Ohio Senator, John Becker, You Owe the Women of This Country and My Physician Colleagues an Apology

The anti-abortion movement in Washington makes me cringe. This is mainly for two reasons. One, as a human, I am absolute in a woman's right to choose. Two, as a physician, my education allows me to recognize the unintended consequences of advocating against this, and it so happens, this topic falls in my lane. Yet those who are trying to dictate a woman's right to choose are not physicians and, more positively, rarely women. The issue of woman's health rights, within the political arena, is not for a matter of personal opinion. Rather a place for discussion aimed to find policies that place women in control of their reproductive health. Instead, your version of a woman's right to choose is nothing more than a curtain of lies concealing misogynistic behaviors aimed at creating policies that place women out of the control of their reproductive health. By law, you are no more in control of a woman's arm or the words that come out of her mouth (like mine today) then you are of her uterus. Yet, you use your political position to push agendas that aim to place subjective opinion above objective scientific evidence. This is an unsafe way to operate Senator. Bad business, indeed.

Contrary to what you want to believe, state and federal abortion restrictions have shown to increase mortality and morbidity rates of both women and children. This is a fact, backed by numerous studies and medical societies. Ironically, you chose to ignore those. Then to boot, ignorantly, you dared to demand into law, my colleagues be required to do the impossible:

Relocate an ectopic embryo.

Don't you think science would have revealed this as a potential opportunity to prevent the loss of an embryo that has lost its way if it were possible? Two outdated articles of literature which you attempted to manipulate delusion into law do not mean they represent truth or fact. Science isn't a discipline based on subjective opinion allowing one to pick and choose how it can benefit their cause. Science is based on fact, objectifiable data, in which one can prove that specific outcomes are achievable over and over again. However, you conveniently use outdated and poorly written case studies (i.e., Pseudoscience) to push one agenda while concurrently ignoring well-documented studies that defy your personal opinion. The truth is, pro-abortive law saves lives; this is not an opinion; this is a fact. And I, as a physician, can no more avoid the loss of an ectopic pregnancy, than you as a senator, can objectively create fair law free of misogyny and outdated personal beliefs.

Then, to add insult to injury, instead of apologizing for the grave mistake you made, you failed to recognize your wrongdoing while also insulting my profession. You recently stated:

If the medical journals are not correct, then the profession should get those articles retracted.

This does nothing more than highlight the damage ill-informed individuals with a platform can cause while simultaneously insulting the medical community for your lack of responsibility to the truth. This both highlights the social injustice you attempted to create while hyper-focusing the need to filter information that goes against scientific proof. This has only created more work for physicians to delineate fact from fiction. Alas, I would appreciate an outward apology to the women and physicians of this country for your lack of due diligence in ensuring your attempt to create law be just, factual, and a representation of the truth.

And Senator, one more item. Please, stay in your lane and get the heck out of ours.

Sincerely,

A physician, a woman, a fierce and unapologetic advocate for a woman's right to choose.