Sandra Ringelstein: Dobbs decision will lead to decline in availability of doctors as well as procedures

To The Daily Sun,

A crises of women’s health care is a generational crisis that perpetuates beyond our current situation. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade (1973) with the Dobbs decision (2022) determining that women no longer have a constitutional right to abortion, it left the decision to individual states to decide whether women have the right to choose an abortion and other medical services. It left open the possibility (and now reality) that any abortion, both as a choice and as a means to save women’s lives from a whole host of reproductive complications, was no longer hers to make. From menses to menopause is about 40-50 years with the possibility of numerous medical circumstances throughout. Medical providers have lost a lifesaving tool and women have lost their ability to access necessary care. With limited access to contraception and IVF, women lose their ability to plan their families. All these decisions come at a cost for women and for medical providers.

As women lose their individual and collective health rights, the number of physicians and providers that will go into obstetrics and gynecology are decreasing. By 2030, it is projected that there will be 5,000 fewer physicians in the field perpetuating the decline in medical care for all women present and future. The risk of litigation and loss of license while trying to treat women in medical crisis is too great under the current ruling.

It is no surprise that women suffer as a consequence but so do families, the medical profession and our society as a whole. It is not hyperbole to see a future where our daughters and theirs suffer without medical care that was once available. This is a step backwards for families, society and medical advancement that is weakened by an extreme Supreme Court decision.

Sandra Ringelstein

Moultonborough