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AURORA, Colo. — Texas nurses Jessica Phillips and Keshia McDonald stared at each other in disbelief when they heard the news that abortions would soon be banned in the province.
The two were among hundreds of caregivers who learned that the US Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade as a national conference for nurses specializing in women’s health kicks off in Aurora, Colorado, last week.
“My first reaction was devastation,” said McDonald, who attended a workshop with Phillips and other nurses on Saturday. “I never would have expected this in 2022, and I’m really unsure of the future of women’s health.”
The Supreme Court decided in a 6-3 vote to undo a precedent of nearly half a century that had upheld access to abortion as a constitutional right. It will now be up to each state to decide on their own abortion laws, half of which are about to severely prohibit or restrict the procedure. Through a “trigger law” that comes into effect 30 days after the Supreme Court issues a formal ruling, Texas will soon ban abortion from the moment of fertilization with only narrow exceptions to save a pregnant patient’s life or prevent “Significant impairment of main body function.”
Many nurses and other healthcare providers have raised the alarm that banning abortion will have sweeping effects, affecting lifesaving medical procedures beyond elective abortions. Medical professionals are now worried about having to deal with complex legal questions about what they can and cannot do, sometimes in the midst of a moment where every moment matters.
No easy answers
The difficult questions began after Senate Bill 8 was passed in Texas. Phillips said after that statute was enacted, effectively banning abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, she was shocked to hear doctors addressing what they were allowed to do legally. To see also : Tarrant County Public Health reports one death from COVID-19. And it will only get worse now that Roe has been overturned.
“The law is not specific in which scenarios abortions are allowed – but neither should it be. Doctors should be the ones making that call, ”said Phillips, who was a labor and birth nurse for 17 years and now uses her expertise working for a not-for-profit health organization. “A patient’s health should be between her and those providing her care.”
Throughout the first days of the Association of Women, Obstetric and Neonatal Health Nurses conference, which began Saturday, medical professionals have gone over what the myriad abortion laws in their home states allow them to do now that Roe’s protections have disappear. Texas’ trigger law banning abortions is expected to come into force in about two months.
Phillips said these situations may be hypothetical, but that they all stem from real-world experiences that are affected by the Supreme Court ruling.
One example discussed was what to do if someone breaks water very early in pregnancy. This could cause infection, and the fetus is unlikely to survive, Phillips said.
Before Roe was expelled, doctors would usually perform abortion and other treatments to keep the patient healthy. But under Texas trigger law, doctors would face confusion, he said. When is the patient ill enough to warrant life-saving care? Is it immediate, because doctors know the patient will get an infection that could complicate other care or put their safety at risk? Or does the doctor first have to let the patient reach that point to avoid legal liability?
There are more and more questions like these every day, Phillips said.
“When is it considered serious enough for her health? Is it immediately because you know the outcome or do you have to wait for it to get sick and sick? Because you also have to consider that if you wait for her to get sick, it’s more complicated to present because sometimes they have a haemorrhage or they’re already in organ failure or all that, “Phillips said.
“Hearing doctors who have been doing this forever even thinking of having to let someone fall ill blows my mind. It’s not something I’ve ever heard of in my 17 year career. ”
Doctors will have to second-guess decisions that are not based on medical best practices but on abortion laws, he said. She fears it will result in patients dying or not receiving the care they need.
“Hearing doctors who have been doing this forever even thinking of letting someone get sick is mind-blowing,” he added. “It’s not something I’ve ever heard of in my 17 year career.”
There are also times when doctors perform abortions because they know a pregnancy will not be successful and the baby would die after being born, Phillips said. But under Texas laws allowed after Roe was abolished, pregnant people would be forced to give birth.
“That’s a terribly emotional experience,” said Phillips. “And we know that Texas does not have adequate mental health services.”
Jonathan Webb, CEO of the Women’s Health, Obstetrics and Neonatal Nurses Association, which has more than 2,000 members in Texas, said the organization has begun conversations with prosecutors to help educate its members about what medical procedures can be considered criminal in their provinces now. .
Webb knows from experience the difficult decisions parents sometimes have to make: His wife was once diagnosed with an ectopic pregnancy, in which an embryo implants outside the womb. Taking the pregnancy forward would have been fatal to his wife.
“We had to make a difficult decision to prioritize her life over the life of our unborn child,” said Webb.
He cannot imagine being unable to make that decision on their own because of the obstacles of state law.
The impact on people of color and the profession
AWHONN board member Suzanne Baird was working at the Texas Children’s Pavilion in Houston when the state’s so-called sonogram law came into effect in 2012. Read also : Men’s Health Month: Encouraging Men to Adopt a Healthier Lifestyle.
The law required women who first wanted an abortion to have a sonogram 24 hours before the procedure and have the doctor make the fetal heartbeat audible to the patient.
Baird said she saw for herself as women, who were told they had an unviable pregnancy and the fetus would not survive, were forced to see their unborn child again.
“It was cruel,” said Baird, who was assistant director of developing a nursing clinic program at the hospital.
She was also in Texas in 2013 when the Legislature passed a law requiring doctors who perform abortions to receive hospital admission privileges within 30 miles of an abortion clinic – a move she said led to the closure of many clinics.
But back then, even as those restrictions took effect, Baird said he couldn’t imagine Roe v. Wade one day reversed – and the huge impact the decision would have on patients in Texas.
Baird was one of about 2,200 people who attended the AWHONN conference just outside Denver. She was sitting at a board meeting Friday morning when the Supreme Court announced her decision to overturn the law. With the end of Roe, nurses envision an even more difficult world for their patients facing high-risk pregnancies where maternal or fetal survival is at risk. Doctors and nurses will face even more difficult decisions about when to intervene and recommend ending high-risk pregnancies in case of criminalization. Birth rates are likely to rise and Baird fears maternal mortality rates will follow, he said.
The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate of all developed countries, with significant racial and ethnic differences. Texas has among the highest pregnancy-related deaths in the country.
And unsafe abortions will increase because of the ban, said Sandra K. Cesario, AWHONN board president and doctoral program director at Texas Woman’s University in Houston.
Opponents of abortion have introduced adoption as the solution for an unwanted pregnancy, but abortion prevents pregnancy, while adoption requires birth, which brings with it a host of potential complications disproportionately on people of color and low-income people.
“People of color often do not have adequate access to healthcare anyway – and now their options will be completely eliminated,” said McDonald.
With Roe abolished, inequalities about who can and cannot control their reproductive health care will only increase, says Baird. Tennessee, where she now works, has a trigger ban that will make abortion illegal in the state within at least 30 days after Roe is overturned. She anticipates that neighboring provinces will pursue more abortion restrictions, meaning patients may have to travel across at least two states to receive abortion care if they wish.
“Not all women will be able to do that,” she said. “The rich will be able to do that.”
Cesario reflected back on some of the steps she has taken as a nurse that helped end a patient’s pregnancy to save their lives – and that would now be criminalized.
“I could probably be put in prison for things I did,” said Caesario.
McDonald, who is a nurse manager at an outpatient setting in Central Texas, said Roe’s end has complicated many, including her career plans.
McDonald and Phillips fear that the after-effects of a Supreme Court ruling could exacerbate the continuing shortage of nursing staff. Many nurses have been severely affected by an overflow of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the pair believes that the forthcoming Texas abortion ban will send further doubts to active and prospective caregivers.
“This makes the future so daunting. We don’t know what the decisions will be, ”said McDonald. “We don’t want to stop care from people.”
When discussing the future of women’s and mothers’ health care, AWHONN members found some comfort in each other this weekend. Phillips and McDonald said it was emotionally exhausting and difficult to learn about the Supreme Court decision, but it helped to be surrounded by a community of health workers – all of whom want what’s best for their patients’ health.
“I can’t imagine having to learn about it with anyone else,” said Phillips.
Uncertainty over the future of healthcare was hovering over the planned programming for the nurses’ conference. Attendees were soon asked if there was anything they could do. Hours after the Supreme Court announcement, conference attendees began a day early looking for any protests they might attend in nearby Denver.
Baird said she knew what her sign would say: “I can’t believe we still have to march for this.”
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Does Medicaid cover IUD in Texas?
More than 13,000 Texans receive health services each year through the Medicaid program in Planned Parenthood, including: healthy woman exams. birth control counseling. This may interest you : Latin American studies of Post-Roe United States. birth control (the pill, the Depot shot, long-term birth control such as IUDs and implants)
How to Get Free Birth Control in Texas? Texas offers a few different options to help people prevent pregnancy. For those with insurance, birth control is required to be covered thanks to the Affordable Care Act. For the uninsured, some state programs and federally funded clinics can help you get birth control for free or at a very low cost.
Does Texas pay for birth control?
Birth Control and Health Insurance From Healthcare.gov: Plans in the Health Insurance Marketplace must cover contraception and counseling for all women, as prescribed by a health care provider.
What does Texas women’s Medicaid cover?
The Texas Healthy Women program offers comprehensive health care, including birth control, pregnancy testing and counseling, and health and treatment screening for hypertension, diabetes and cholesterol. The Family Planning Program will now offer more services, including limited antenatal care.
What are five female health concerns?
To help women promote health, WebMD examined five medical conditions of major concern: heart disease, breast cancer, osteoporosis, depression, and autoimmune diseases.
What are the common health concerns of women? Health Issues Specific to Women’s Health
- Heart disease. In the United States, heart disease causes one in four deaths among women. …
- Breast cancer. …
- Ovarian and Cervical Cancer. …
- Gynecological Health. …
- Pregnancy Issues. …
- Autoimmune Diseases. …
- Depression and Anxiety. …
- Health Technology for Women.
Can breast cancer cause mental?
Behavioral symptoms are a common side effect of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment and include disturbances in energy, sleep, mood and cognition. These symptoms severely affect patients’ quality of life and can last for years after treatment.
Do I need a prescription for HPV vaccine?
“We found 22 provinces that allowed pharmacists to administer HPV vaccines to patients aged 11 to 12 as recommended by the CDC, but nine of those provinces need a patient-specific prescription,” he said Schmit.
Do I need a prescription for HPV vaccine in Canada? Under 26s If you want the HPV vaccine – and you’re under 26 – talk to a primary healthcare provider or local public health unit. The vaccine can be purchased privately by prescription and can be insured through private insurance.
Can you get HPV vaccine at any time?
It can be given as early as 9 years old. It is ideal for girls and boys to have the vaccine before they come into sexual contact with HPV. Research has shown that receiving the vaccine at an early age is not associated with earlier initiation of sexual activity.
Can I get the HPV vaccine for free?
If you missed the HPV vaccine offered in Year 8 of school, you can get it for free up to your 25th birthday. Men who have sex with men (MSM), and trans men and trans women eligible for the vaccine will also need 2 doses of the vaccine, with six months between them.
Can I buy the HPV vaccine?
Key facts about getting the HPV vaccine private You can pay to get the HPV vaccine at some high street pharmacies, travel clinics and, sometimes, your GP surgery. Most clinics offer the HPV vaccine only up to and including 45 years of age. You will need 2 or 3 doses of the HPV vaccine at age 15 or over.
