LETTER: US women live in a place that sees their bodies as a political playfield for men

I clearly remember my first ectopic pregnancy — as a junior doctor dealing with your first ectopic is a milestone. The patient was in shock because she was losing blood, but in the end her life was spared.

Today if I saved that patient's life in Texas I would be sent to prison (even for life) for performing an abortion. In the post-Roe v Wade era, ending an ectopic pregnancy is considered an abortion by conservative US politicians.

I feel for the doctors there who have to make tough decisions to save lives and risk their careers. Even an incomplete miscarriage could be career-destroying for a doctor.

I wish the Democrats had heeded the warning of the late justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg when in 1992 she criticised the Roe v Wade decision. The only reason Roe v Wade was not touched by her generation of jurists was respect for precedent.

Former US president Donald Trump’s appointees, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, went for the jugular as they shred the last bit of dignity the US Supreme Court had in the public's eyes.

No wonder a paltry 25% of Americans trust their highest court. Thank God Ruth Bader Ginsburg is not around to witness the bastardisation of the court.

Thanks to Trump, today women in America wake up to a country that sees their bodies as political playfield for men. June 24 2022 and January 6 2021 are stains on US democracy.

Dr Lucas Ntyintyane 
Via email

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