(Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian has served as Michigan’s Chief Medical Executive since September 2021. She wrote the following opinion piece in The Detroit Free Press on June 26, 2022.)

As a mother, I know that pregnancy can bring tremendous joy. As a doctor, I also know that pregnancy is a major life event, and one that is not necessarily without complications. For many, it is easy. For others, it is not. Pregnancy can bring grief, life-threatening complications, or long-term health issues. Every patient has unique life circumstances.

Just as people make decisions with their providers about any course of action for their health, decisions about the course of a pregnancy — including whether to become or stay pregnant — should be made by a woman with the counsel of her family, her faith and her doctor. Reproductive health care should not be dictated by the politics of the day.

The decision of the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn nearly half a century of precedent protecting safe, legal abortion violates the trusted relationship between a patient and their doctor. Physicians around the world swear an oath to “do no harm,” to protect the interests of their patients while preserving their privacy; yet this law will criminalize our efforts to honor a patient’s decision-making, their autonomy and their right to make medical decisions that take into account their unique life circumstances.