Abortion helps me save lives

Also: Love in the time of transition [View in browser](    [❤️]( July 3, 2022 Dear Cog reader, In the days since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, we’ve [published]( [several]( [essays]( about the renewed fight for legal abortion. Dr. Erika Werner [wrote]( one of those pieces, an unflinching look at why abortion is sometimes necessary to save a pregnant person’s life. Werner, a high-risk obstetrician at Tufts Medical Center, describes in haunting detail what happens when a pregnancy goes terribly, terribly wrong: the spikes in blood pressure, the ruptured placentas, even liver failure. I asked Werner — a woman whose life doesn’t overflow with free time — why she wrote this essay. She responded that many people still don’t understand the ramifications of banning abortion, especially for women who suffer the kinds of pregnancy problems she sees. “I am still hoping that if legislators and citizens understand that women will die because of this change, they will choose a different path,” she wrote in an email. Werner’s essay brought back a scary memory I hadn’t visited in an eternity. About 17 years ago, I was early in my third trimester of pregnancy when my blood pressure suddenly spiked. My obstetrician ordered tests for preeclampsia, a pregnancy complication that can be serious, even deadly, for both pregnant people and their babies. I was calm in the doctor’s office. But when I returned to my office, I Googled “preeclampsia” and eventually landed on a memorial page for stillborns who had succumbed to the disease. I fell into a deep well of anxiety for the kicky little creature inside me. A kind editor sent me home. The tests eventually showed I didn’t have preeclampsia. The baby I was carrying is now a kind and funny high school rising senior on the cusp of college applications. Chances are — given the late stage of my pregnancy, my good health and excellent local hospitals — my baby and I would have been fine even if I’d had preeclampsia. But for a few days, I lived in the terrifying abyss of dread and fear. “It might have been otherwise,” [wrote]( Jane Kenyon, one of my favorite poets. Werner's essay is a reminder of this enduring truth. Thank you for reading. We wish you a relaxing holiday weekend. Kathleen Burge Editor [Follow]( Support the news   Must Reads [I'm a high-risk OB-GYN: Abortion helps me save lives]( This is a skill I never enjoy using. But as a high-risk obstetrician, it is absolutely the thing I do that has saved the most lives, writes Dr. Erika Werner. [Read more.]( [I'm a high-risk OB-GYN: Abortion helps me save lives]( This is a skill I never enjoy using. 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[Read more.]( [My 8-year-old taught me to 'just keep swimming']( When COVID-19 caught up to Cloe Axelson’s family in the final weeks of school — with second grade field day at stake — one of her twin daughters reminded her how, even after the past two years, plenty of things are worth fighting for. [Read more.]( If you’d like to write for Cognoscenti, send your submission, pasted into your email and not as an attachment, to opinion@wbur.org. Please tell us in one line what the piece is about, and please tell us in one line who you are. 😎 Forward to a friend. They can sign up [here](. 📣 Give us your feedback: newsletters@wbur.org 📧 Get more WBUR stories sent to your inbox. [Check out all of our newsletter offerings.]( Support the news     Want to change how you receive these emails? Stop getting this newsletter by [updating your preferences.](  I don't want to hear from WBUR anymore. 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