To The Editor:
You asked some important questions in your editorial and expressed concern for the continued availability of life-saving health care. Fortunately, banning abortion will not put anyone's life at risk. All states, not most as you asserted, allow for abortion to save the life of the person giving birth. The treatment for an ectopic pregnancy as you described, is not an abortion. From the Planned Parenthood website, "Treating an ectopic pregnancy isn’t the same thing as getting an abortion. Abortion is a medical procedure that when done safely, ends a pregnancy that’s in your uterus. The medical procedures for abortions are not the same as the medical procedures for an ectopic pregnancy."
The same is true for other miscarriages. While pregnancy and childbirth certainly carry risk, as does driving a car, abortion does as well. The risk of abortion includes infection, perforation of the uterus, hemorrhage, cervical incompetence, cancer, and death. There will continue to be providers trained to assist when life-saving treatment is needed; it will continue to be covered by insurance, and if the risk of ending a pregnancy is determined too late, another baby will enter this world.
Darcy Faibish, NP
Waitsfield, VT
