Thoughts on perinatal hospice

 I just read an opinion article written by a physician. He discusses pregnancies with identified congenital anomalies not compatible with life and that current standard of care is to offer abortion (where currently allowed by law). His position is that women carrying fetuses with identified anomalies be offered peri-natal hospice care and carry the pregnancy to term. I agree whole-heartedly that this should be an option offered to the woman and her partner if appropriate. I am pro-choice, not pro-abortion. Some, maybe many, women would make the choice to carry to term or at least to natural delivery. Perinatal hospice could provide physical, mental, and spiritual interventions to assist with a natural transition after delivery from a baby's life to their death. Many parents would find a great deal of comfort and peace with this approach. Not every parent would feel the same though. What about those women for whom living and waiting through a pregnancy that will ultimately end in a dead child would be devastating? Perhaps we, the healthcare establishment, could offer post-abortion elective hospice grief care and counselling. What if, and I'm just throwing this out there, we offered a full range of options, termination without hospice after-care, termination with hospice after-care, no termination without hospice after-care, no termination with hospice after-care. Here's the thing, women are capable of deciding what is best for them and their pregnancies under whatever circumstances they live. 

My concern and rage over the Dobbs decision has less to do with abortion access and far more to do with government intrusion into the life of a population they do not know and do not care about as demonstrated by the decades-long record of cutting social service benefits while continuously raising the budget for the military-industrial complex. At the rate we are going in 20 years we will have an abundance of prison inmates and/or cannon fodder, not the elevation of society envisioned by the religious right.

Circling back to the opinion piece I read today, I think the good doctor has a good idea and I hope it comes from a place of caring. I think perinatal hospice is a fantastic intervention that should be added to the standard of care. I do not think it should be the only option.