A Twitter story

From Twitter this sad story from an abortion doctor (the timeline is backwards):

1m Jane Doe, MD ‏@DrJaneChi
So eventually she asked to go home. I hugged her goodbye. “Thank you,” she said. “Call me if you need to,” I said.

I wrapped the baby in a tiny blanket hand knit by a volunteer. I told her I knew it didn’t feel that way now, but God would help her heal.

She told him she loved him & would always be his mother. Her mother, who was also young, said, “Don’t cry. Stop crying.” She didn’t stop.

My patient asked to hold him. She sobbed. I stroked her hair & told her to cry as long as she liked.

I delivered a small fetus (now baby). He didn’t cry. He didn’t breathe. He didn’t move. I took a deep breath, gently cleaned & wrapped him.

I promised her pain medicine. I asked her if she wanted to see him after. She said no, crying. I helped her push.

AND I LIVE IN A HUGE CITY WITH LIBERAL ABORTION LAWS, 3 FAMILY PLANNING FELLOWSHIPS & A TON OF DOCTORS.

So I have to tell her, after that grief & pain, she has to labor & birth a dying fetus. ALL BC NO ONE IS WILLING TO DO ABORTION TRAINING.

So there I am, w/a teenager w/a doomed fetus, crying from grief & pain,& I tell her, there is no doctor who can do your surgery for 4 days.

I call another academic hospital. Same story: most of their docs aren’t trained. Only one is, & s/he is only there 2 days a week.

So. I call the nearest academic hospital. They tell me the next time an appropriately trained Dr is available is 4 days away.

(I’m a family doc. I haven’t been able to access that training. Yet, at least.)

No one at my hospital is able to do a D&E. Bc you have to do a bunch to be good, no one can do it who didn’t opt in to abortion training.

2 treatment options: 1, induce labor; 2, operative dilation & evacuation. In other words, an abortion.

So, a teenager w/a “late,” but not viable, fetus that cannot survive. After rupture, delivery will occur, and/or infection. Think Savita.

I ordered an ultrasound. It turned out there wasn’t major bleeding… but her amniotic sac had ruptured. No fluid left at all.

At noon, I got a call from my hospital. A teenage prenatal patient of mine was there. 21 weeks along. Bleeding, with pain.