Urgent letter from your constituent
Here's a letter I sent to AL State Sen. Melson re: SB185, the bill that would let a Dr. or pharmacy deny you healthcare if they objected based on their personal religious beliefs. I'm pasting it below in case someone might find it helpful in lobbying their own Representative. It contains some great links, including a link to interviews done for Samantha Bee that are a must-see. [I x'ed out my personal info for posting publicly]
Hi Senator Melson, my name is Lori Xxxxxx and I am a constituent of yours, living at xxxx xxxxxx xx., Florence AL 35633. I spoke with you briefly in Montgomery following a meeting of the Senate Health Committee in February. We had a great conversation where I mentioned that I didn’t drive down from Florence to protest you, or to lobby you, but just to talk to you, to touch base about some upcoming legislation that I’m very concerned about.
SB185 is heading right to your committee on Wednesday. Please forgive the informality and length of this letter, but for the sake of limited time, I wanted to convey my concerns as directly and completely as possible. For ease of reference, here’s a link directly to the bill:
http://alisondb.legislature.state.al.us/ALISON/SearchableInstruments/2017RS/PrintFiles/SB185-int.pdf
Please, please, please take a moment to read this letter!!! I recognize that you might end up supporting SB185 anyway, but in representing us in Montgomery, you have to know what this bill will mean for us.
The issue of RURAL ACCESS is real
(and it’s a real pain in the behind!)
The reality for women (and people in general) in rural areas --- there are limited options for where you can receive medical care.
· If you are a struggling mother of 3 who needs birth control to prevent becoming pregnant and having a child you and your husband just cannot afford, and you can financially only take a few hours off of work to see a doctor, and your only option of a doctor within a couple hours drive refuses to provide treatment that you desperately need because of their religious belief, what do you do?
· If the only pharmacy in your town refuses to sell you birth control, what do you do?
· If you are a girl in your 20s whose doctor refuses to prescribe her birth control and shames her from ever asking for it again, the likelihood of her having an unplanned pregnancy skyrockets, as does the likelihood of her seeking out an abortion, all of which would have been avoided had she had access to the birth control she was seeking.
· What if you are a man wanting Viagra, but no pharmacy in your region is willing to dispense it?
· What if you live in a town that has one pharmacy and it is run by a Jewish pharmacist that refuses to dispense any medication that is not certified Kosher? --- I know, unlikely in AL, but as a Jewish person who lives here, I wanted to include an example that illustrates what it’s like to be forced to have your medical treatment contingent on somebody else’s religious belief.
Examples of the problems people will face should SB185 pass are too many to list here. Lauderdale and Colbert Counties, where you and I live, is filled with small towns and rural areas. I have friends just like the struggling mother of 3, who will face the very situation I described above, if SB185 passes, and the one doctor she can reasonably see denies her the medication she needs. In fact, 65 of 67 counties in Alabama are considered “rural” with many, many men and women throughout the state who don’t have access to more than one choice of doctor or pharmacy.
What constitutes an “emergency situation”
The bill states the following: "in a life-threatening situation where no other health care provider is available or capable of providing or participating in a health care or medical service, a health care provider shall provide and participate in diagnosis, medical treatment, medical care, and medical procedures until an alternate health care provider capable of providing or participating in the emergency medical treatment, medical care, or medical procedures is found or otherwise becomes available."
That implies that the only types of medical emergencies that exist are ones that are "life-threatening." Perhaps you have debilitating endometriosis, but live in a rural community where the doctor won't prescribe you the birth control pills that science proves would bring you relief. Though this is not technically "life threatening," I'm sure women who experience incapacitating pain each month might argue otherwise.
This type of legislation has played out in other states, with DISASTROUS results for both doctors and their patients
Alabama is one of few states that has yet to pass legislation like this, but we have a litany of stories from other states where similar legislation has led to disastrous results. Here are some stories about doctors being forced to make decisions against their best medical opinion:
1. Describing a Catholic hospital’s request that he receive a septic patient, one doctor said – “Because the fetus was still alive, they wouldn’t intervene. And she was hemorrhaging, and they called me and wanted to transport her, and I said, ‘It sounds like she’s unstable, and it sounds like you need to take care of her there.’ But, despite the emergency nature of the situation, the doctor from the Catholic hospital said, ‘This isn’t something we can take of.’” From When There’s a Heartbeat: Miscarriage Management in Catholic-Owned Hospitals
2. “I had one of my partners accept this patient at 19 weeks. The pregnancy was in the vagina. It was over . . . [S]he’s septic to the point that I’m pushing pressors on labor and delivery trying to keep her blood pressure up, and I have her on a cooling blanket because she’s 106 degrees. And I needed to get everything out. And so I put the ultrasound machine on and there was still a heartbeat, and [the hospital ethics committee] wouldn’t let me [continue providing the care she needed] because there was still a heartbeat. This woman [was] dying before our eyes, I went in to examine her, and I was able to find the umbilical cord through the membranes and just snapped the umbilical cord …so that I could put the ultrasound – ‘Oh look. No heartbeat. Let’s go.’ She was so sick she was in the [intensive care unit] for about 10 days and very nearly died . . . Her bleeding was so bad that the sclera, the white of her eyes, were red, filled with blood.” From When There’s a Heartbeat: Miscarriage Management in Catholic-Owned Hospitals
And the personal experiences of patients who have suffered life-changing consequences because of policy like SB185. As a doctor yourself, you must know how stories such as these will play out all throughout Alabama! Just a few examples…
Please read this! --- This NBC News article describes the experience of a woman who was raped and then denied the morning after pill: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/19190916/ns/health-womens_health/t/doctors-beliefs-can-hinder-patient-care/#.WL8FY-lbq9F
A mother of 6 goes to a local Walgreens to get a morning after pill. The pharmacist yells at her - in front of other customers - about how he will not help her kill her baby and that she is a murderer. The mother left in shame, became pregnant, and later had an abortion. This is just one of MANY stories in an article about pharmacies refusing patients: http://www.nwlc.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/pharmacy_refusals_101_july_2011.pdf
The horror stories of women who have suffered and died because of religious-affiliated (Catholic) hospitals will break your heart. These very real stories SCARE THE HELL OUT OF ME! And SB185 will extend that dogma-over-medicine situation to ALL HEALTHCARE IN THE STATE OF AL. Please, as a doctor, take a look at this:
Health Care Denied: Patients and Physicians speak out about Catholic Hospitals and the threat to women’s health and lives https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/healthcaredenied.pdf
The comedian Samantha Bee did a segment on Catholic hospitals, and while I in no way suggest you watch her segment (something tells me it won’t be your taste in humor, as I am liberal and she often goes too far for even me :) ), online she provides a page with the interviews of real women who shared their stories. One doctor and several patients. These videos, which are quick and to the point, so effectively illustrate the disastrous outcomes when well-meaning people place their religious belief over the care of patients. https://medium.com/@fullfrontalsamb/catholic-hospitals-extended-interviews-df52109a2dd5#.qupsikyol
There’s a movement that has been growing rapidly in your district. People have been coming together on Facebook, and then in organized meetings, and word is spreading fast. People are NOT happy with what’s playing out on the national stage. And their outrage has been transforming into a kind of civic vigilance. With each gathering, numbers have grown significantly! I don’t tell you this in order to threaten your job should you not vote our way!!
I tell you this because, having spoken to you, I found you to be intelligent, reasonable, and because you’re not a career politician, you seem to vote for what you genuinely feel is the right thing to do. I respect that enormously (being a person of strong convictions myself :) ). I want to work with you, have a dialogue with you. Not as a representative of some movement, but just as a regular old constituent who believes it is her duty to stand up when she sees that someone’s convictions are literally threatening the health and safety of the women in our district.
I really do appreciate the work you put into being our Senator! So very many issues of importance cross your desk, and you are charged with the difficult job of making tough decisions.
I hope you will take a moment to read/hear some of these stories of real people dealing with the fallout of very theoretically-designed legislation. I am personally scared to live in a place where my experience of physical and emotional pain and suffering is less important than the private religious beliefs of those who have the power over my health care.
All the best to you and your family,
