possibly her life from infection. Although she was refused medical care at the hospital where her doctor practiced, she was able to obtain an emergency procedure at another hospital.

I empathized strongly with this situation. I am a genetic counselor with a master’s degree in human genetics and more than 40 years of experience working with women experiencing high-risk pregnancies. As in the Peters’ case, most of the couples I saw had wanted pregnancies. In fact, in many cases, they had achieved pregnancy after years of infertility.

When they found out, either by ultrasound or prenatal diagnosis, that a fetus is affected with a serious, life-limiting or fatal condition, they are facing a true

dilemma: Continue a pregnancy with major malformations or end the pregnancy. This is not an easy or casual decision for anyone, and neither outcome is what they wanted or expected. Many women who chose to end the pregnancy did so to spare the baby from inevitable suffering, and felt it was a decision made in love.

In my many years counseling women deciding about prenatal diagnosis and struggling with finding out about abnormal results, I cannot recall anyone who came in expecting such awful news. Yet there was a hearing just concluded for a Supreme Court justice to replace the irreplaceable Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I have no doubt that if she is confirmed, a woman’s right to choose will soon be a thing of the past. Imagine forcing a woman to continue a pregnancy against her will.

Even Justice Ginsburg realized that wealthy women will have options to travel to a state or country that allows termination of pregnancy, but poor women may not. Choice means choice, whether to continue a difficult pregnancy or not. A woman who chooses to carry to term should be given support as well. The government should stay out of this decision, which should be between the woman, her partner and her physician.

A Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that approximately 70 percent said Roe v. Wade should not be overturned. Separation of church and state is still an important concept in a democracy. I urge people to let their elected officials know that women are not willing to go back to the days before Roe v. Wade, when abortions were performed but not in a safe medical setting or by medical professionals, and women died.

Kathleen O’Connor is a board-certified and licensed genetic counselor, specializing in prenatal screening and testing, with more than 40 years of experience working with families facing di∞cult decisions concerning genetic conditions. She has lived in Santa Fe for more than 15 years.