Choice: Reproductive rights at stake in the 2024 elections

Yale Daily News

In the months leading up to Election Day, reproductive health was a top concern for voters. According to voters News questionnaireaccess to abortion is one of the five most important important issues for 60 percent of Yale students.

Yale School of Medicine physicians and students involved in abortion access shared their concerns about the election’s impact on reproductive freedom in the wake of the upcoming election.

Kexin Meng ’23 MED ’27, from Arkansas, where abortion is prohibited unless it threatens the patient’s life, said geography played a major role in choosing the medical schools to which she applied. In states where abortion is severely restricted, medical schools may have different reproductive health curricula.

“I think if Trump wins, it will definitely be a scarier situation. It’s not just about abortion care, but also birth control, contraception and LGBTQ+ care. It’s also about medical education for the future, in terms of what schools can and can’t teach,” she said. “You see that in many red states, students are no longer able to get this type of training in medical schools and will have to seek it elsewhere.”

Student groups move in elections

At Yale College, several student groups involved in reproductive and abortion activism are considering how the changing political climate might impact their work.

Leaders of many student groups told the News that their work on reproductive rights and abortion will not change significantly after the election.

The Yale Women’s Center offers reproductive resources, including Plan B, pregnancy tests and condoms. The center, student-run and founded in 1970, has engaged in abortion rights activism throughout its history, although the University recently directed its board to stay neutral in its programming and activities.

“The Yale Women’s Center works to dismantle social structures and gender roles and ensure women’s right to independence through reproductive freedom, self-determination, sexual freedom, and a full range of health and social services,” the Women’s Center board wrote to the News ” in a joint statement. “YWC will continue to advocate for reproductive freedom regardless of the election outcome.”

Emma Ventresca ’26, president of Choose Life at Yale, the anti-abortion organization at Yale, hopes this election has increased awareness of “the right to life as a serious issue,” but sees efforts “on the ground” as essential to the pro-life movement, regardless the president’s views.

Ventreska she also expressed hope that “every state acknowledges the horrors of abortion” and “promotes alternatives… in cases where mothers do not believe they have the resources they need to become parents.”

Maddy Corson ’26, president of YaleBleeds, an organization dedicated to promoting menstrual equity, said that while her organization focuses on promoting access to menstrual products, she believes the upcoming election – and the candidates’ different messages on women’s health care – will influence the way her organization engages in its work and activism.

““I think in the Harris world it will be much easier for us to promote period products,” she said.

Corson also noted that the issue of period equality was raised during this election, as some Republicans and supporters of former President Trump nicknamed Gov. Tim Walz “Tampon Tym” in connection with his work as governor of Minnesota, required public schools to provide menstrual products to students in grades four through twelve.

Corson noted that Walz’s work in Minnesota public schools aligns with YaleBleeds’ mission — ensuring the availability of pads and tampons across campus.

Doctors on the effects of abortion bans

Harvey Kliman is director of the Reproductive and Placental Research Unit at the Yale School of Medicine. He found it 98 percent pregnancy complications leading to miscarriage result from genetic abnormalities.

“Why should her life be in danger because she happens to be carrying a genetically abnormal pregnancy?” – said Kliman. He fears what would happen to women if the country fell into the hands of an administration that inherently blames women for pregnancy loss.

According to research conducted by KlimanEvery year, one million pregnancies end in miscarriage, which occurs before the 20th week of pregnancy. However, there are over 20,000 pregnancies that end in stillbirth, meaning the miscarriage occurred after the 20th week of pregnancy.

Kliman explained that, as a result of evolutionary development, the placenta is “so durable” that it can survive at the expense of the mother. Strict rules can make it difficult for women to find appropriate care.

“That’s why women are dying because of all these absurd laws that basically say you have to be close to death,” Kliman said.

For example, in Texas under Act on the protection of human lifeAbortion is only allowed if the mother is “at risk of death” or has “a serious risk of significant impairment of major bodily functions.”

Kliman questioned this “near death” policy, arguing that possible stillbirths can be predicted early and complications can be minimized if the abortion is performed before the woman is close to death.

Kliman works pro bono, helping mothers imprisoned due to pregnancy loss. This Is NO unusual IN red states. He talked about the recent case of a woman who was sent to prison for giving birth to a stillborn baby because the medical examiner found methamphetamine in the fetus.

“Basically the medical examiner said, ‘Well, I don’t know what the cause is, but it’s possible it could be methamphetamine.’ There is actually no reality to it. “Meth cannot terminate a pregnancy,” Kliman said, adding that he had never seen such a case “in a blue state.” Kliman predicts that if abortion policy nationwide were to change toward limiting “near death,” more women would die.

David Seifer, professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the Yale School of Medicine, explained that if individual states have their own state laws, families may need to consider the policy when deciding whether to cryopreserve eggs or embryos.

Seifer also explained how political differences can influence where a medical school student chooses to pursue an obstetrician-gynecologist or obstetrician residency program.

“If you are an OB-GYN or medical student considering an OB-GYN residency, you probably want to be equipped to take care of all women’s health,” Seifer said. “You’ll want to do your residency in a blue state where you can learn what it takes to save a woman’s life in the event of a miscarriage.”

For example, this is a problem in Texaswhere OBG-YN residents cannot complete full resident training in certain areas. Their medical education will likely miss training on the dilation and curettage procedure for miscarriage, which is a “life-saving procedure,” Seifer said.

Meng added that former President Donald Trump’s victory could exacerbate disparities in medical education in many areas.

Meng and Iris Becene MED ’27 are student leaders of the medical student elective chapter at Yale. According to its website, the organization is “committed to integrating equitable and accessible reproductive justice education into the curriculum and working to support the next generation of reproductive health care providers.”

Becene explained it from Dobbs’ decisiontheir curriculum focused on Connecticut as an “abortion safe haven” where people from other states come to have abortions here.

She noted that while Connecticut has strong abortion protections, she is concerned about political upheaval at the national level, especially with the current Supreme Court. Concerns that the current court could take steps to restrict abortion as well as the availability of contraception and infertility treatment

“People are dying. We see that lives are being lost in places where abortion is restricted, and the thought that this could expand to more people is one of the most terrifying things,” Meng added.

In Connecticut, polls are open until 8 p.m. today.