'It's no one's business,' Ashburnham woman explains difficult experience of medically-necessary abortion
WORCESTER – The Supreme Court's decision on abortion rights brought an Ashburnham mother back to a difficult experience in 2018.
"I lost a baby that I very much wanted," Amanda Loiselle told WBZ-TV.
Loiselle found herself at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester in need of an abortion.
"At that point, I was at 19 weeks pregnant, but my baby had already passed away," she explained. "I needed a medically-necessary abortion or otherwise I would bleed out if I had just had the miscarriage."
The procedure likely saved her life.
That's why the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was not only disheartening but frightening for Loiselle and her OBGYN, Dr. Luu Ireland.
"We have patients who come in at 16, 17, 18 weeks -- too early for any intervention to save the life of the baby -- who are bleeding so much that if we didn't have an abortion, they have the potential of bleeding to death," Dr. Ireland said.
Abortions are still legal in Massachusetts, but Dr. Ireland fears how this decision will impact so-called "trigger states" and those women who may soon lose access to this procedure.
"If I am practicing in a state like Texas, I am not making a decision purely based on the patient in front of me," Dr. Ireland explained. "I have to take into account law that was set by people who don't practice medicine."
Loiselle told WBZ-TV that her decision to have a medically-necessary abortion likely prevented other complications, allowing her to eventually have her son, Brody.
She has this message for critics.
"Abortion and anything around abortion and pregnancy is just a part of women's health," Loiselle said. "It's no one's business. There are so many reasons why a woman may get pregnant, it doesn't matter if it was irresponsibly, responsibly, that is not part of the argument."