Dear Editor:

I’m proud of the Mills administration for passing Maine’s expansive abortion law, permitting abortion at any time in pregnancy, but "only when it is necessary in the professional judgment of a physician."

That’s a position I never thought I’d take. I was an ardently pro-life Catholic through college. Then, I and my friends had children. I watched one pregnant friend’s ankles turn black from a clotting disorder. She injected herself with anti-coagulants daily to carry her babies to term without dying herself or miscarrying. She now has two beautiful girls.

In my second pregnancy, I conceived twins. One never developed beyond an empty egg sack. I bled sporadically throughout my first trimester as my body dealt with being pregnant and simultaneously miscarrying, but my daughter was born full-term and healthy. We were lucky. But if the bleeding hadn’t stopped, I would have faced a “choice”: abort the very wanted pregnancy, this child I already loved, or lose both my life and the baby. Some choice.

It’s hard to get exact figures, but on the order of 100,000 women have abortions for situations like this every year in the US. Please understand that when you hear people like me say “abortion is life-saving medical care,” this is what we mean.

Abortions that happen later in pregnancy, especially beyond the time where the embryo has become a tiny baby, are even more heartbreaking. Sometimes they’re done because the baby will not survive outside of the womb. I think of my friend with the clotting disorder. Maybe she would choose to risk her life to carry a baby with no chance of survival. Maybe she would think of her two little girls and decide the risk of losing their mom was too great. I will always believe she should make this “choice.”

The new Maine law sounds extreme, and too vague, but it’s the only way to ensure that every woman who needs an abortion will be able to access one. If the law breaks your heart, I understand. It breaks mine too. But the tragedy happens before the abortion.

Desiree Scorcia

Boothbay