The Doctor Won't See You Now

When I had cancer, my doctors were glad that it had been discovered at a very early stage. We scheduled surgery right away, and they were able to remove the entire tumor, with no trace left behind. I made a full recovery, and I'm healthy now.

It is important to note that the doctors were aware that the tumor could grow, and that, left untreated, the cancer would eventually progress from stage one to stage four, and if that happened, I would be in serious trouble. They didn't wait to see if things got worse, but instead took action quickly to make sure that I would be as safe as possible.

Again, when my mother was diagnosed with glaucoma, the disease was in an early stage. If glaucoma is left untreated, it will put increasing pressure on the eye, causing pain and impaired vision, eventually damaging the optic nerve, resulting in blindness. But when caught early, the condition can be managed with medication, laser treatments, and surgery. No reputable doctor would withhold treatment, waiting until you can't see anything and your eye is about to explode, before intervening.

In the modern world, we expect our medical providers to recognize symptoms, understand the prognosis, and provide treatment that will reduce pain, prevent long-term damage, and avoid death.

However, in some parts of America, once considered a medically advanced nation, there are laws that require doctors to refuse care to some patients, even when the doctors know that these patients are likely to suffer and can predict that the patients will experience life-threatening complications that, if they manage to survive, may leave them with permanent damage. These are patients whose suffering, damage, and death are completely preventable. Yet the doctor must wait until the moment the patient is about to die before providing treatment.

I'm talking about women who experience miscarriages. In some states, bizarre anti-abortion laws prevent doctors from providing what was once standard care for miscarriage. Instead, women are left bleeding in hospital parking lots or told to go home and wait until things get worse. Some of these women are left so damaged that they cannot have more children; others die.

Read about Amber Thurman: This young mother's death was preventable.

Read about Jaci Stratton: She was told to bleed out.

Sadly, these are not isolated cases. It doesn't take much effort to find women who were neglected in the most horrible way. Many women have had to travel to other states to get the life-saving care they needed. Women who are too sick to travel are trapped.

There is no excuse for this. We live in a country with well-trained doctors and nurses, with well-equipped hospitals. Any condition other than pregnancy is treated with the patient's best interests in mind. What is deliberately being done to women in certain Republican-dominated states is beyond inexcusable. It is evil.

We must stop fanatical, undereducated politicians from intruding in the life-and-death decisions that should be made by medical professionals. As individuals, we can contact elected representatives and express our opinions. Most importantly, we can vote against the politicians who are willing to kill us.