As you’re probably fully aware, the reproductive freedom of women living in the US is under attack from all directions. And now a bill, designed to ban abortion, says that doctors have to ‘reimplant' ectopic embryos into a woman’s uterus, or they’ll face legal proceedings or even prison.
An ectopic pregnancy is when a fertilised embryo starts to develop outside of the uterus. The most common location for an ectopic pregnancy is in one of the fallopian tubes. If they’re caught early, most ectopic pregnancies can be terminated before they lead to any permanent damage. However, untreated, ectopic pregnancies can be extremely dangerous and even life-threatening if the fallopian tube bursts.
The treatment for an ectopic pregnancy is to terminate the pregnancy – often a source of much distress to the woman in question.
Many women who experience ectopic pregnancies had planned and wanted to be pregnant. If it were possible to 'reimplant' the embryo into the uterus and continue the pregnancy, it would be offered to women. However, as medical professionals have pointed out in significant volume since the bill was announced, this is not currently possible.
Attempting so-called reimplantation would not result in a healthy pregnancy afterwards, and would result in an enormous risk. It would be extremely dangerous and success, according to experts, is impossible. However, this legislation effectively means that doctors who do not risk the lives of their patients to perform a procedure with a 0% chance of success, will face murder charges. The bill treats a fertilised embryo as an ‘unborn child’.
Experts have lined up to comment that this obligatory ‘reimplantation’ is a fiction, and that therefore any doctor who treats a woman for an ectopic pregnancy is at risk of going to prison. ‘We’ll all be going to jail’ tweeted Dr David Hackney.
‘There is no procedure to reimplant an ectopic pregnancy,’ said Dr Chris Zahn, vice-president of practice activities at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. ‘It is not possible to move an ectopic pregnancy from a fallopian tube, or anywhere else it might have implanted, to the uterus,’ he said.
‘Reimplantation is not physiologically possible. Women with ectopic pregnancies are at risk for catastrophic haemorrhage and death in the setting of an ectopic pregnancy, and treating the ectopic pregnancy can certainly save a mom’s life.'
It seems that the the ‘pro life’ campaigners aren’t interested in protecting women. Just embryos.
It’s worth being aware of the symptoms of an ectopic pregnancy because the earlier it's caught, the less dangerous it is. According to the NHS, symptoms include: stomach pain low down on on side, vaginal bleeding or brown discharge, pain in the tip of your shoulder or pain while going to the loo.
If you want to help women in the US who might be prevented from exercising reproductive freedom, you can donate to Women Have Options.
9 horrifying facts about the US abortion laws:
9 Potential Realities Of Americau2019s "Abortion Ban" Laws That Will Horrify You
1 of 10Multiple states in America are signing bills to render abortion illegal at six weeks
2 of 10Multiple states in America are signing bills to render abortion illegal at six weeks
Governor Kay Ivey signed into a law, a controversial abortion bill that could punish doctors who perform abortions with life in prison. Under the bill, doctors could face 10 years in prison for even attempting to terminate a pregnancy.
3 of 10Multiple states in America are signing bills to render abortion illegal at six weeks
Doctors in the same state who go ahead and complete the termination of a pregnancy, could be facing a life sentence. The act is legislated as a "Class A Felony" – others in the same category include first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and first-degree rape. For context, second degree rape – having sex with a minor or with someone who is incapable of consent due to mental disability or incapacity is a much lesser sentence of no more than 20 years in prison. Sexual abuse and incest is punishable by up to ten years in prison.
4 of 10Multiple states in America are signing bills to render abortion illegal at six weeks
This is often a point at which a woman will not yet realise she is pregnant – especially if she has an irregular cycle or has taken the contraceptive or morning after pill and attributes a missed period to that. The number of weeks a woman is pregnant is calculated from the first day of her last period – though, conception usually takes place around two weeks after that when an egg is released. So for the first two weeks of pregnancy we're not really pregnant at all. Week five is the time that a woman will likely realise her period is late and, consequently, that she is pregnant. This leaves one week, if she is lucky, to procure an abortion.
5 of 10Multiple states in America are signing bills to render abortion illegal at six weeks
The law in Georgia goes one step further than some of the other states that have imposed a six-week time limit on abortions, and considers fetus to be a "natural person", requiring full legal recognition, from the point of conception. Although the intention of the law as it is written, may not to be to punish women who are pregnant, as a worst-case scenario, women could find themselves criminally liable for carrying out their own abortion. Many have pointed out that further difficulties may arise when ascertaining whether a person has miscarried or aborted a pregnancy – sometimes the same drugs used to perform a termination are used during miscarriage to help the process. Laws similar to this have, in the past, led to gravely unjust and horrifying consequences for women. For instance in El Salvador, a country that still bans abortion outright, where women have been wrongly jailed after suffering miscarriages. Three women accused of having abortions and convicted of aggravated homicide were freed just this year, in March, after having served up to 11 years in prison.
6 of 10Multiple states in America are signing bills to render abortion illegal at six weeks
Again, this may not be the primary intention of the law, but legal journalist Mark Joseph Stern writes for Slate that, 'A woman who miscarries because of her own conduct – say using drugs while pregnant – would be liable for second degree murder, punishable by 10-30 years imprisonment.'
7 of 10Multiple states in America are signing bills to render abortion illegal at six weeks
Again, this is because lawmakers have voted to give foetuses 'full legal recognition' under Georgia law – making the abortion illegal even if it takes place out of state.
8 of 10Multiple states in America are signing bills to render abortion illegal at six weeks
This could even be true of someone who simply drives another person to a clinic to procure a termination.
9 of 10Multiple states in America are signing bills to render abortion illegal at six weeks
There are also currently three abortion clinics in Alabama. In the 1990s there were more than 20.
10 of 10Multiple states in America are signing bills to render abortion illegal at six weeks
Louisiana looks set to follow suit with a similar bill.