I first met Mandy and her partner Marcus a few years ago. She was a mother of two and happy to be newly pregnant. But the ultrasound at 18 weeks showed a complex heart defect, and she started seeing the obstetric and pediatric specialists for her care.

Then, at 22 weeks, an ultrasound showed that the fetal heart had stopped. She and Marcus came to me for care, to have the surgical procedure to empty the uterus. They were grieving, and I was able to provide her the compassionate medical care that allowed them to move forward as a family. This included arranging for them to see the hospital chaplain the day of her procedure and to have fetal footprints made to remember the pregnancy by. In the next year, she got pregnant again and delivered a healthy baby.

A year after that, I saw Mandy during another stressful and sad episode. Pregnant for the fifth time, she found out at 23 weeks that this fetus had a different type of severe abnormality. Unwilling to risk another fetal demise or a baby who would suffer after birth, she decided to have an abortion. I was able to provide her with the same compassionate medical care as two years before. Again, this included meeting with the hospital chaplain and obtaining fetal footprints to remember the pregnancy by.

I am deeply grateful that I practice medicine in a state that trusts women—trusts them to know their own hearts and minds; trusts them to make decisions for themselves, their pregnancies, their families; trusts them to live their lives as only they can know is right. Arbitrary bans on abortion care rob women like Mandy and her family of the privacy and dignity they need and deserve when navigating pregnancy tragedies. Such bans have no place in a compassionate country.