I was prepared to write about reproductive choices in light of the Roe v. Wade anniversary on Jan. 22. I even had some funny stuff lined up about the groups that come to my town every year to hold a march in opposition to the 1973 Supreme Court decision. But I can't write that kind of post because there was a news story about an abortion provider that was so horrific that even I cannot find a positive to his decades-long practice. In summary, a doctor who was not an OB/GYN ran a clinic in Philadelphia that apparently is the last refuge for poor women who wish to end their pregnancies. The news reports indicate that it is unsanitary, staffed by untrained people -- including a teenager administering anesthesia -- used procedures that violate medical best practices, committed malpractice by lying about stage of pregnancy of patients, that viable babies were born alive and killed, and women died of complications. This is a nightmare. Nothing redeems this. Nothing.
I can't stop thinking about how desperate and scared women must have been to be willing to go to such a place. I can't stop thinking about how badly they were injured because they were so desperate that they had to seek the option of last resort. I can't stop thinking about all the crossroads in the months and years that led up to these moments of crisis where these women could have been better served by their communities, by the medical system, by society at large. This didn't have to happen.
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