Physicians for Fetterman and Shapiro_1
VVictoria PerroneSep 15, 2022 at 8:24 pm40min
PPhiladelphia City Councilwoman Helen Gym
00:00You too are fantastic physician. Thank you. We are so proud. I'm a city council woman, Helen Gam, I am proud to be here with physicians for Fetterman and Shapiro to talk about the importance today of having actual health care, actual doctors making decisions for women, for young people, for trans individuals, for all folks here in the state of Pennsylvania. I want to thank everyone, everyone for truly coming out here today. And I want to commend all of these physicians who are going to speak out today on this critical issue, can we give them a round of applause. So we're out here today to make clear how high the stakes of this election actually are when it comes to health care. And specifically when it comes to abortion rights. Dr. Oz and Doug Mastriano have been absolutely clear that they will take away our rights. And the 15 week abortion ban that Senator Lindsey Graham put forth this week shows and proves what the GOP plans to do. Their goal is to ban abortions nationwide. We will not let that happen. These doctors and the rest of Pennsylvania is gonna stand in their way. Now, Lindsey Graham will say that he will deliver that, that that 15 week abortion ban if Republicans gained them as the majority, but we will not let Dr. Oz delivered the Senate majority to the GOP. I want to be clear that this rally is in support of two individuals who have always stood strong on health care who have always stood strong on abortion rights, in particular. Meanwhile, then it AWS has refused to come clean about how he'd vote on this dangerous bill. Senator Graham introduced it more than 48 hours ago. And Dr. Oz is dancing around questions the way he can understand critics. Hey, he has still not said how he would vote. We do know that Dr. Oz has repeatedly said that he is 100% pro life. We know that he has called abortion murder. But now he doesn't want to talk about it because he knows what the polls and Pennsylvania say and what the polls say across America that people deserve the right to a full health care options. And that includes abortion. One of the reasons why I'm so proud to be here with all of our doctors and our health care professionals is that doctors take one oath above all to do no harm. Dr. Oz has remained silent as chilling reports roll in about the horrendous harm being caused to individuals to children to children in states that have already criminalized abortion. He refuses to take a stance on that 15 week abortion ban and for years. He has meanwhile sold ridiculous things like diet supplements and miracle pills promising you know ridiculous options to the point that he's had to pay out $5 million dollars and settlements for false advertising. He has falsely advertising yet again. I want to make clear that John Fetterman is a local. What I love about John Fetterman the most is that he started at home. He started in local politics in mayors and building and rebuilding communities from the ground up. I'm very proud as a local council member to have yesterday well, actually to up today introduced a package of legislation that is one of the boldest, most protective laws all across the country to protect the privacy rights and the freedoms the reproductive health care, freedoms and decisions of any individual including providers here in the state of Pennsylvania. And especially here in Philadelphia, we are making sure that we enact one of the strongest privacy laws in the nation to protect patients and providers from disclosing any level of decision making around their own choice to their healthcare and particularly around reproductive reproductive health care. We are enacting legislation that allows cities like Philadelphia to countersue if another state tries to sue us or demand that we use our own resources for laws that they pass that were not in their jurisdiction. We are going to make sure that we let people know that not only is abortion legal here in Pennsylvania, it will stay legal here in Pennsylvania.
PPhiladelphia City Councilwoman Helen Gym
04:51John Fetterman and Josh Shapiro is leading that that's age. They are leaving it in partnership with healthcare professionals who are here today. There leading it in partnership with local legislators and state legislators who are running and they're gonna leave it for victory in November. I'm proud to now turn it over to Melissa. Lisa, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody.
SState House Candidates Lisa Borowski and Melissa Cerrato
05:20Good afternoon everyone. My name is Lisa Murkowski and I'm a Democratic candidate running for the 168 Legislative District in Delaware County. I'm running against a man who voted in support of a constitutional amendment to ban abortion in the state of Pennsylvania. And I'm Melissa Serato, running for State House seat 151. And we are proud to say that we are both endorsed by Planned Parenthood. We're so happy to be standing here on the steps of Philadelphia City Hall with physicians for Fetterman and Shapiro. So today Today, we are standing here and thrilled to be united with physicians for Fetterman and Shapiro to let the GOP know that Pennsylvania will not be stripping women of their rights. Republicans have made it clear that if they went to November, they plan to ban abortion in all cases, we cannot let that happen. I am proud to stand here and say that abortion is healthcare. And we look forward to hearing more from these amazing physicians today.
DDr. Jessica Klemens, DO, Obstetrician/Gynecologist
06:43Hello, I'm Dr. Jessica Clemens, and I'm an OB GYN physician. And I've been living and working in Pennsylvania for over 20 years. We're here today, not as Democrats or Republicans but as physicians who understand the importance of electing John Fetterman to the US Senate and Josh Shapiro as our Commonwealth's next governor. We are here to warn voters about the threat to the health and well being of every Pennsylvanian if Mastriano and ahs get elected. I came here today with my fellow physician colleagues from Philadelphia and montgomery county, many of us are OBGYN But you'll also hear from an ER doctor and a rheumatologist about how the changing landscape of reproductive rights is going to affect all of our pregnant patients. If you know me, you know I'm typically soft spoken, shy to speak in public. But this has all changed in the last year's months and certainly in the last week. And yes, at the last minute, I had to find a colleague to cover for me for two hours because I am currently in the middle of a 24 hour labor and delivery shift. These scrubs are for real life. As my kids like to say. I am here because it is time to step forward, it is time to speak up. It is time to stick our necks out because pregnant women and girls lives are in danger with the new legislation aimed at Banning abortion and Pennsylvania and nationwide. It often takes the personal personal conversations with your friends and family members to help them understand how an outright abortion ban will lead to dangerous medical situations. And that pregnancy termination is a part of every OBGYN job. I was raised by a pro choice Democrat father and a Republican mother who only voted for candidates that identified as pro life. They both have very strong Christian values and beliefs. It took my mom until I became an OBGYN physician and telling her story, a story about my IVF patient who had her water break at 16 weeks and had a high fever. And this type of conversation about how difficult and sad it was to talk to my patient about the fact that the only way to save her and her uterus was to deliver her babies. This is the standard of care and OB GYN medicine. It was this these type of physician stories that sparked your quest to understand what abortion bans really mean. My mom will tell you, she has changed her mind. She recently moved back to Pennsylvania from a state with a trigger law. She says she wants her vote to count. She's now a registered Democrat and now only votes for pro choice candidates. If an Evan Jellicle Christian woman in her mid 60s can change her mind, like gaining a better understanding of the need for safe and excessive accessible abortion care than anyone can. The 15 week abortion ban by Senator Lindsey Graham is so misguided on multiple levels and does the opposite of what conservative so called pro life folks claim they want. This will permit the first trimester abortions that are 90% of the cases. And instead it will make it illegal for physicians to save the lives of the mothers and girls who experienced an emergency and are at risk of dying from a hemorrhage or an infection or losing their uterus or fallopian tube. It is not the 1800s it is not 1972 We're not going back. It is 2022. This abortion, excuse me, this proposed national abortion ban is going to backfire. It has mobilized hundreds if not 1000s of physicians, both here with me today. Thank you. In the state of Pennsylvania and nationwide, we will not stand for being told we must let our patients die or suffer the consequences of a pregnancy complication. We will organize. We will talk to everyone we know our friends, our family members and our patients in order to educate everyone on this horrific path that Mastriano Oz and Senator Graham have dared to try to take us down. We stand here in solidarity with motivation to work the hardest we have ever in a political cycle to get pro choice candidates into office like John Fetterman for US Senate and Josh Shapiro for Pennsylvania Governor and many others on the Pennsylvania ballot this November.
DDr. Jessica Klemens, DO, Obstetrician/Gynecologist
11:38Our patients, our sisters, our daughters, our friends, and some of our own pregnant lives will otherwise be put in peril. Next, I'd like to introduce you Dr. Ben Abella. He's an emergency room physician in Philadelphia, who is on the front lines caring for pregnant patients when they arrive by foot by ambulance or by helicopter with obstetric emergencies. Thank you.
DDr. Ben Abella, MD, Emergency Medicine
12:17My name is Ben Abella. I'm an emergency physician who's cared for patients in West Penn West Philadelphia for over 16 years. Emergency Departments represent the safety net of our stressed health care system. We are ready to help 24/7 And we're honored to serve our communities. However, I'm here to tell you abortion bans hurt women. Abortion bans hurts families, abortion bans hurt children. Emergency providers are already seeing this in the states that have enacted bans. The reports are tragic. From my own experience, I can share a story among many and how abortions can save lives. Julie was a 23 year old married woman with one child. She was pregnant with her second child and was thrilled to have the opportunity to grow her young family. But something was seriously wrong. She experienced severe sudden abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding, so she and her husband came to the emergency room we tagged as Julie with an ectopic pregnancy. That means that Julie's pregnancy had formed in the wrong place in her body, not in the uterus, but rather in the fallopian tube. ectopic pregnancy is common and it can be deadly. Many women with ectopic pregnancy require immediate care before the pregnancy ruptures and leads to serious internal bleeding, even death. We diagnosed Julie with an ectopic pregnancy. She and her husband were terrified. Julia was already bleeding internally and very sick. But with rapid coordination with her gynecology teams were able to give her blood transfusions, resuscitate her and surgically treat the ectopic pregnancy with abortion and save Julie's life. It is important to emphasize ectopic pregnancies will never lead to live births. The only thing they can do is kill or maim the mother and then stage with abortion bans. We're already seeing a cop of care being slowed. Being means being confused and impaired. Hospital lawyers are preventing emergency doctors from activating a topic management unless the patient is truly on death's doorstep. Some women are being discharged without any treatment for fear of legal repercussions. This is shameful. This is tragic. Health care providers say this is unacceptable. This is why total abortion bans such as proposed by candidate for governor Doug Mastriano are so dangerous. Emergency care providers can no longer sit on the sidelines. We must work in a Commonwealth that allows us to practice medicine and save lives without interference from politicians. This is why I believe we must elect Josh Shapiro and protect medical freedom in our Commonwealth. Similarly, legislation has been proposed at the national level to ban abortion at 15 weeks. This is also why we must elect John Fetterman to Senate so that we can protect abortion rates nationwide and protect our ability to practice medicine in a safe and evidence based manner. Thank you
Processing audio...