Declining health care for women

Abortion is a medical procedure not only done to women who do not want a pregnancy but also in several cases where women who do want their pregnancy need to get this procedure done to save their lives. What I am saying seems basic but needs to be repeated.

We need to remind all how much damage the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision has done and will continue to do to the lives of all women. In a country already struggling with health inequities, the Supreme Court added another one. Health inequities across the country are the focus of a report called “Care PostRoe: Documenting cases of poor-quality care since the Dobbs decision,” which shows how health care for women has been declining dangerously since Dobbs.

Abortion is a medical procedure not available for women in states where it is severely restricted or banned. Women are being denied abortion care, a lifesaving procedure for those who have a preterm prelabor rupture of membranes, ectopic pregnancies, underlying conditions that make continuing a pregnancy dangerous, pregnancies with severe fetal anomalies, early miscarriage, hemorrhage, cervical dilation or hypertension.

The decision to use this lifesaving procedure should never depend on how your lawmakers feel about it. This should be a decision only between a woman and her doctor. So make sure that people who represent you locally or nationally will be committed to protecting women’s lives and their choices. Let’s keep expanding and protecting women’s right to choose and doctors’ right to provide good care for their patients in New Jersey.

Maria Eva Dorigo

Montclair