Media Center: Press Release

As chair of Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, I speak for doctors in South Dakota as well as the other 49 states. Our members include obstetricians, family physicians, pediatricians, and many other doctors, but we are united in our belief that reproductive healthcare is essential to everyone. Together, we fight initiatives like Measure 11 that endanger women’s health and force us to practice bad medicine.

Our job as doctors is to talk to a patient about her options—parenting, adoption, and abortion—and then protect her health as she follows through with her decision. By outlawing abortion, Measure 11 would make South Dakota physicians powerless. Even if a woman’s health would be compromised by pregnancy, or her baby wouldn’t survive past birth, her doctor would be forbidden from giving her the safe medical care she needed.

As a family physician, I know that reproductive health is central to our overall health. I have practiced medicine in Washington state for 28 years, and I’ve learned that no two women are the same. Each has her own combination of circumstances that makes her want to end or continue her pregnancy. But Measure 11 ignores the complex realities of women’s lives. It dismisses all of the thought that women put into the decision to have an abortion. If I were a doctor in South Dakota, I could only echo what the law had decided for every patient and her family: “You will have that baby, no matter what.”

Even if she told me, “But you said my diabetes and heart disease will get worse with this pregnancy, harming both me and the baby.

“You will have that baby, no matter what.”

Even if she told me, “But you said my baby won’t survive.”

“You will have that baby, no matter what.”

Then I’d wait for the call telling me that one of my patients tried another, desperate way to have an abortion.

Like me, my colleagues in South Dakota have dedicated their lives to helping women and their families stay healthy and strong. They fought another abortion ban in their state two years ago, and won. The other day, I spoke with Dr. Marvin Buehner, an obstetrician/gynecologist in Rapid City. He told me, “We physicians are left in the untenable position of trying to make a medical decision with our attorneys rather than our patients. The threat of a felony is truly frightening.”

This fight isn’t just about South Dakota. If Measure 11 passes, it would set a dangerous precedent for other states to outlaw abortion. We can’t let that happen.

Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health will stand with Dr. Buehner and our other colleagues in South Dakota who want to keep caring for their patients. We will stand with the patients who want to know that they’re getting the best and safest medical care. We will not let a ballot initiative in South Dakota take away the physician’s power to heal.

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