State Representatives are elected officials who are tasked with drafting legislation. Very few of
them have been trained in medicine or practiced in a hospital or clinic, even
in a part-time legislature like our state's. Unfortunately, looking across the
country today it's too easy to find cases of these untrained legislators
exceeding their mandate to advocate for unproven treatments, often setting
dangerous precedents.
Take Ohio,
for instance. That’s where
Representatives Candace Keller and Ron Hood introduced House Bill 413 to create
a new felony called “abortion murder.” If passed, this measure will punish
those who have or perform abortions with 15 years to life in prison and will be
the most restrictive abortion law in the nation. But that is just the beginning of a story
that affects far more women than just those seeking an abortion.
Ohio sprinkled
a little “fake” science into their anti-abortion legislation by allowing
physicians to be charged with “abortion murder” if they provide the standard
treatment to pregnant women with a life-threatening condition. According to the bill, physicians must “take
all possible steps to preserve the life of the unborn child… Such steps
include, if applicable, attempting to reimplant an ectopic pregnancy into the
woman’s uterus” or face criminal prosecution.
The problem
with that language is that reimplantation is pure science fiction, akin to
mandating teleportation or time travel. Ohio lawmakers are not only trying to
play doctors, they want to play God.
In a normal
pregnancy, the fertilized egg must implant in the uterine wall, which has been
specially prepared to support the growth and development of the embryo. When the fertilized egg implants somewhere
outside the uterus, such as the fallopian tubes, it is known as an ectopic
pregnancy. 1-2% of all pregnancies are
ectopic and account for 3-4% of pregnancy-related deaths. In fact, ectopic pregnancies are “the leading
cause of pregnancy-related death during the first trimester.” To save the life
of the mother, the ectopic tissue must be removed.
An ectopic
pregnancy cannot be relocated like a potted plant.
In response
to Ohio’s physician criminalization efforts, the American College of Obstetrics
and Gynecology, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of
Family Physicians, and the American Psychiatric Association released a joint
statement opposing “efforts in state legislatures across the United States that
inappropriately interfere with the patient-physician relationship,
unnecessarily regulate the evidence-based practice of medicine and in some
cases, even criminalize physicians who deliver safe, legal and necessary medical
care.”
Lawmakers
got the hairbrained idea from a century-old case report published in the
journal Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics, by C.J. Wallace. The author
claimed to have successfully transplanted an ectopic pregnancy from a woman’s
fallopian tube to her uterus in 1917. A
more recent case report was written by a British physician who was later fired
for falsifying the data he used. Case
reports are not subject to the same rigorous scientific standards as most
academic papers, but gullible Ohio lawmakers on their crusade aren’t looking
for facts.
Instead, legislators
are using propaganda—in the form of “fake” science—to remove protections for
vulnerable pregnant women under the guise of saving unborn children who cannot
be saved. It is reprehensible that these lawmakers are increasing barriers to
life-saving care for women during a time in this country when maternal
morbidity and mortality rates are skyrocketing.
Women facing an ectopic pregnancy need more than the involvement of their
local elected official to save their lives.
Without intervention by a properly-trained physician, women could die.
Representative
and bill co-sponsor John Becker, acknowledges that the law is more “wishful
thinking for the future treatment,” than it is a reality. He forgets the fact that many ectopic
pregnancies happen to women who desired to be pregnant. Circulating misinformation through this bill
gives women false hope, which is cruel to those grieving a pregnancy loss. In addition, women may feel guilty or their misinformed
partners might blame them for not risking their lives in the quest for
“reimplantation.” The premise of reimplantation is so farfetched that one has
to wonder if Ohio lawmakers paid attention during human growth and development
class in the 5th grade at all.
As strict
anti-abortion laws sweep the country, I am afraid of a future where medical
decision-making prioritizes the moral compass of the political party in power instead
of evaluating the scientific evidence.
Representative Keller comments that “the time for regulating evil
[abortion] and compromise is over,” but to me, this legislation is practically
sanctioning manslaughter. It is dangerous
and irresponsible for lawmakers to enforce the use of a medical treatment that
does not exist. The ethical standards
and practice of medicine should not be at the whim of politicians. Ohio should be ashamed of the fact they are
risking the lives of women everywhere.
