Boston Globe Contributor Says She Had Her First Abortion At Age 11 Despite Never Being Pregnant
A contributor for the Boston Globe said in a recent article that she had her first abortion at the age of 11, despite having never been pregnant.
“I had my first abortion when I was 11 years old, and another five or six between the ages of 12 and 21. I have Vascular Ehlers-Danlos, an extremely rare genetic connective tissue disorder, one symptom of which is frequent and potentially fatal bleeding. The abortions were my treatment,” wrote Lora-Ellen McKinney.
“I have never been pregnant.”
McKinney went on to explain that due to her disorder, she experienced “excessively heavy menstrual period” that could last up to four months, while in other instances she would be sent to the hospital for “surgical intervention to tie off the” snapped blood vessels.
McKinney explained that she received “approximately seven dilation and curettage procedures” by a pediatric gynecologist. Dilation and curettage involves removing the lining of the uterus. The procedure, which is frequently used to treat uterine conditions, is also used in abortions to clear the uterine lining, according to the Mayo Clinic.
“Were I a young girl in most of the United States today, there would likely not be a pediatric gynecologist to treat my unusual, specific, and critical medical needs,” McKinney alleges. “Nor would I be allowed the procedures required to keep my challenged uterus healthy. This is because my treatments as dictated by doctors have now been politicized and miscast as something they are not.”
“I would have bled to death when I was 11.”
Despite McKinney’s insistence that she would have simply died had she needed the procedure currently in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned, the overturning of Roe does not ban such procedures, according to The New York Times.
Texas Right to Life President John Seago, while discussing the case of a Texas woman who needed a dilation and curettage after a miscarriage but was reportedly turned away, said such problems were a fault of “a breakdown in communication of the law, not the law itself.”
“I have seen reports of doctors being confused, but that is a failure of our medical associations,” according to the Times.
Eric Scheidler, the executive director of the nonprofit Pro-Life Action League said procedures to treat ectopic pregnancies or miscarriages, which includes dilation and curettage, would not be outlawed under the overturning of Roe, according to The Washington Post.
“Those procedures would remain legal and would not be considered abortion. No physician can claim not to know that.”
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