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The opinions expressed here are those of the authors. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of our employers.

Abortions are necessary, vital healthcare. Make no mistake: ?????????????? ?????? ??????????????????-?????????????????? ?????????? ???? ????????????????, ???????? ???????????? ???????? ??????. [If you care and want to know what to do, you can just scroll to the bottom for *actions* you can take.]

I'm not just talking about pregnant people dying from attempts to end their own pregnancies. I'm talking about pregnant people who CONTINUE to be pregnant, who die in childbirth, in a country where over 800 women died of causes related to pregnancy and childbirth in 2020. The maternal mortality in the US has been going up consistently for the last several years. Pregnancy and childbirth are dangerous to a person’s health.

Legislating limits on abortion affects people who have miscarriages too. The treatment for a miscarriage is the EXACT SAME PROCEDURE as an abortion. In many religious hospitals, this means that people who are miscarrying are sent home with no treatment. This puts the person at risk for even more complications, including sepsis and death.

Strict laws controlling abortion access result in people getting jailed for miscarriage, WHICH ALREADY HAPPENING in states like Arkansas, Indiana, and New York. Why? Because anything that takes away rights from a pregnant person and gives them to a fetus is inherently placing the pregnant person at odds with their pregnancy. There are so many things that could potentially affect a pregnancy. Pregnant people are already prosecuted for manslaughter of a fetus for not wearing a seatbelt, or getting into a fight. As more people get prosecuted for miscarriages, this will only increase the number of people who don’t seek medical care, and in turn, will also increase maternal mortality.

These are the facts I can speak to as a physician. I won’t get into the effects on a child born into a situation where their parent wanted an abortion or children put into foster care systems that are overrun and underfunded, where children are put into unsafe situations and can die. Googling “foster care child dies” is terrifying.

But everyone, EVERYONE - not just people with uteruses - should be frightened by the Supreme Court draft opinion. Beyond overturning Roe vs Wade, the current language in the draft sets the scene for overturning a slew of civil rights cases. Everyone should be terrified by the following line in the draft:

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If the justices and Congress refuse to protect the right to abortion on the basis of history and tradition, will they also refuse to protect marriage equality? Or Civil Rights for non-white people? The Constitution was written by white men who treated people like they were property and had no idea that the Internet would ever exist. We do not live in their world. We should not want to.

There have been so many moments in the past six years that have made me angry at conservatives and moderates. But if this is not a wake-up call for people that you MUST support progressive candidates as the morally right thing to do… it may honestly be too late to fix this country for the next generation.

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In the short term, one action you can take is to donate to abortion funds. Why? Three out of five abortions are performed at independently owned and operated clinics. This means NOT Planned Parenthood. The number of independent clinics has decreased by over 30% in the last 10 years. These clinics need help AND the patients need help too.

Over half of people who get abortions need help with the cost. A first trimester abortion costs over $600, depending on where you go. A second trimester (which starts around week 13, when a fetus is about 2.5 inches long and weighs less than an ounce) abortion generally costs over $1000.

You can go to the National Network of Abortions Funds to donate to local and national abortion funds

https://abortionfunds.org/funds/#list