By Luz Contreras
March 20, 2023
A very recent event for Women, more particularly the women of Idaho, is that a hospital in that state has decided to stop delivering babies due to the near-total abortion ban in the state. This is very concerning for the residents of Sandpoint as that is the only labor and delivery facility in that city, this decision was made after many physicians were now being criminally prosecuted for cases such as abortions or suspected abortions, and with that, it has also been harder to retain any pediatricians in the hospital. Not only is this terrifying for the people of Sandpoint as they now have to go 50 miles out for another labor and delivery facility, but this is setting a precedent for other hospitals in not only the state of Idaho, but also in other states where physicians are starting to leave hospitals due to abortions bans. After the decision to overturn Roe v Wade, Idaho immediately set up a ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, and because of this, the physicians and other hospital staff have been working with the threat of prison time if there were ever an abortion or speculation of an abortion performed. With an increasing number of states having near-total abortion bans, more doctors, nurses, pediatricians, etc. are now moving to states where there aren’t abortion bans so that they can freely practice medicine without the threat of going to jail for doing their job and upholding the oath that they made. This migration of doctors not only affects the pregnant women in those states, but it also affects non-pregnant women and children as there health will now be put in jeopardy due to politicians, for example, if a women were to decide to start a family, not only would they have to be conscious everyday of the pregnancy, but if they were in a city with no labor and delivery facilities, it’d be difficult to reach a hospital in case of an emergency, which not only puts the babies life at risk, but also the mother’s. The shutting down of the labor and delivery section for this hospital is only the beginning, with state governments becoming more strict on not only abortions but on women's health in general, women are now starting to fear as there health may not be taken into consideration or there pain may be downplayed in favor of something else.
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