As Americans celebrate and reflect on the Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade ruling 42 years ago, Planned Parenthood of Maryland urges lawmakers to listen to doctors and medical experts who know that legal abortion is safe and that politicians should not interfere in personal medical decisions.
In order to ensure that abortion remains safe and legal for future generations, we must replace misinformation with facts and start having honest conversations about abortion in America.
At Planned Parenthood of Maryland, we are proud to provide abortion services, and we ensure that women have accurate information about all of their options. Ultimately, decisions about whether to choose adoption, end a pregnancy or raise a child must be left to a woman with the counsel of her health care provider, her family and her faith.
Despite the fact that abortion is one of the safest medical procedures in the U.S. and is supported by the majority of Americans, we're seeing more and more legislation at the federal level aimed to restrict women's access to it. Today, members of the 114th Congress are voting on a 20-week abortion ban that would affect millions of women.
We see women every day who have a range of reproductive health care needs. But one thing is constant: every single woman needs the right to decide for herself, in consultation with her medical provider, her family and her faith, whether to carry her pregnancy to term.
We believe there is a link between being able to control one's own reproductive health and being able to control one's own destiny for the betterment of the entire family. Not only women benefit from access to abortion, their whole families do.
Without access to abortion, women lose their ability to determine their education, careers, marriages and the impact on the other children they either already have or may choose to have in the future.
At Planned Parenthood of Maryland we work every day to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and keep women healthy. Planned Parenthood of Maryland health centers provide care that helps women avert an estimated 5,009 unintended pregnancies and prevent an estimated 2,103 abortions every year.
We support women in whatever decision they make. Our doors are open and we're here to provide care — no matter what.
Jenny Black, Baltimore
The writer is president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Maryland.