(TMT) If there is one word that encapsulates my profession as a board-certified OB-GYN physician, it’s joy.
I’ve practiced medicine in Springfield for over 25 years, and this job and community have given me so much. Having served this long, I’ve seen a lot of joy as families grow—even seeing babies I once delivered, now grown, starting their own families (and, yes, delivering new babies of babies I’ve delivered reminds me I’m not getting any younger, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world).
Of course, there are other emotions that accompany pregnancy, such as trepidation. The anxieties that new parents feel are very real: Will I be a good mom? What if my child has a debilitating disability? What if my baby doesn’t even survive? OB-GYN physicians are equipped to prepare moms for anything, but unfortunately, the unexpected can happen at any moment. But we don’t focus on all the ways a pregnancy can go wrong. We focus on delivering that bundle of joy.
While we make life our top priority, certain activists prey on women’s fears to promote ending lives, and those voices have been amplified here in Missouri.
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From doomsday predictions regarding U.S. Supreme Court cases to advocating for an amendment to our state constitution that would open the door to abortion on demand, these activists use fearmongering tactics to spread the wildly untrue accusation that Missouri’s pro-life law puts mothers at death’s door if they experience pregnancy complications. The claim is that doctors’ hands are tied because the law is ambiguous about when they can aid women suffering from a miscarriage or other such medical emergencies.
Having served pregnant women in this state and continuing to do so since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade, I can say with all confidence that nothing about Missouri’s law prevents me from making a medical decision regarding the life and health of the mother.
I’ve taken care of women with miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies, and hemorrhaging and have no fear of personal or professional consequences, nor have I been subjected to any sort of investigation or punishment for doing this. That’s because Missouri’s law allows doctors to use “reasonable medical judgment” to care for women experiencing complications at any time during pregnancy—not just when they are at death’s door as others falsely claim. As defined by state law, an abortion requires the “intent to destroy the life of an embryo or fetus.” A physician’s intent when treating a miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, hemorrhage, or other complication is to preserve the life and health of the mother, not to destroy the life of the unborn child.
The fear-based lies used to influence Missouri voters to support Amendment 3 are not surprising. Abortion activists are using similar tactics to criticize Georgia’s pro-life law, insinuating that doctors were unable to act in time to save the life of women who died after taking abortion drugs. The irony, of course, is that the deaths of these women are being used as political propaganda for a policy that opens the door to more death, not less. Aside from the obvious life lost from electively terminating a pregnancy, women’s health and lives are also at risk—the Georgia story being one example among many.
Section 4 of Amendment 3 seeks to eliminate all protections for unborn children until there is a “significant likelihood” of their “sustained survival” outside the womb “without the application of extraordinary medical measures.” Therefore, if a baby may need breathing support (which may be required for babies born before 37 weeks), Amendment 3 could potentially prohibit the general assembly from enacting laws that protect the lives and health of these unborn babies and their mothers.
What’s more, even in the third trimester, babies could still be aborted if a “health care professional” says that an abortion is necessary to preserve the life or health—including the mental health—of the “pregnant person.” This potentially means that any health care professional—not just physicians—could subjectively decide that a woman needs an abortion at any time of the pregnancy for virtually any reason. Abortions are dangerous, and the dangers to a woman’s life, physical health, and mental health increase the longer the baby develops in her womb.
In addition to assisting women experiencing hemorrhaging, ectopic pregnancies, and miscarriages, I’ve also helped women who experienced botched abortions. I’ve cared for women who went to abortion facilities only to come back with remains left in their uteruses that caused life-threatening infections, and I do everything necessary to save their lives without reservation or judgment. After all, our calling as medical professionals is to do no harm.
It takes a lot for me to speak out on social issues, but seeing the outright lies used to promote Amendment 3 compelled me to do so. As a doctor, I’ve seen the horrific reality of what abortions can do, and I’ve seen how important life-preserving laws like Missouri’s are.
Citizens of the Show Me State deserve to be shown the truth. Missouri’s law protects women and their babies. If a woman is facing pregnancy complications, her doctor has full authority to do what is necessary to preserve her life.
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If you’re a woman in Missouri experiencing difficulty and your doctor is saying his/her hands are tied, I recommend you find a new doctor.
Editor's note: Kristy McCall, M.D. FACOG, is a board-certified OB-GYN physician at Ferrell-Duncan Clinic at CoxHealth in Springfield, Mo. This article was published by The Missouri Times and is reprinted with permission.
