I had my annual checkup with my OB/GYN during my birthday week this month. My doctor asked about my kiddo, who she helped deliver a few years ago and is now in preschool. Then, “Are you thinking about number two?“
This year, that question hit something raw in my soul. “We want to, but…”
I can assure you I didn’t plan on the tears that welled up.
“I don’t want to sound political. I am just scared that if something goes wrong, I will not have access to care and that my husband and son will be left without me.“
She looked at me and said what I have said hundreds of times to my congregants who are choking back tears, in crisis, in fear, trying to find adequate words or a way forward: “You are not alone.“
Suddenly, my OBGYN became my pastor.
Beginning or growing a family is beautiful and life-changing. It is also a medical risk. The closest I ever came to death in this life was when I gave birth. It is an existential phenomenon and theological somersault. Women’s healthcare through contemporary medicine is a modern miracle, albeit, unfortunately, still a financial or cultural privilege.
The doctors who help deliver babies are also the ones who are the first to hold hands in soul-crushing moments of immeasurable loss.
Reproductive healthcare is simply ensuring that women’s bodies are healthy, whole and cared for as they attempt to bring new miracles into the world, or choose not to.
Doctors who deliver babies and care for women’s bodies are not coming to Kentucky anymore. They are not able to practice their full extent of training without risk of prosecution, so why would they?
Who would want to uproot and go to a location that said their years of education and expertise were abruptly overridden by a legislative move finessed by career politicians who have never delivered a baby or had to comfort a grieving mother after she got the news of “no heartbeat?”
If you, sisters, have sighed or even complained about the wait to get into the OB office for your annual exam, believe me, it will only get worse.
As a Pastor, I believe Jesus drew no separation between the physical and spiritual health of those around him. He cast out demons, and he stopped a woman’s bleeding. Lord knows that menstrual pain can be a demon in and of itself.
Baptists believe, as do many Protestants, that each person has the ability to interpret scripture and be in tune with the Spirit of God in their own conscience and through the lens of their own experience. Most religions share some version of the golden rule: treat others as you want to be treated, or love your neighbor as much as you love yourself.
Giving women reproductive autonomy respects the decision-making power of a woman and the image of God reflected within her.
The notion that anyone’s ability to access care should be decided by a government body is un-Christlike. The incarnation showed us that God loved us best, not by keeping a distance and making decisions for us, but by becoming one of us through a woman’s body.
We express our love for women by respecting, not overriding, their relationship with their medical professionals. This is the love for others that Jesus showed as he cared for bodies, eased pain, gave sight and healed the sick.
Let me be clear: We are talking about prenatal care, D&C, wellness checkups, breast exams, ultrasounds and pap smears. These basic, annual appointments become more challenging to schedule when doctors can’t be recruited to Kentucky. I’ve had too many friends who have found out about a lump, bump or tumor just in time—or not in time.
I’d love to tell more miracle stories, wouldn’t you?
I understand there are many iron-clad, long-held moral beliefs. I have not yet once said, or even needed to say, the divisive “A” word. If you are against it, okay. However, legislating against it on a state level limits the overall care women of all ages can access and diminishes the image of God within all women.
Women’s healthcare should not be based on the luck of where they were born or where they choose to build a life. This is true for all women, whether they wish not to become biological mothers, are currently pregnant, are trying to become pregnant, or have reached their “never again” by choice or by age.
Kentuckians, on Election Day, think of a woman you love and vote according to how you would like her ongoing, accessible medical care to look.
Thank you, OBGYNs, for holding hands and drying tears in the tender moments of pure joy and unspeakable loss. You are not alone.
Pastor, Ridgewood Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky.
