Jessa Duggar Seewald lately revealed that she skilled a miscarriage over the vacations.
The 19 Kids and Counting alum took followers by means of her expertise in a YouTube video, together with telling her 4 youngsters that she was anticipating and grappling with the aftermath of her miscarriage. Seewald stated she had been recognizing blood and was advised at an ultrasound appointment that the child didn’t “look good.”
Seewald stated she and her husband, Ben Seewald, “were just sitting there holding hands and crying, like, ‘What do we do from here?'” Seewald then shared that she determined to have a process often called a dilation and curettage (D&C) to take away the fetus with a view to decrease the chance of issues from passing the fetus at residence.
Seewald spoke intimately in regards to the process, noting that the toughest half for her was when she was alone afterward. “Those 10 to 15 minutes before I was taken back to the room where Ben and my mom were waiting were probably some of the hardest in my life, just laying there feeling so alone,” she stated.
But Seewald, who’s a vocal “pro-life” advocate, obtained a wave of criticism on-line after her video was launched, with many declaring {that a} D&C is a process that can be used for surgical abortions. Seewald’s residence state of Arkansas bans abortions besides in conditions the place the lifetime of the mom is in danger, and there are tight restrictions round procedures like a D&C due to this.
Seewald later adopted up within the feedback of her YouTube video, defending her resolution to have a D&C. “Women have D&Cs for many reasons, not all of which involve killing a living human being,” she wrote. “The ultrasound revealed that I had a missed miscarriage. My baby’s heart had stopped beating three weeks before I had a D&C.” Seewald additionally shared that she had a earlier D&C to deal with a retained placenta after her daughter Ivy’s beginning.
After dealing with criticism for present process the process, she then defended her anti-abortion stance. “Each person is created ‘in the image of God’ (Gen 1:27), and to purposefully destroy a baby in the womb is an affront to the God who created that life,” she wrote. “There’s a world of difference between someone dying and someone being killed. To equate one to the other — and to a mother grieving the loss of her baby no less — is severely distasteful. There is a world of difference between a mortician and a murderer. Even a child understands the difference between the two.”
So, is a D&C an abortion? Here’s what you must know.
What’s a D&C?
A D&C is a surgical process during which the cervix (the decrease, slender finish of the uterus that connects the uterus to the vagina) is opened and a skinny instrument is inserted into the uterus, based on the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The instrument is then used to take away tissue from the within of the uterus.
A D&C might be completed utilizing both a pointy instrument or suction, Dr. Daniel Grossman, director of Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health, tells Yahoo Life. “This procedure is used with both miscarriage and abortion,” he says.
What’s the distinction between a D&C and an abortion?
This is the place issues get complicated. A D&C can be utilized to carry out an abortion, however a D&C is not at all times an abortion within the sense of how most of the people thinks of abortion, Dr. Lauren Streicher, a medical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, tells Yahoo Life. “This is a general medical procedure which can be done on pregnant and nonpregnant people,” she explains. “It’s the indication of the procedure that can be confusing.”
D&Cs might be carried out on individuals who have a polyp on their uterus or a retained placenta after childbirth or to assist management bleeding, Streicher says. In the case of a miscarriage, the D&C is commonly used to assist forestall an infection. “Sometimes when a woman miscarries, there is some tissue left inside the uterus — and we need to mechanically clean out the lining and occasionally placental remnants to stop her bleeding,” Dr. Mary Jane Minkin, a medical professor of obstetrics and gynecology and reproductive sciences at Yale School of Medicine, tells Yahoo Life. “If we don’t clear it out, it could become infected.”
What are the legal guidelines in Arkansas surrounding abortion?
Arkansas is labeled by the Guttmacher Institute as one of many states with the “most restrictive” abortion legal guidelines within the nation. This is what the regulation says surrounding abortion care in Arkansas, per the Guttmacher Institute:
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Abortion is totally banned with very restricted exceptions.
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Patients should have in-person counseling and one other go to to a medical supplier a minimum of 72 hours later for the abortion.
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State Medicaid protection of abortion care is banned besides in very restricted circumstances.
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Medication abortion have to be offered in particular person — the state bans the usage of telehealth or mailing drugs.
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Parental consent or discover is required for a minor’s abortion.
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Only physicians can present abortions.
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Medication abortion is severely restricted.
Did Seewald get an abortion?
It will depend on who you discuss to. In medical phrases, sure, she skilled an abortion. “There is no medical term, ‘miscarriage’ — the medical term is ‘spontaneous abortion,'” Minkin says. However, Seewald would have skilled a “spontaneous abortion” with out the D&C — it means the identical factor as a miscarriage.
“The only difference between having a D&C for a spontaneous abortion and an elective abortion is that the intact tissue from the pregnancy may still be there,” Streicher says.
The public’s view of a D&C is “definitely something that is very muddled,” Dr. Aishat Olatunde, an ob-gyn in Pennsylvania and a fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health, tells Yahoo Life. “The reality is, the procedure is just the act of opening the uterus and then using instruments or suction to remove the pregnancy, whether or not it is viable,” she says. “We can get caught up in language and certain words and phrases, but the reality of how we’re taking care of people doesn’t change.”
In normal, “the procedures and medications used for miscarriage management are the same as the procedures and medications used for early abortion care,” Dr. Courtney Kerestes, an ob-gyn in Ohio and a fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health, tells Yahoo Life. She adds, “Providers who are specifically trained in abortion care are very equipped to take care of patients who need miscarriage care.”
Experts say having tight restrictions on medical procedures like D&Cs makes it difficult for people to receive proper reproductive care, whether they have a viable pregnancy or not. “I worry about how providers in states with many abortion restrictions may not be properly trained or have the resources, support and skills to do these procedures, which could lead to unnecessary barriers for patients who need to access this necessary, timely care,” Kerestes says. “Even though these procedures for miscarriage care would be legal in states with abortion bans, concerns about legality could also lead to unnecessary delays in patients receiving this care, which underlines how bans on abortion impact everyone and are meant to cause chaos and confusion for providers and patients.”
Olatunde says it is “really unfortunate” that physicians in states with restrictive abortion legal guidelines have to navigate restrictions round procedures like a D&C. “It’s doing a huge disservice to our patient by not allowing us to provide evidence-based and compassionate care,” she says. “Ultimately, physicians are at the mercy of state restrictions and laws, but these restrictions aren’t based in facts. We should allow physicians to do their job, whether a patient is being managed for a miscarriage or seeking out an abortion.”
Seewald stated in her video that she plans to “take a break” from social media for some time to give attention to her restoration.
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