Dr. Carhart to open three new clinics

Nebraska doctor Leroy Carhart, who was a close friend and associate of Dr. George Tiller, has announced that he plans to open three new abortion clinics which will provide abortion services to women past 20 weeks gestation. A recent law passed by the Nebraska legislature prevents abortions past 20 weeks in that state.

The new clinics are slated to be opening soon in Indiana, Iowa, and in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, and will operate under the banner of the Carhart Centers forSexual and Reproductive Health.

This is great news for women who will be facing a poor prenatal diagnosis and considering termination. Right now, there are only a small handful of places, scattered around the United States, which will help a woman seeking an abortion past 24 weeks. Prenatal testing doesn't always allow a woman before that time to know with certainty that there is a major problem with the development of the fetus. This results in many women being forced to travel halfway across the country to obtain a legal and safe medical procedure, which she should have been able to access in her own community.

Thank goodness for doctors, like Leroy Carhart, who are willing to do whatever is necessary to ensure that women have easier access to a safe and legal procedure. As long as Mother Nature keeps creating babies with serious anomalies, and families can legally exercise their free will in deciding whether or not to bring these babies into the world, there will always be a need for pregnancy termination after 20 weeks. There's no reason to make it logistically impossible for these devastated families.

Edited to add: Starting Monday, December 6, 2010, Dr. Carhart will begin offering his services to women out of the Germantown Reproductive Health Services practice in Germantown, MD.

The Assassination of Dr. Tiller

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow narrates a new documentary investigating the assassination of Dr. George Tiller and the possible connections between his convicted killer, Scott Roeder, and extremist pro-life groups.
Three brave women, who were patients of Dr. Tiller, shared their stories for the documentary. All three went to Dr. Tiller because their babies were diagnosed with severe anomalies. I'd like to say thank you to those brave women for allowing us to here some of their stories and to feel some of their pain.

This man did what so many of us have dreamed about...

Below is a video of a heartbroken dad named Aaron Gouveia who confronted some protesters in front of an abortion clinic. He and his wife were there because their baby had been diagnosed with a severe fetal anomaly and they decided to interrupt the pregnancy. Listen as this courageous dad gives the clueless protesters a glimpse into his world...




And here is a blog post from Aaron on The Good Men Project.

Good for you, Dad!

Abortion on television

I read this article while waiting for my turn at the dentist's office this morning. It's about how more and more scripted television shows are adding storylines about abortion. The most fascinating part is that the episodes are not overly dramatized and aren't resulting in a deluge of hatemail to the producers of the shows.

Is abortion no longer too taboo for tv?

Thank you Warren Buffett!!

This article doesn't really concern terminations for medical reasons, but it is such a fantastically optimistic look at abortion care in the future that I thought I'd share it here.

And a huge THANK YOU to Warren Buffett and his late wife Susan Thompson Buffett for giving so generously and caring so much about pro-choice causes.

The New York Times - "The New Abortion Providers"

This Memorial Day, remembering Dr. Tiller ...

The premise of Memorial Day is to remember those who died in military service for our country. This Memorial Day, I will be remembering a very special Navy veteran who died after providing much-needed and hard-to-find specialized care to thousands of American women. He did so despite constant threats to his own life and those around him. He bravely continued on, even after being shot in both arms.

He never gave up on women, and we should never give up on continuing his mission--to ensure that women have access to legal and safe abortions. The best tribute we can make to Dr. Tiller this Memorial Day is to bravely speak out and share our pro-choice views, commit to electing pro-choice legislators, and most of all, TRUST WOMEN.

Nebraska, Kansas, Virginia, etc. State legislatures with too much time on their hands.

Recently there has been a flurry of activity in various state legislatures to impose new restrictions on abortion access and insurance coverage for abortion.
Let's start with Kansas, the state where Dr. George Tiller courageously practiced for decades, helping women in the most desperate of circumstances to end much-wanted pregnancies. That was until he was murdered last May. For many years, the Kansas legislature, with the help of the Kansas Attorney General, has been trying to impose new restrictions on what some call "late term abortion." Time and time again, for one reason or another, these bills have failed to pass. Recently, the legislature attempted to pass a bill which would have required doctors to report to the state the exact medical diagnosis for fetuses from abortions performed after 21 weeks. Thankfully, the Governor of Kansas vetoed this blatant violation of privacy.

In Virginia, the Governor recently slipped an amendment into the annual budget which would eliminate Medicaid coverage for abortions due to fetal anomaly. I suppose he assumed that the pro-choicers of Virginia would be so distracted by the victory of the first pro-choice license plate being available that they wouldn't notice the little Medicaid amendment he snuck into the budget. As someone who has terminated due to fetal anomaly and who knows how much it costs to have an abortion well into the 2nd trimester, I find this amendment shameful. As if being told your much-wanted baby is seriously ill and likely won't make it isn't devastating enough, now the poorest of Virginia's women will have to choose between paying out of pocket for a termination (which can be anywhere from $500 up to $15,000) or carrying to term and hoping that God/nature doesn't allow their baby to suffer at birth too much. Again, this is just shameful, Governor McDonnell!

And now to Nebraska, where the state legislature recently passed a bill which prevents abortion after 20 weeks, even if the mother is suicidal, on the mistaken presumption that fetuses can feel pain at 20 weeks. This bill is unconstitutional and will not stand. The Supreme Court has already declared that the state does not have an interest until VIABILITY. VIABILITY does not = 20 weeks gestation. But the real point of this bill is to stop Dr. Leroy Carhart from bravely helping women to end tragic pregnancies, many of whom would have gone to Dr. Tiller had he not been killed last May. While technology and prenatal testing have made dramatic improvements over the past two decades, there are still many women who don't find out until their "routine" 20 week ultrasound that there is a problem with the fetus. If laws like this one in Nebraska are allowed to stand, women will forced to flock to Colorado or New Mexico or whereever the next clinic opens up to provide a refuge to these heartbroken moms.

Here's a great article written by a mom in Nebraska who terminated due to fetal anomaly.

Blog for Choice Day 2010

The question asked for this year's Blog for Choice Day is what does the phrase "Trust Women," a phrase Dr. George Tiller used as a sort of motto before he was murdered last May, mean to you.

Abortion is a decision that NO woman undertakes lightly. Regardless of the circumstances which led to her considering abortion, no woman wants to be in that situation. Abortion is not an activity found on one's to-do list, life's goals list, or bucket list. No one wakes up in the morning and thinks "I've been meaning to see what abortion is like. I think I'll have one today." No one says to their friend over lunch, "You should try abortion sometime. It's really cool." And no one embarks upon a planned pregnancy thinking "The baby might be seriously deformed."

When women find themselves in the situation of considering an abortion, it is with reluctance and fear that they proceed to find out more about their options.

I found myself considering an abortion in 2003. I was a married, stay-at-home mom, pregnant with my much-wanted and planned second baby. A 20 week ultrasound revealed severe defects which prevented my baby's lungs from developing. My first instinct wasn't "Can I get an abortion," it was "Do I really have to carry this doomed pregnancy for four more months?" The fact that ending my pregnancy early, the most humane option available for all concerned, would have been an "abortion" never occurred to me until two days later. In the days following the diagnosis I spent endless hours on the computer, searching for information about the condition, treatment options, and survival rates. I read articles in medical journals and online blogs. I joined online communities for parents who had faced the same diagnosis. I joined online communities for parents who had made the heartbreaking decision to interrupt their pregnancy due to a poor prenatal diagnosis. I called my OB/GYN with questions. I called my perinatologist with questions. I poured my heart out to family and friends, hoping that one of them would be able to tell me what the right thing to do was. I sought out a second opinion from a second perinatologist. I made a mental list of all of the circumstances which made me lean toward continuing the pregnancy (my Catholic upbringing, the unknown outcome) and those which made me lean toward terminating the pregnancy (the lack of local family support, the financial implications, the impact on my 2-year-old, the suffering my unborn baby would have endured). And finally, after much contemplation, decided to trust my initial instinct and terminate the pregnancy.

I am so thankful to have had access to so much information and opinions. But despite all of the assistance I received, the decision to terminate ultimately came from inside of me. Women who search their heart know what the right path is. They know which choice will leave them with the most amount of peace and the least amount of regret. And only they know of the specific life circumstances which make them lean one way or the other.

We can and should continue to assist women with medically accurate information and honest opinions. But in the end, we need to trust women to make these critical decisions on their own. Every woman's situation is unique. And since we can't walk in their shoes, we shouldn't try to make these monumental decisions for them. Trust them.

Where do we go from here?

With healthcare reform now in peril, the question becomes "Where do we go from here?" If reform fails completely, we'll be back to the status quo. The status quo meaning that millions of lower-income and middle-income women will continue to face obstacles to obtaining safe and legal medical procedures. I suppose it could be worse. We could be watching the President sign the Affordable Health Care for America Act of 2009 with the Stupak amendment in it, right? That would be bad. This, this is just a setback. Time to regroup and reflect.