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Author: Allison LaCrosse article, please click here. June 29, 2022
- I'm a midwife, writer, and advocate.
- I care for people in all stages of their pregnancy, which includes early loss and elective terminations.
- This is what I wished more people knew when it comes to language we use for abortions.
After 50 years of precedent was overturned with the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision, there has been a lot of confusion about what individual states are now going to do when it comes to a person's right to access a safe and legal abortion.
I think it's important that healthcare providers change the language they use about abortion to reflect the realities of the time.
As a healthcare provider, it is essential for me to take the time to educate people about what is happening to their bodies with clear, intentional language and discuss their options thoroughly so there is no confusion for anybody — whether that's an individual or a legislator.
Abortion is an umbrella term
Abortion has become a singular concept indicating a termination of pregnancy, especially in the context of Roe v. Wade , but it's really an umbrella term for several conditions that indicate the need to remove products of conception from a person's uterus.
Healthcare providers know that each type of abortion — spontaneous, threatened, incomplete, missed, septic, elective — is possible, even normal, and natural. The clinical management of them is the same, but lots of people don't know that.
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