This commentary is by Dr. Lauren MacAfee, an obstetrician and gynecologist in Vermont, with over 10 years of training and clinical practice in contraception, miscarriage management and abortion.
I am a longtime supporter of the Reproductive Liberty Amendment (Prop 5), a proposed amendment to the Vermont Constitution that would protect every Vermonter’s right to make their own reproductive decisions.
Lately I’ve been sad to see commentaries by opponents of the Reproductive Liberty Amendment that contain false and misleading information about what the amendment does and does not do. The most absurd of these claims is that the amendment will somehow allow “abortion up until birth.”
The term “abortion up until birth” is a political term, not a medical term. There is no such thing as an abortion up until birth, and it is irresponsible to imply otherwise.
These words have been weaponized by anti-abortion activists to spread misinformation and control people’s bodies.
Health care providers practice medicine under the guidance of both ethical principles and practice regulations at the individual, clinic, hospital, state and federal level. There currently are no state restrictions on the practice of abortion in Vermont and, simply put, the Reproductive Liberty Amendment will not change how medicine is practiced in Vermont.
What it will do is ensure that individual patients, not politicians, will have the freedom to make their own reproductive health care decisions.
As a physician,...
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