Will the abortion ban affect women who experience ectopic pregnancies? Critics of the Supreme Court's decision to reverse Roe vs. Wade believe that this ruling will risk mothers' lives.
An ectopic pregnancy occurs when the fertilized egg develops outside the mother's uterus. Per the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), 90 percent of the cases occur in the mother's fallopian tubes, where the fertilized egg should have traveled from the ovaries to the uterus.
When an ectopic pregnancy happens, it's considered an unviable or unsustainable pregnancy. Thus, the moms are advised to terminate the pregnancy. Some women interpret the termination of a pregnancy as abortion.
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Celebrities Share their Ectopic Pregnancy/Abortion Stories
Following the Supreme Court's reversal, Lauren Conrad, the star of "The Hills," wrote on her Instagram Stories that she had an ectopic pregnancy six years ago. She's grateful to have access to prompt medical care, which allowed her to recover and regain her reproductive health to eventually conceive two healthy kids with her husband.
She said she recently learned of a story of a woman with an ectopic pregnancy rupture who was on the brink of death. The woman had to wait to receive medical care because her doctors were still consulting with lawyers out of fear that they might break the law and lose their license to practice. Conrad implied this is one of the consequences of the reversal of Roe vs. Wade, per Yahoo! Life.
"One Tree Hill" actress Hilarie Burton also shared that she had an abortion during the years she and her husband, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, were trying for a second child. While she didn't explicitly state the reason for terminating the pregnancy, the actress said that the procedure allowed her body to heal and pave the way for her daughter, George, to be conceived and born.
On social media, influencers also share their stories about their pain and grief over an unviable or unsustainable pregnancy. One influencer said she would have died and left her other kids without a mom if she did not have access to better reproductive health care after her ectopic pregnancy.
Laws Do Not Prevent Reproductive Healthcare Treatments to Save Moms
However, the National Review ran a story criticizing these stories on ectopic and other life-threatening pregnancies. The report cited that there has been no law in the U.S. in the last five decades that prevented mothers from getting life-saving treatments if they have an unviable or risky pregnancy.
The piece claimed that there is fearmongering among those pushing the pro-choice narrative, using ectopic pregnancy as an example. Even Planned Parenthood has explicitly explained that terminating an ectopic pregnancy is not the same as an abortion. The Catholic Church, which bans abortion, also endorses the procedure because it will save the mother's life.
Dr. Jessica Shepherd, an OBGYN in Texas, told Prevention that there is no clear impact of the reversal of Roe Vs. Wade on cases like ectopic pregnancies. She said it's a gray area that hasn't been acknowledged well. Some state laws ban a pregnancy termination if there is still a heartbeat. Unfortunately, some fetuses still have a heartbeat even if the pregnancy is already unsustainable. In this case, doctors will hesitate to perform the termination if they could be accused of covert abortion.
Dr. Lauren Streicher of Northwestern University said that several states are still deciding on their abortion legislature, but ectopic pregnancy cases are typically exempted from the abortion ban.
Meanwhile, women who are in the early phases of the pregnancy should watch out for ectopic pregnancy symptoms like vaginal bleeding, mild cramping, mild pain in the pelvis or abdomen, lower back pain that may travel to the shoulders, weakness, dizziness, and fainting. They can be at risk if they have a history of pelvic inflammatory disease, endometriosis, or past pelvic or abdominal surgery.
If pregnant moms are experiencing the symptoms, they need to go to their reproductive healthcare provider as soon as possible.
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