Imagine, you find out your pregnant, after trying to conceive for over a year and one day you wake up in pain. The experience and emotions that follow cannot be conveyed in any form that would allow another person to understand what you went through. You lost your baby and almost your life. An ectopic pregnancy is a pregnancy that occurs outside the uterus. The fertilized egg does not attach itself to the uterine wall but to other areas such as the fallopian tubes. In simple terms, the baby is not where it should be for any number of reasons and the baby’s growth is life threatening for the mother. In my case, my left fallopian tube ruptured, and internal bleeding ensued. Not all women experience a rupture with an ectopic, some are found prior and addressed. Either experience is difficult because your baby is thriving but not viable. That is where the emotional toll begins, the reason your ectopic is dangerous is due to the fact your baby is growing. You cannot give your life for your child and there are no options to save them. There is no choice to be made with an ectopic pregnancy. The choice is made for you.

Ectopic pregnancies get wrapped up in the abortion conversation because it involves a woman’s reproductive system and many people do not understand what an ectopic is or how it occurs. Abortion is the choice to stop the growth of life. Women’s reproductive rights have been a top issue for many years and for good reason. Abortion is a tough subject for men and women and both points of view matter, which pro-choice advocates get upset with that fact. This is not going to be another opinion over the morality of abortion, the focus of this article will be that of ectopic pregnancies and the reproductive rights narrative. As an ectopic pregnancy survivor, it is offensive to use my story as support for abortion services and reproductive rights.

Untreated ectopics are life threatening, so early detection is essential. Early treatment for an ectopic commonly calls for the use of a medication called methotrexate. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, methotrexate stops the growth of cells to end the pregnancy, which allows the body to absorb the pregnancy over four to six weeks. The use of methotrexate is the one reason ectopic pregnancies are lumped in with abortion services. This medication can be used for a medical abortion. The use of methotrexate to choose to end a pregnancy is an obvious difference than the use to save a woman’s life. Pro-choice advocates say that pharmacists and doctors will now have the right to deny women the use of methotrexate since the Dobbs decision leaves abortion law up to the states and some states have put strict limits on abortion services. There is not a single state in the United States that does not recognize the life of the mother as a reason to terminate a pregnancy. A woman will not be required in the modern world to wait for her fallopian tube to rupture and possibly die. This is a scare tactic. The suggestion that another woman would be forced to endure my pain and trauma because “abortion is limited or outlawed” is ignorant and reprehensible.

The role of pharmacists and doctors is essential in eliminating the false narrative concerning ectopic pregnancies and abortion services. The ACOG notes on their site page, “Facts are Important: Understanding Ectopic Pregnancies”, that bans on abortion threaten treatment of ectopics. “Abortion bans- even those with exceptions for ectopic pregnancy- can generate confusion for patients and health care professionals and can result in delays to treatment. Health care professionals should never have to navigate vague legal or statutory language to determine whether the law allows them to exercise their professional judgement and provide evidence-based care.” The issue in this statement is not access to services but the lack of initiative and back bone of the health care providers. TREATING AN ECTOPIC IS A LIFE SAVING PROCEDURE. There is no “vague legal or statutory language” that needs to be sorted through when treating a patient that has an ectopic pregnancy. Treat the patient. No courtroom in America will convict a health care provider of violating abortion law for treating an ectopic. Stop with the wishy washy group think and treat these mothers who will never hold their child with dignity and assurance rather than doubting your professional judgement.

Education is the final step in stopping this fear campaign. I had seen the word ectopic during my early days of pregnancy, in the literature I was reading but overall had little knowledge of what it was. When my ectopic ruptured, I had no symptoms or fell under the risk factors for an ectopic. The aftermath is hell and there is very little support here in the United States for those of us hurting. Lawmakers introduce bills that want to eliminate access to medication used for ectopics before rupture because they do not understand what an ectopic pregnancy is or what happens as it progresses. No one wants a woman to be on the brink of death before helping her. Anyone that uses that scenario is a fear monger and would rather profit off ectopic survivors than try to educate lawmakers. Pregnancy is a beautiful process that should be celebrated but for those of us that have lost our children to miscarriages or ectopics, are quietly swept under the rug. No one wants to bring up the pain of a losing a child but to appropriately recognize and support ectopic survivors, we have to start talking about the dangers of pregnancy. Women and men need to understand the mysteries of the reproductive system and sometimes women are not given a choice. Sometimes, a woman is forced to face death because of the growing life of their child.

No woman, suffering from an ectopic pregnancy, should be told that she must wait till rupture before getting medical help. There is no reason for a medical professional to doubt the life saving process of addressing an ectopic as a possible avenue for legal action against them by the state. Lawmakers are not trying to kill women, even the ones who introduce legislation restricting access to medications or procedures. These men and women do not understand the processes of ectopics or even miscarriages. Education is the issue, not killing women. As a survivor and grieving mother, to imply that another person would want me to die for their political gain is sick and further traumatizing. This is a fear tactic to get me to support a crusade for “women’s reproductive rights.” Stop trying to use my pain to support your celebration of killing children. Abortion is abhorrent and you want to use my trauma as part of your campaign to allow women to make a choice that I didn’t have? My answer is not only no, but hell no.