This commentary is by Elizabeth Deutsch of Hinesburg, a registered nurse who works as a labor and delivery nurse.
We are two weeks away from the 2022 midterm elections. It is not hyperbole to say that for some, our very lives hang in the balance of the outcome of this election.
It has been four years since our last midterm elections, and so much has changed. In 2018, Ireland voted to change its abortion laws. This was the same year Maine Sen. Susan Collins told us she would vote to put Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court because he said “Roe was settled law. “
As a result of Sen. Collins’ decision, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned Roe v. Wade.
I am thinking today about Dr. Savita Halappanavar and how she died as she miscarried a wanted pregnancy. The restrictive Irish laws made it impossible for her to get the treatment she needed to save her life. Her septic uterus became a systemic septic infection that overwhelmed her body and killed her. Had she been in her native India, she would have had all the medical options available to save her life. Instead, both she and her fetus died.
Her death later provided the spark needed to reform Irish law. Women voted in previously unseen numbers to be able to save their own lives and make their own choices about the health and well-being of their bodies.
As a labor and delivery nurse, I have seen this exact situation play out here in Vermont. The only difference is that in Vermont, women and all people with a uterus are free to choose the best options for their care. Doctors can offer the best options to save a person’s life. Because of those freedoms, more women live through miscarriages.
When I was an emergency department nurse, I rushed women to the operating room as their fallopian tube ruptured from an ectopic pregnancy, causing massive internal hemorrhaging. Unfortunately, in places like Ohio, state legislators believe that these nonviable ectopic pregnancies should be valued above the life of the bleeding patient.
Without the legal framework that Roe provided, people who are not in health care are free to pass laws that directly impact how we can do our jobs. The rate of bleeding does not permit a patient to wait for transfer across state lines before they bleed to death in front of health care teams who are perfectly capable of saving the life of the patient — lives that could be saved were it not for the new state laws allowing for the patient’s death but not the treatment to save a life.
Roe protected the health of people who have a uterus. Those protections are now gone. They are being replaced by a patchwork of state laws that leave women vulnerable based on their zip code. Medical decisions have been removed from patients, doctors, and nurses and placed in the hands of politicians. Imagine the terror of waiting to be transferred to a place where health care is still legal as you sicken and possibly die, as Dr. Halappanavar did.
Would you rather navigate your pregnancy with a health care provider’s expertise, or would you want a politician telling you or them what to do?
On Nov. 8, we in Vermont have the chance to make sure those terrible scenarios that have played out elsewhere do not happen here. We can vote yes on Prop 5, the Reproductive Liberty Amendment, and save the lives of people with a uterus who need medical care. We can allow women the freedom to make their own choices about their health care without interference from outside influence or government agencies. We can allow for medical care to continue based on best practices, placing the patient’s health at the center of the care we provide.
Please join me in voting yes on Prop 5.
