Not ‘baby murderers’

Just when we thought our Republican legislators couldn’t prove themselves any more backward, ill-informed, or cruel, they did themselves one better.

We already have one of the most oppressive abortion bills in the nation, and now they are insisting that we turn the clock back over 70 years to find a way to torture grieving parents even more by insisting that a woman carry to term a fetus that has no chance of survival. In spite of the testimony of an obstetrician and a genetic counselor and in spite of the fact that a team of doctors would make the decision about the viability of the fetus, they made the decision to force a woman to carry to term or to go out of state to terminate a pregnancy when the fetus has no chance of survival.

Over 70 years ago in Arkansas, my mother had at least one pregnancy in which the child was dead in her womb. Not only was there no chance of survival, but the fetus was already dead. Because of the fear of being considered to have performed an abortion, the obstetrician could do nothing. She had to carry it to term or until her body recognized the tragedy and aborted it. She never thought that women of her granddaughters’ generation would face the same total disregard for their physical and emotional well-being.

I hope some of the women in Arkansas who have been forced out of the state to end a pregnancy in which the fetus has no chance of survival will sue the state as women are already doing in Texas. Our legislators need to stop hiding behind the term “baby murderers” and accept that not every pregnancy can end happily ever after and leave medical decisions up to women and their doctors.

Donna Winchell Hot Springs Village