Women are dying after Dobbs ruling
Published Dominion Post, Oct. 27, 2024. Reprinted with permission.
Public policy in a pluralistic society must affirm the constitutional right of privacy of the individual to make reproductive choices. (LWVUS Position, 1983)
Women are dying.
Actually, the dying began at least two years ago; we are just beginning to learn about them. In September, ProPublica published the first evidence post-Dobbs of two women and their excruciatingly brutal preventable deaths.
Undoubtedly, there are more. Arguably, girls are dying too; we just don’t know their names or their stories yet.
State abortion laws differed under Roe v Wade, but from 1973-2022, state differences were constrained. The League’s 1983 position accommodated these state variations. During that period, the Supreme Court and the League agreed on a policy not to incentivize death. Then came the Dobbs decision (June 2022), when the Supreme Court gave states permission to deny healthcare to women and girls.
Numerous states responded.
Death was inevitable.
West Virginia’s Abortion Ban
Surprisingly few facts have been written about West Virginia’s ban. Some believe that West Virginians seeking an abortion can simply travel to another state. This privileged view ignores both the resources required for such travel and the barriers that remain in states where abortion is ostensibly legal.
Typically, draconian 6- or 8-week bans garner the most attention. West Virginia legislators took a different approach.
West Virginia law enumerates some vague and ill-defined circumstances when an abortion might be permitted: if the “reasonable judgment” of a licensed medical professional concludes an embryo or fetus is nonviable, the pregnancy is ectopic, or a medical emergency exists (the statute includes specific definitions for each condition). Providers are subject to detailed reporting requirements and potential penalties.
West Virginia law also includes some equally ill-defined definitions of what an abortion does not include. For example, the law states abortion does not include a miscarriage, ignoring that the medical term for miscarriage is “spontaneous abortion.”
A myth persists that “exceptions” written into state abortion bans actually work. An “exception” for rape and incest may be included to make a ban appear more humane, for example. One often-ignored issue is that sexual assault, rape, and incest frequently go unreported. Anyone who has experienced any of these traumas understands why.
West Virginia’s “exception” for sexual assault or incest stands out for its complexity and in its denial of these facts.
Under West Virginia law, an adult who is pregnant from sexual assault or incest has up to 9 weeks to meet the legal exception, which requires the patient to report the assault to law enforcement, who then must investigate and provide a report to the abortion provider within 48 hours of the procedure.
For minors, the time period for the exception extends to 14 weeks, but the burden of red tape is heavier.
A report to law enforcement is required (mandatory reporters, such as school personnel, were rejected as alternatives), or the patient must have received medical treatment (not abortion) after the assault. The report must go to the abortion provider within 48 hours of the procedure. The agency receiving the report of sexual assault or incest must report to the Child Abuse and Neglect Investigations Unit of the State Police within 48 hours. Whether this report is required for the abortion to proceed is unclear.
Conclusion
Laws written to instill fear and exert control are hardly conducive to timely, good healthcare. During debate, WV legislators revealed another major goal: imposing the religious beliefs of some onto others. Support was bipartisan.
We are expected to believe that physicians take an oath to care for their patients, to “Do no harm.” What, then, can be said about medical professionals who would violate that oath to save themselves from legal jeopardy? Indeed, the potential legal consequences for providing abortion healthcare can be dire. But the peril for women? Laws have supplanted professional judgment and the definition of “medical emergency” has become malleable. When this is permitted to override oaths to “Do no harm,” women die.