Now to the heated debate over access to abortion and
healthcare.
Lawyers for a Texas woman,
Kate Cox, say that she has now left the state
in order to get an abortion after the Texas Supreme
Court blocked her request for an emergency access to the
procedure. This is all happening after her doctor saying her
fetus had little chance of survival and that the pregnancy
posed a risk to Cox's own health and her possible
future fertility. We are hearing stories like this all across
America.
A Kentucky woman filed a suit against the state after
being unable to access an abortion there.
Now her attorneys say the fetus no longer has a
heartbeat.
And in Arizona, the state Supreme Court is hearing oral
arguments today over whether a centuries old near total abortion
ban should be reinstated.
These restrictions are sparking a crisis for where American women
as we watch politics intersect with healthcare.
But doctors are feeling the stress too,
including doctor Kristen Lyerly, who made the decision to leave
her practice as an obstetrician and gynecologist in Green Bay,
WI after Roe V Wade was overturned back in June
2022. Now she travels across the country providing care to
women in rural areas and Indigenous communities.
Petition and gynecologist Dr. Kristen Lyerly joins me now.
Kristen, thanks so much, Doctor.
Thanks so much for being here.
I do want to ask you about your own decision
to leave your practice.
What kind of thought went into that for you?
It was never a question.
So I live in Wisconsin.
And in Wisconsin, after Rofal,
we immediately stopped performing all abortion care for women in
this state because we had a law on the books
from
1849. That's a year after Wisconsin became a state.
It was very confusing and The only exception was for
the life of the mother.
So immediately all of the
OBGYN's across the state were wondering,
can we treat ectopic pregnancies?
Can we help people for dealing with miscarriages or very
complicated pregnancies like what Kate Cox has been dealing with
in Texas?
There were so many questions,
and it was just not serving patients,
not serving doctors here in the state.
So I moved my practice to your home state,
Elizabeth of Minnesota. It's a good one.
Thank you for the shadow to all the Minnesotans out
there,
Doctor Leyley.
As many people have watched this story of Kate Cox
play out in Texas,
we've seen how politicians, very partisan ones,
are now making decisions over
women's healthcare and that it's not
even at the doctor's request sometimes their choice if the
best path of care can be pursued.
Do you see that as a trend that will continue
given the restrictions that have been put in place since
Roe V Wade was overturned?
We definitely see this happening across the country now.
And it's not just abortion care,
it's miscarriages. There is a woman in Oklahoma who's in
jail right now for having had a miscarriage.
There is a woman in Ohio who is facing charges
for having had a miscarriage.
We as women, are being held hostage by our fertility,
by our pregnancies, and the worst case scenario is what
Kate Cox is facing.
This is a desired pregnancy.
It's a flawed pregnancy that won't survive.
Yet politicians are holding her hostage,
not allowing her to receive the health care that she
needs and deserves.
And frankly, they're putting her life at risk.
Carrying a pregnancy to term is 14 times more dangerous
than a first trimester abortion,
as we saw in the incense of Kate Cox.
She went to another state to get an abortion at
the urging of her doctor saying that's what she needed.
Is this something that you are seeing other patients do,
having to find states where the procedure is still allowed
because in those other States and having to travel to
do that?
Oh yeah, that's what I see in Wisconsin.
So I, as I mentioned,
am practicing in Minnesota, where luckily the climate has gotten
much better for women.
But in Wisconsin, only recently did abortion become available again.
And even prior to the Dobbs decision,
abortion has not been accessible for the women of Wisconsin.
People have to travel out of state on a regular
basis,
and although abortion is legal,
again as I mentioned, people still have not gotten the
message and they still are reluctant to seek care.
Not just abortion care, but even
just straight up reproductive care.
There's a lot of confusion about what is abortion is
birth control,
abortion is Plan B abortion.
It is not. But people are confused.
They're shamed, they're afraid to ask questions and it is
preventing people from getting fundamental healthcare.
And that fundamental Healthcare is life changing.
Doctor Larry, how might it be that if doctors are
leaving states like you,
could that put those States and those patients,
they're at risk if they don't have access to a
good of as as good of care?
It does. And it's not just OBGYN doctors.
It's emergency medicine doctors. And most worrisome,
it's the family medicine doctors.
Family medicine docs are the ones who do most of
the deliveries.
They provide most of the care in rural parts of
the country.
We already are seeing that obstetrical units are closing down.
Wisconsin has lost half of its rural obstetrical units in
the last 20 years.
If we don't have family medicine docs in these rural
communities,
nobody gets healthcare. Nobody in in your home state of
Wisconsin,
you say that you had made that decision to leave
because you were you were terrified after Roe V Wade
was overturned.
A Wisconsin judge says that that
1949 law, you know centuries we're talking about that it
doesn't apply and we have seen abortions resume in the
state.
Have you thought at all about returning a back there?
It's my intention to return.
I'm actually an intervener plaintiff on that case and we
know that there will be an appeal.
Although during that time we anticipate abortion will remain legal.
I'm making plans to come home.
I'm a 6th generation Wisconsin.
My whole family is here.
So I want to be home and I want to
be taking care of my patients and my neighbors.
But I'm going to do it in when this is
all settled and I'm going to do it in a
way when I can provide them full scope,
true compassionate health care like they deserve.
Big rivalry between Wisconsin and Minnesota.
But I understand that there's always the the need and
desire to go home.
I I big picture, Doctor Lyerly,
do you see women's healthcare playing out in the courts?
Is this the way that women will get access to
some of the rights that they need,
at least some of this short term access that they
need
for now as long as
Roe V Wade has been overturned?
Is this the path that women will have to take
in some of these states to try to get that
access?
Hey, I think it's the only path that many women
have right now.
And the unfortunate thing is that pregnancies don't stop because
the court system is not fast.
So pregnancies are progressing, which is why someone like Kate
Cox needed answers.
Right now, we don't have time to wait.
We are talking about people's lives hanging in the balance.
But Elizabeth, I have hope because although it's in the
courts now,
I believe that people are feeling inspired.
And they're recognizing that this means that they have to
change who their leaders are,
that women have to stand up.
They have to speak out.
They have to support other women,
and we need to elect leaders who are going to
support us in return.
Doctor Lily, thanks so much for your time and for
your perspective today.
It's been a pleasure. Thank you.