Ana Maria Rosato interviews Dr. Emily on Postpartum Depression, Family Concerns, and Abortion

In 2019, the Georgia Republican-controlled legislature passed an abortion ban by a margin of TWO votes. Stop. The Bans. American Physicians Speak Out is a video series I produced as the ACLU of Georgia communications director. The series set out to find out the impact an abortion ban can have on women’s healthcare and on the physicians who provide women’s healthcare.

In this video, I interviewed Dr. Emily, an OB/GYN who discusses the reality postpartum depression has on women’s lives. At the end of this post, Dr. Emily’s comments are translated into Spanish.

Dr. Emily says, “So, I have a patient and family that comes to mind. So, this woman, I took care of her during her second pregnancy, which was challenging for her. It was medically uncomplicated, but she had an older child at home who was having an angry outburst. and so, it was difficult to manage. But we got through the pregnancy and delivered a healthy baby girl.

“She’s really excited. But unfortunately, developed postpartum depression, which is a lot more common than people realize. And it took her about five to six months to be able to recover from that.

“And then about one year after she found out she was pregnant, and she came and we talked about it, and she just wasn’t sure if she could continue with the pregnancy. She had just recovered herself. She was taking care of two young children. Her husband was working two jobs to be able to financially support them. She was worried what happens if she had postpartum depression again. Would she should be able to take care of her kids, her family?

“And after this discussion of her options, she decided that an abortion was the right thing for her. And so thankfully, here in California, she was able to get that so that she could focus on herself and her family.”

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As the ACLU of Georgia’s communications director, Ana Maria Rosato produced the ACLU of Georgia’s 36-part video series titled “Stop. The. Bans. American Physicians Speak Out.”

The series focuses on the impact that abortion bans have on women and their families as well as the impact on the practice of medicine.

Ana Maria interviewed physicians — the experts on women’s healthcare — to discuss what happens to their practice and women’s healthcare when politicians decide how to end a pregnancy rather than leaving those decisions to the individual women and the people those women trust.

Ana Maria interviewed 19 physicians from diverse disciplines: obstetrics and gynecology, cardiology, emergency medicine, family medicine, psychiatry, psychology, internal medicine, maternal fetal medicine, and oncology.

Ana Maria’s perspective: “When it comes to reproductive healthcare, women and couples must be free to decide whether and when to start or extend a family. Period.”

#LetHerDecide

For more information on the ACLU of Georgia’s important work to protect reproductive freedom, go to https://acluga.org.

Video credit: Another Jones Production https://ajproduction.org