Letter to the Editor: Remember her name
To the Editor
Remember Her Name–Amber Nicole Thurman, Her death was preventable.
An important step in becoming a doctor is pledging the Hippocratic Oath to “first, do no harm.” First. Primary. The primary duty of a physician is to aid the patient. Yet, women, like Amber Thurman, are dying in our country because doctors are afraid of losing their licenses or going to jail if they put the needs of the patient first.
Why? Because elected officials with no medical backgrounds pass laws that tie the hands of physicians, nurses, and first responders.
Miscarriages occur in 15 to 17% of all pregnancies in the US. These women need a D&C procedure to clean out the womb and prevent a sepsis infection. Sepsis infections are very deadly! To save the health of the woman and her fertility, a D&C should be performed as soon as possible. But by lumping all female issues into “abortion,” women, like Amber Thurman, face death.
In the 1970s, I had three miscarriages. Fifty years ago, a D&C was a safe procedure that didn’t risk my life or my fertility. I didn’t have to worry that I would go to jail, or that my doctor & nurse would be punished for providing standard health care.
The government and elected officials should not be making health care laws for our girls and young women in cases like this.
Senator Josh Hawley voted to restrict care for miscarriages. He wants to go further into your personal life and has voted to ban your use of IVF. How is this pro-life? IVF helps couples to have children. IVF is a couple’s clear choice to have a baby. How dare he? My grandson, Noah, turning 21 next month is a miracle of IVF.
The basic issue is the freedom for a woman or a couple to make their own health care choices regarding this most intimate of issues. The government doesn’t belong in our bedrooms, nor in our hospitals. Most of all, it doesn’t belong in a woman’s health care choices.
Remember Her Name–Amber Nicole Thurman, Suffering a miscarriage, she bled out in a parking lot unable to get the help she needed.
Pamella Petersen
Maryville
