(C) Daily Montanan This story was originally published by Daily Montanan and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Montana medical professionals tell politicians to stay out of reproductive health care decisions – Daily Montanan [1] ['Blair Miller', 'More From Author', '- June'] Date: 2023-06-22 On the eve of the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs that put abortion protections back in the hands of states, more than 100 Montana medical professionals signed a letter calling on Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte and lawmakers to get their hands out of reproductive health care decisions. “Montana medical professionals call on our state lawmakers and Governor Gianforte to stop their attacks on our patients’ reproductive health and bodily autonomy. Decisions around abortion should be left to women and their trained doctors – not politicians,” the 106 medical professionals wrote in a letter put forward by the Committee to Protect Health Care. Saturday marks the one-year anniversary of the nation’s High Court essentially overturning the Roe v. Wade decision that put abortion protections in place nationwide in 1973. The court’s decision last year put considerations of abortion laws back in the hands of state governments. In the year since, several states have enacted new laws severely restricting abortion access, leaving women in some of the states having to travel to receive abortions and other reproductive health care, and others having to undergo life-threatening medical situations because professionals could not legally attend to their conditions. Abortion remains legal in Montana through the state Supreme Court’s Armstrong v. State of Montana decision. It protects access to abortion based on the state’s constitutional privacy protection. Republican lawmakers this past session sent eight bills to Gianforte’s desk that involved abortion restrictions, and he signed seven of them. The governor vetoed one of them – House Bill 968 from Rep. Amy Regier, R-Kalispell, a parental consultation bill – and lawmakers failed to override his veto. Several reproductive health care groups challenged many of the bills almost as soon as they were signed, however, and Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Mike Menahan issued preliminary injunctions keeping the state from enforcing the new laws, including a 24-week abortion ban, a ban on dilation and evacuation abortions after 15 weeks, a ban on Medicaid-funded abortions, and one that prohibits the use of Medicaid for medically necessary abortions. Menahan also enjoined a Department of Public Health and Human Services rule adopted earlier this year that requires Medicaid abortion providers to seek prior authorization and a physical exam for medically necessary abortions in Montana. The state is appealing those decisions from Menahan to the Montana Supreme Court. In Thursday’s letter, the health care professionals said the legislative session this spring, the first that followed the Dobbs decision, was “extremely hostile to patients’ rights” and called on elected leaders “to cease their dangerous attacks on reproductive health, including access to abortion.” “From allowing anti-abortion health care providers to refuse to provide care, to challenging the legal precedent protecting access to abortion under Montana’s state constitution, these extremist attempts to restrict and even ban abortion outright cause grave concern for medical professionals,” they wrote in the letter. Two of the doctors who signed the letter, Kalispell family medicine physician Kelly Berkram and Whitefish emergency medicine physician Emily Fleming, said in a news conference the group hosted Thursday morning they had been confident the 1999 Armstrong decision would protect abortion access in Montana. But the two said the new laws made this session left them feeling uneasy about the future of reproductive health care in Montana. Fleming said the state “narrowly dodged a bullet” when several of the laws were enjoined, and that health care providers are in other states having to consider whether to break the law and risk jail time or not provide life-saving care for their patients. “Abortion bans and restrictions aren’t fair for doctors or our patients. They are flat out dangerous,” Fleming said. “And that’s why medical professionals in Montana are speaking out and standing up for our patients’ privacy and medical freedom to decide what’s best for them and their families without any political meddling.” Berkram said she was thankful that courts have blocked some of this year’s new laws, adding that decisions around a woman’s health care “shouldn’t be made by politicians or judges.” “Women are being forced to put their health, future fertility, and very lives on the line because of the views of a few extremist politicians,” she said. “We don’t have to accept this in Montana.” Both physicians pointed to a February poll from Middle Fork Strategies that showed six in 10 Montanans believed abortion should be legal in many or all circumstances as to why the laws passed and signed this session were out of touch with the state’s citizens. Neither physician has personally had to choose between performing care on a person or not because of a law yet, they each said, but both have had extensive conversations with OB/GYNs and other specialists about contingency plans should stricter laws take effect and about fighting misinformation about people’s medical rights and the current law. “This isn’t a political issue. It’s a medical issue, and so no matter what my personal thoughts were, I should be able to have that conversation with a patient and present all of the options to them,” Berkram said. “And unfortunately, this has become so political and so binary that some people may not see this anymore as the medical decision.” Each said they have daughters whose futures they worry about should laws nationwide and in Montana targeting abortion get even more strict. Fleming said the fact her son would not have to face the same bodily autonomy issues in the future as her daughter was “angering and devastating.” “There are just so many reasons why a woman might choose an abortion or have to have an abortion, and it’s not for outside people to make that decision for them,” Berkram said. “It’s not a judgment that other people should have, and if politicians and people outside of health care can dictate this, what else are they going to tell us that we have to do or can’t do?” [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2023/06/22/montana-medical-professionals-tell-politicians-to-stay-out-of-reproductive-health-care-decisions/ Published and (C) by Daily Montanan Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/montanan/