Letter from Ron Bishop

Avoid Decline in Women’s Health

On March 20 of this year, two tragedies struck Selena Maria Chandler-Scott. The first was that she miscarried her much-wanted baby, a soul-wrenching trauma that impacts about one-eighth of expectant women. Found unconscious from blood loss, she was taken to a local hospital. There the second tragedy hit, when District Attorney Patrick Warren of Tift County, Georgia brought charges against her for her pregnancy gone wrong. They were eventually dropped when an autopsy determined that the miscarriage was natural, but not before extra suffering had been inflicted on Selena and her family. Women and men there are not offered the same legal presumption of innocence under the law.

From one perspective, Selena and the hundreds of women who are charged each year with crimes connected to their troubled pregnancies might be considered lucky; they are still alive. A review of 2024 maternal mortality rates shows that a woman is safer giving birth in Iran than in Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Idaho, or Oklahoma, among others. Several of these states’ maternal mortality review panels cited evidence that state laws and policies contributed to some of their childbirth-related deaths. In response, the governors of Georgia, Idaho and Arkansas fired all the doctors on those panels. Problem solved.

Except nothing is solved. The Association of American Medical Colleges found that, over the last three years, primary care, obstetrics and gynecology, and emergency medicine residency applications declined in states with abortion bans and restrictions, even as they rose in other states. One-third of medical residents answering a Manatt Health survey in Texas said they would seek permanent practices elsewhere. A top concern was that they or their female loved ones will be denied lifesaving care if they stay in the Lone Star State. So, this is the situation: Women’s healthcare deserts across this country are growing more barren wherever politicians intrude into decisions about women’s medical care.

I am writing this to invite my Upstate New York neighbors into a shared appreciation for the unintended consequences of some morality-based laws. Based on clear evidence from states with such laws, a nationwide abortion ban—sought by many—would send all our women’s healthcare systems into decline. Where I come from, cruelty is not a fruit of the Spirit.

Ron Bishop
Cooperstown