OPINION: Healthcare Should be Based on Science, Not Religion

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A letter to the editor by Kathleen Strykowsky of Mt Laurel, NJ

Science matters!

Legislators need to get educated in the science of women’s bodies and reproductive systems before attempting to pass ridiculous and draconian laws to legislate what we do with those bodies. 21 Republican Ohio state representatives actually signed on to an anti-abortion bill that criminalizes abortion after 6 weeks gestation as murder. Penalties for the woman and her doctor may be life in prison or the death penalty – even in a situation where a woman’s pregnancy is ectopic (implanted in the fallopian tube rather than the uterus).

Ectopic pregnancies are not viable (will never result in a baby) and if allowed to continue normally can kill the woman. This bill requires doctors to move the implanted embryo from the fallopian tube to the uterus or face criminal charges of abortion murder, despite the fact that it is not possible for the embryo to survive that transfer and re-implant itself with new vascular structures. So the woman can choose to either die from continuing the pregnancy or have to go through a second procedure to remove the already non-viable fetus from her uterus, or go to prison along with her doctor?

In Pennsylvania, anti-abortion lawmakers are trying to pass a bill requiring a burial, and attendant death certificate, for all fetuses and embryos, including fertilized eggs that have not yet implanted in the woman’s uterus. In up to 50% of pregnancies the fertilized egg spontaneously “aborts” during the woman’s next menstrual cycle.

Non-implanted fertilized eggs are the size of a pinhead. How are they going to certify these remains for a death certificate and burial. The women will need to provide their used tampons and pads and toilet contents, including the blood and urine, for analysis.

Stop trying to legislate what women choose to do with their own body and find ways to help all of the needy children who are already born.

Editor’s note: The opinions in this letter are the author’s only.

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