The federal ban prohibits some abortions as early as 13 weeks in pregnancy. It prohibits a range of abortion methods that doctors use because they are among the best and safest for patients. The ban has no exception that would allow doctors to provide the care they believe is most medically appropriate, even when a woman's health is threatened.

This is not a political or abstract discussion for me. The patients I treat include pregnant women with serious medical conditions that threaten their pregnancies, their health, or both. Some choose to end much-wanted pregnancies after learning that they would give birth to babies with severe anomalies. Several times a year, for example, I perform abortions for women who would otherwise give birth to babies sure to die because they lack most of their brain or spinal cord.

The medical issues that lead many of my patients to end their pregnancies are often grave and the diagnoses a devastating blow to them and their families. I frequently perform abortions for women whose "water" has broken prematurely in the second trimester of pregnancy. This condition can subject pregnant women to significant risk of infection at a time in pregnancy well before they could give birth to a living, healthy baby. The treatment -- often necessary to preserve their health and ultimately their life -- could violate the federal ban. Many of these patients think of their circumstances as a "miscarriage," unaware that the federal abortion ban prohibits some of the safest techniques to protect their health.