ABRAHAM: Performative Malpractice and the Propaganda War Around Pro-Life Laws

By Valerie Abraham

“Uhhh, hi? I’m here for second trimester bleeding.” In retrospect, this may not have been the best way to tell the ER registrar I was in the middle of a massive hemorrhage, not just experiencing minor bleeding. But alas, Emily Post didn’t cover “tactful ways to tell the front desk you’re having a life-threatening emergency.” Thankfully the staff caught on despite my understatement, and the ER team moved quickly after that. I found myself being whisked out of the regular ER bay into a trauma bay and watching nurses place a second IV (massive transfusion protocol prep) while the team stood poised to intervene the second it became necessary.

I was expecting our fifth baby. One day ago we had surprised my family with news that it was a girl. Tonight I lay in a trauma bay, trying to process the unexpected diagnosis of placental abruption just shy of 18 weeks.

According to the slew of posts I see across news sites and social media campaigns, I should have been fearing for my life because I live in a state with a near-total abortion ban, where obstetric care is (so they say) still in the dark ages. Instead, I found compassionate, competent physicians who took care of me AND my baby. I knew full well that if the bleeding couldn’t be controlled, they were prepared to escalate the interventions (D&E or C-section), but they didn’t jump to a “nuclear” option right away. They followed ACOG guidelines on treatment, and stabilized me while keeping me informed on my baby’s prognosis in a rapidly developing situation. After my body went into pre-term labor, they jumped in with more life-saving care for me to stop the hemorrhage. I received the same medications abortion advocates claim women won’t have access to in abortion-ban states. I delivered a tiny baby girl who reached out her delicate fingers and grabbed my husband’s hand and opened her mouth. She lived 43 minutes. We held her, prayed with her, and treasured every minute of her brief life.

We named her Amal after a great aunt, and we filled out her birth certificate and death certificate on the same day.

Amal died with dignity instead of trauma because of Idaho’s current laws. I was given life-saving, and health-saving care because of Idaho’s current laws.

As I have read some of the accounts of mothers telling their stories as justification for why Prop 1 is needed, I’m shocked at the ways mothers in similar positions as mine have been manipulated and lied to. A recurring theme is “I could have DIED under Idaho’s current laws!” No. Fellow moms, you have been manipulated and lied to. Nothing prevents physicians in Idaho from using their good judgment to preserve life. In case there was any doubt, case law from Adkins v. State of Idaho has already amply clarified that a physician’s good-faith judgment is sufficient to permit life-saving care for a mother, even if the result is (sadly) the loss of the pre-born infant. Nothing stands in the way of proper medical care for women and their babies.

Nothing…except the lies circulating on news sites and social media. An Idaho OB who made a tremendous fanfare about sending women out of state for emergency pregnancy care later admitted under oath that he had never even read the current law. THIS performative malpractice is what endangers women in Idaho. Not the law.

And it’s not just Idaho. Across the US, the abortion propaganda machine continues to tell women they’re not safe in states with abortion restrictions or bans. In reality, the only times a woman is unnecessarily in danger is when she is in the hands of a careless physician who is too lazy (or politically motivated) to complete due diligence or provide competent care. As the wife of a trauma surgeon whose entire life is centered on emergency protocols and life-saving interventions for all kinds of patients, including pregnant women, I know the high ethical and professional standard physicians are expected to hold themselves to. The OBs across the US who either failed to treat a complication or sent women out of state are the ones we need to hold accountable. When hearing a claim that they can’t adequately treat obstetric emergencies like mine, one can’t help but wonder if they are not even fully familiar with their own professional treatment guidelines, since absolutely nothing in the standard procedures for treating a placental abruption requires abortion. ACOG, Merck, etc., all provide professional guidelines and treatment algorithms for cases like this. Anyone can look them up. But did these OBs forget them? These physicians position themselves as tragic heroes when in reality they have abandoned their professional and ethical obligations. If they are willing to fudge here, where else in patient care are they willing to fudge?

Once you understand the current law and availability of emergency obstetric care in Idaho, you begin to realize the fundamental change Prop 1 brings is elective abortion on demand, not women’s healthcare. Look up the full text of the existing law including Adkins v. Idaho case law, and the full text of Prop 1; don’t settle for reading social media memes and summaries. And to my fellow Americans in other states, watch Idaho closely this election. Learn to recognize the propaganda around you. No state has outlawed safe medical care. Hold your physicians to the Hippocratic oath they swore to uphold. We are already experiencing a (sadly warranted) crisis of distrust in the American medical system. Don’t let performative malpractice weaken the system further.

I am voting no on Prop 1 because I have experienced obstetric care for a high-risk situation, and I know that Idaho law respects the mother, the baby, and the physician.

Valerie Abraham is grateful to be raising her wild crew of five (and one in heaven) in the gorgeous hills of North Idaho with her husband, Matthew. Her published work has ranged from scholarship on the French Renaissance to articles on aesthetic theology, but a medical crisis during pregnancy, as well as her husband’s work fighting insurance corruption, opened her eyes to the need for new voices in Idaho polemics. She believes the world would be a jollier place if we all sat down at the table together to talk over good food and French wine.

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