Former abortion provider has no clue what Arizona women need
As physicians, we are accustomed to seeing bad faith arguments in public debate about women’s health care.
Unfortunately, that is exactly what we see in the recent op-ed by a New York physician who knows nothing about Arizona and who hasn’t practiced abortion care in more than four decades.
His lack of knowledge about the very thing he opines on explains, in part, why his statements are so out of touch.
Patients seeking abortion aren't irresponsible
For starters, his sole example of a teen patient motivated by vanity suggests he wants us to believe patients who need care are just irresponsible and immoral women seeking abortions willy-nilly from unscrupulous doctors.
This is not the reality that I inhabit as a physician working with women and girls every day in Arizona.
The disrespect and lack of empathy with which he maligns patients matches his disrespect for the judgment and expertise of medical professionals in consultation with their patients.
As a physician actively providing abortion care for the past 31 years, I have never seen, nor think is physically possible, nor believe at any level that the patient and situation he described is real. Exaggerated claims of medically unlikely scenarios that supposedly happened 30 years ago are manipulative and deceptive.
Despite his best attempt at misrepresenting Arizona physicians and patients, what Arizona providers like myself want you to know is this: every patient deserves to have bodily autonomy, to be treated with compassion and to have access to comprehensive reproductive health care when they need it.
Arizona laws are far too restrictive
The Arizona Abortion Access Act would restore to Arizona women the rights they enjoyed while Roe v. Wade was the law of the land. The “true intent” of the act is to put health care decisions back where they belong: with patients, their families and their health care providers.
The current legal landscape in Arizona, as elsewhere in the United States, is untenable.
Any day now, we expect a ruling from the Arizona Supreme Court that will either ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy with no exceptions for the dozens of medical complications that can arise after that arbitrary limit, and which punishes survivors of rape and incest, or that will reinstate the 1864 near-total abortion ban that precedes the right of women to vote.
Either outcome would be disastrous for women and families in Arizona.
Pro-life or pro-choice? It's more complicated than that
Lives will be put at risk, basic rights and health care will be out of reach, and we will see Arizona politicians playing the kinds of dangerous games with women’s health care that we’ve seen in Texas, Florida and Alabama.
As physicians, we know that there are many complex and personal reasons a patient might seek an abortion, which is why our relationships with our patients are based on medical expertise, empathy and a firsthand understanding of each woman’s unique situation.
In turn, our patients trust us to provide counseling, guidance and care, with the well-being of the patient in the moment and over the course of their life being our first and highest priority.
Women must make their own choices
In other words, abortion care is no different than other kinds of health care.
Arbitrary six-week or 15-week abortion bans that fail to account for the complexities of pregnancy are no substitute for the private, personal and carefully considered decisions of patients and their doctors.
This is why Arizonans are rightly demanding that politicians remove themselves from the doctor’s office.
Arizonans deserve the freedom to make our own decisions about pregnancy and abortion without interference from the government.
The Arizona Abortion Access Act returns that decision-making power to patients and their health care providers — where it belongs.
This November, the basic rights and dignity of Arizona women are on the line.
Despite the fearmongering and misinformation peddled by out of state political operatives, the Abortion Access Act is a straightforward way to ensure Arizona patients and their doctors get to make the medical decisions, not extremist politicians hungry to control women’s bodies and lives.
Gabrielle Goodrick, MD, is owner and medical director of Camelback Family Planning in Phoenix and has been providing abortion care for more than 30 years. Share your thoughts at Info@camelbackfamilyplanning.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona abortion care is not at all like a former doctor describes
