c-sections instead of abortions
disturbing doesn't even begin to cover it
Today I want to revisit a (bogus) case out of the Rio Grande Valley here in Texas that targeted a woman for allegedly self-managing an abortion. In April 2022 she was arrested, charged with murder, and held in jail for 2 nights on a 500k bond. She was released on bail, and after a lot of outrage and organizing, the charges were dropped. Now she’s suing Starr County DA and ADA for $1 million in damages and some new information has been released.
First: there was and is no law that criminalizes self managing an abortion in Texas. And medical staff have no legal obligation to report patients for allegedly self managing abortions. They actually have a moral obligation not to. But the people who were supposed to care for her reported her to police anyway. She was released and the charges were dropped, but shit like this doesn’t just go away. Criminal charges harm people, whether they’re convicted or not. Her name and mugshot were plastered across the internet. She was socially ostracized.
But on top of all that, she was also subjected to a c-section when she needed an abortion. The violence perpetrated against this woman was compounded - state violence + social violence + medical violence. C-sections are not a substitute for abortion care. It is a major, invasive surgery with a much higher risk for complications. Disturbing doesn’t even begin to cover it.
And this wasn’t an isolated incident. So, why is it happening?
As the threat of criminal prosecution looms over doctors and hospitals in the 15 states where abortion is illegal, medical professionals, erring on the side of extreme caution because of vaguely worded laws and few meaningful exceptions, are resisting abortion care, even in life-threatening circumstances. Fear of lawsuits, loss of medical licenses, hefty fines, and considerable jail time have driven doctors to jeopardize patient care, either by delaying or denying pregnancy termination. And as we now know, this also has meant performing medical procedures that imperil patients, including substituting C-sections for abortion care, an emerging pattern researchers and abortion providers say will only increase over time.
:In one of the most extreme examples of how pregnancy care has changed, doctors described cases of women who experienced preterm premature rupture of membranes (when the "water breaks" early in pregnancy, before the fetus is viable). Some of these women were forced to undergo Cesarean section surgeries to empty their uterus and avoid infection, instead of receiving an abortion procedure or medication.
"Which is ludicrous, absolutely ludicrous," said Freehill. "The least safe thing that we do, no matter if it's early in pregnancy or full-term at your due date, is a C-section."
Describing one of these cases, Dr. Michele Heisler with Physicians for Human Rights explained that the C-section was done "to preserve the appearance of not doing an abortion."
The patient wasn't given a choice, she added.
They are desperate to divorce abortion from health care. Specifically, they want Americans to believe that abortion is never necessary to protect or save someone’s life and health. By mandating that doctors give women c-sections or induce vaginal labor, they think they can make that talking point true.
The Charlotte Lozier Institute, for example—one of the nation’s largest and best-funded anti-abortion groups—explicitly recommends that treatment for emergency abortions “be done by labor induction or c-section,” which they call “medically standard.” (It is not.)
The group also says that c-sections are “a more appropriate method of separation” because it “shows greater respect for the human dignity of the fetus, even if she is too young or sick to survive.”
Dignity for women isn’t mentioned.
In short: Doctors are being forced to compromise patient care under threat of severe legal repercussions. Abortion bans fuck up care and make things exponentially more dangerous for all pregnant people. No one should be forced to have a c-section when they need an abortion.
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