If you went to the drug store and the pharmacist wouldn't let you have ibuprofen because he thinks there's a chance your headache is from a hangover and not from reading in dim light, you'd probably be furious. Someone else's value judgments about what they think is happening inside your body determining your medical treatment — or the deciding factor in whether you get treatment at all? Unconscionable. This is not a rhetorical scenario. There are signs that is already happening around pregnancy termination in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade. A country where in numerous places restrictions on voluntary abortion mean you can't get a D&C or a prescription to manage a miscarriage? It's basically the same story.
Opponents of reproductive choice argue that despite the wave of abortion bans going into effect around the country, pregnant people will still be protected in life threatening situations — they will still, as Oklahoma law puts it, be allowed to be treated with interventions to remove a "dead unborn child caused by spontaneous abortion." And yet with doctors and pharmacists spooked by the fear of lawsuits or even criminal penalties, there is good reason to fear that will not necessarily be true for everyone.
