Dara Aliff: Abortion ban puts physicians, patients in peril (Opinion)

Charleston Gazette-Mail

Physicians in West Virginia are waking up to a new reality.

As board-certified OB-GYNs, we now have more uncertainty than ever regarding how to do our jobs safely and legally. I am one of many obstetricians in West Virginia who stood ready to speak before our elected officials to help educate and guide them as they crafted legislation to outlaw abortion. We were denied the opportunity to speak. This week, our legislators decided that they would now be practicing medicine on our behalf.

I have spent my career caring for women. Many of them pregnant and in various stages of motherhood. I have stood by them as they received horrible news regarding their unborn child’s health or their own. They are often faced with the most horrific of decisions. Decisions none of them wanted to make when they chose to enter motherhood.