Opinion: Abortion Bans are not what we want from our Government

Written by Jennifer Sierra, who is running for the 23rd Senate District seat, which represents north Kenton County

Kentucky currently has one of the most extreme abortion bans in the entire country. It provides no exceptions for victims of rape or incest, or for women going through a nonviable pregnancy.

This means that even a 10- or 12-year-old who is raped and impregnated by a family member will be forced by the government to carry that pregnancy to term and give birth.

It means that a woman who receives the devastating news that a much wanted pregnancy is not developing properly will have to carry that nonviable pregnancy for months, even though there is no chance for survival after birth.

It means that a woman going through a miscarriage may not be able to get the vital care she needs to ensure that her health and fertility aren’t put at risk because medical professionals are afraid of running afoul of the law.

My opponent, State Senator Chris McDaniels, proudly voted for this law. He has steadfastly refused to acknowledge the real world impact that it has on the women and girls he is supposed to represent. It is one of the reasons I decided to run against him, because I will represent everyone in state Senate District 23, not just those I agree with.

This is personal. I have had five miscarriages, one being a set of twins. I wanted each of my pregnancies to work out. I wanted to have a family. If I hadn’t had access to good, legal healthcare options, I would not have been able to have my beloved daughter today. The D&C I had after my first miscarriage saved my life and my fertility and allowed me to eventually bring my daughter into the world. I was carrying a dead baby; it would have been cruel to make me continue to carry the baby any longer and continue to risk my health.

Lots of women have an abortion or a D&C for many reasons that are beyond their control, including miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies. The CDC states that 93% of abortion procedures are done before 13 weeks of gestation. It is estimated that 10 – 20% of pregnancies end in a miscarriage. Women need access to these healthcare procedures in order to stay healthy and safe.

Reasonable people can disagree on the morality of abortion and I believe that everyone has a right to make personal decisions according to their faith and deeply held beliefs. But we should also acknowledge that this is complicated—that our current laws are jeopardizing women’s health, women are being denied life saving care, rape victims are being forced to go through yet another trauma of carrying their rapist’s baby. Reasonable people can also agree that this is no place for the government.

According to Pew Research, abortions have decreased by more than 800,000 annually,  between1990 and 2020. Anti-abortion legislation limits miscarriage care. Doctors are increasingly afraid to practice in the field of obstetrics and gynecology and are certainly more reluctant to practice medicine in states where abortion bans are in place. We are creating medical deserts in these states. Kentucky is projected to have a shortage by over 2900 doctors by 2030. Kentucky is already ranked in the bottom half of all states (40th) for primary care doctor availability and (44th) for overall physician supply.

What women do not need are politicians in Frankfort injecting themselves into the deeply personal decisions we make in our doctor’s offices.

I am currently running for state senate in Kentucky in a competitive district, managing my two small businesses and raising my family. I am also dealing with health complications, and my OBGYN said I may need another D&C. I am fortunate my OBGYN is not located in the state and district I am running to represent. He is across the river in Ohio, where doctors aren’t worried about losing their medical license or going to jail for performing D&C’s. In my doctor’s office, I started tearing up over the irony that I am fighting for the rights of other women to obtain legal healthcare procedures while I may need that procedure again myself. I am over 50, by the way.

During the last legislative session, politicians in Frankfort refused to even assign to committee a bill that would add exceptions for rape, incest, the health of the mother and nonviable pregnancies. What that means is that politicians like Senator McDaniel were so afraid that this would be bad for their political power that they prevented even a hearing for this legislation, much less a vote.

Polling shows that more than 85% of Kentuckians believe there should be exceptions in state law and that our extreme abortion ban goes way too far. Here in Senate District 23, the anti-abortion ballot initiative that would have enshrined an abortion ban in the Kentucky constitution lost by 12 points. It is up to all of us to consider where each of the candidates stand on this issue. Our state senator Chris McDaniel is not listening to us. Northern Kentucky has an opportunity to elect someone who will.