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By Tim Camerato Read the entire story at the Valley News. KEY EXCERPTS: Nearly 200 health care professionals and medical students are asking Republican Gov. Chris Sununu to veto the Legislature’s proposed budget over a provision that would ban abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy. [...] The missive was sent to Sununu’s office Monday by Dr. Oge Young, a retired obstetrician and gynecologist who teaches at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine. In all, more than 60 doctors, nurses and medical students with Upper Valley ties co-signed the letter. They include Dr. Barry Smith, chairman emeritus and professor emeritus of obstetrics and gynecology at the Geisel School of Medicine; Dr. Ilana Cass, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center; and Dr. Maria de Gracia Padin, chief medical officer of Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s southern New Hampshire practices. [...] While the proposed ban contains an exception for instances when “a pregnant woman’s life or major bodily function is threatened,” there are no exceptions for fetal health, rape or incest.
Dr. Patricia Glover, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Geisel School of Medicine, said the budget provision would have a chilling effect on medical care and training of medical students. She also noted that abortions are rarely performed that late in a pregnancy .
“This is not a casual decision,” she said in an interview on Tuesday.
Glover, who practiced family medicine for four decades, said about 2% of all abortions occur that late, and “in fairly dire circumstances.”
Those include situations where the life of a woman or her fetus is in danger, she said.
“The prospect of criminal penalties and incarceration are obviously quite bothersome, frightening and would serve as a drastic inhibition on clinicians willing to learn how to perform the procedure,” Glover said.
Read the entire story at the Valley News.