Handouts with the Women’s Health Center’s theme at the opening ceremony.
Judy Stone
Cumberland, in Allegany County, is beautiful—rural and relatively isolated, set in the foothills of the Appalachians. I practiced here for 25 years and still live here. Allegany is also one of the least healthy counties in Maryland, ranking 21 of 24. We are relatively poor and there is almost no public transportation. It’s been difficult to access any specialized care.
The new Women’s Health Center of Maryland held its ribbon-cutting this week. It promises to bring a greatly needed range of services to the region, including abortion. The clinic is being launched by the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia staff, which was forced to stop doing abortions in West Virginia after a near-total abortion ban there. The decision to relocate abortion services to western Maryland was very strategic—the clinic is south of Cumberland, a few miles from Keyser, West Virginia. It will fill an abortion desert, serving women from our state, southwestern Pennsylvania, and Ohio, which also now is restricting women’s access to care. The clinic notes it will provide a phased approach to gradually increase services, beginning with medical and surgical abortions, contraception, and STI testing and treatment. They will add breast and cervical cancer screening and gender-affirming hormone therapy soon.
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In the first 100 days after the June 24, 2022, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the Guttmacher Institute found that at least 66 clinics across 15 states stopped performing abortions. Now, “22 million women and girls of reproductive age in the US now live in states where abortion access is heavily restricted, and often totally inaccessible,” according to Human Rights Watch.
Even with MD Governor Moore declaring Maryland as a “safe haven” for those seeking an abortion, it’s not been easy for women here. While Maryland will have a constitutional amendment vote next year enshrining the right to abortion, our local representatives oppose this — even standing in opposition to allowing their constituents to vote. (McKay is also known, however, for wanting a vote in the western counties to secede from Maryland and join West Virginia). State Senator Mike McKay is ardently anti-choice; he and local commissioners have made their opposition to the clinic known. There were about a dozen all male protesters standing along the edge of the road holding signs and yelling at times. The clinic was well-prepared for this and there was no disruption.
On the other hand, Rep. David Trone spoke passionately at the ribbon cutting about our need to vote in light of the rightward shift of the Supreme Court. He emphasized that “Abortion rights are human rights.”
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Celebrating the new Women’s Health Clinic of Maryland—Cresta Kowalski, Rep. Trone, Kaylen Barker, … [+] Ramsie Monk, and Katie Quiñonez
Sasha Galbreath, Rep. Trone’s office
The president of Mountain Maryland Alliance for Reproductive Freedom, a nonpartisan, grassroots group of people from Allegany and Garrett counties. Cresta Kowalski, said, “This day is a day of celebration. The Women’s Health Center of Maryland will be a beacon of hope and light to people who’ve been in darkness for way too long.
She became teary as she noted that the LGBTQIA+ community, including her child, will now have “opportunities to receive gender-affirming health care by professionals in a non-judgemental and compassionate manner. They will no longer be wanting for care, in the darkness, but will have a place of hope and dignity in our rural community.”
Physician’s perspective
As a practicing physician, because of aggressive protesters in Hagerstown, I preferred referring women to clinics in Baltimore for safe abortions. But that is a several-hour drive, and Hagerstown’s clinic, with its more limited services, is almost 70 miles away and is very difficult for poor women without a car.
As a physician, I have cared for women who have had serious infections from a botched abortion. I am also aware of women forced to carry and deliver fetuses with fatal abnormalities (e.g., anencephaly, where part of the skull and brain are missing) because local hospitals refused to allow a late-term termination.
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Some years ago, I strongly opposed the merger of the two local hospitals—Sacred Heart and Memorial Hospitals— because that would have put all health care in western Maryland under the restrictions of the Catholic church, with no accessible options. The proposed merger would have prohibited not only abortions, but vital contraceptives, tubal ligations, administration of Depot Provera (a long-acting contraceptive), and distribution of condoms, as well as affecting end-of-life care. (The prohibition on tubals would have forced women to go out of town and have a 2nd anesthesia and operation after their delivery). Counseling about HIV and STD prevention would have been prohibited. Due to the need for women study participants to be on effective contraception, many clinical trials for new medications would not have been allowed, severely limiting patients’ access to state-of-the- art care.
Wayne Goldner, MD, a retired abortion provider I have known for decades, applauded the decision to open a full women’s reproductive health clinic in Cumberland. He reiterated that by “Making abortion illegal or hard to obtain, the number of abortions does not go down, but morbidity and mortality goes up.
Women will have abortions no matter what the law says.” These restrictions “hurt the poor, single and minorities the most.” And, Goldner stressed, we should remember that such clinics save women’s lives each day.
For decades, my stance has been that healthcare decisions should be a medical decision between a patient and their physician and not dictated by anyone else’s personal or religious beliefs. It is great to see that coming to fruition in Maryland—particularly in our relatively depressed and isolated rural area.
COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Michigan State has an excellent chance to make a strong statement this weekend that the rebuilding job under new head coach Jonathan Smith is ahead of schedule, if the Spartans can take down 8-point favorite Maryland on Saturday.
A Michigan State victory would be a strong statement within the football industry, but maybe not as strong from a fan perspective. I’m not sure Maryland’s football brand is as respected in the state of Michigan and regionally as it should be, for a program that has gone 8-5 in the past two seasons and defeated Auburn and North Carolina State in bowl games the past two years.
Maryland is good. The Terrapins are coming off a 50-7 victory over a weak UConn team last week. Maryland’s offense looked very good against a weak, soft, conservative UConn defense.
Michigan State’s defense was ahead of schedule last week against a mediocre Florida Atlantic offense. Michigan State’s offense was behind schedule, experiencing inconsistent accuracy and decision-making at the quarterback position, which was somewhat understandable considering it was sophomore Aidan Chiles’ first start as a college player. MSU’s running game also lacked consistency, especially in short yardage and in the red zone.
The big news from Maryland last week in my opinion was the excellent play of new starting quarterback Billy Edwards. The 6-foot-3, 222-pound redshirt-junior had waited behind the outgoing, record-breaking Taulia Tagovailoa for three years. Tagovailoa left Maryland as the Big Ten’s all-time passing leader. He went undrafted and is now playing in the CFL.
Edwards looked good last week. He’s strong in the pocket, is a physical ball carrier on designed runs or scrambles. He was accurate over the middle on intermediate routes, and seemed to do a good job processing coverages, although UConn’s coverages were simple, slow and soft.
I saw this Michigan State vs Maryland game as a swing game on the schedule prior to the season. But considering how well Edwards and his receivers looked last week, and Michigan State’s sputtering start on offense, this game goes from being a swing game to uphill slog for the Spartans.
One teen shot another during a dispute in a Maryland high school bathroom Friday in what authorities called an isolated incident.
The victim, a 15-year-old student at Joppatowne High School, was in serious condition after being airlifted to a hospital, the Harford County Public Schools said in a news release, citing information it received from the county sheriff’s department.
A 16-year-old student whom police identified as the shooter fled shortly afterward but was caught minutes later nearby, according to the news release. Officials said no information would be released immediately about the weapon, which had not been recovered.
The state’s attorney has said the suspect will be charged, the release said, citing Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler.
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Shortly after the shooting, the sheriff’s office asked people to avoid the area, but emphasized that the confrontation was an “isolated incident, not an active shooter.” A parent-student reunification center was established at a nearby church. More than 100 personnel responded to the high school about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of Baltimore, Gahler said.
The fight happened two days after a shooter whom authorities identified as a 14-year-old student killed four people at a high school outside Atlanta. Wednesday’s attack renewed debate about safe storage laws for guns and had parents wondering how to talk to their children about school shootings and trauma.
Michigan State football heads out east looking to open Big Ten play with a big-time victory.
The Spartans will play at Maryland on Saturday afternoon in their first conference game of the year. Michigan State enters this matchup with a 1-0 record on the year following last week’s win over Florida Atlantic. Maryland is also 1-0 thus far on the season, picking up a blowout non-conference win over UConn last week.
Maryland enters this game as a more than touchdown favorite depending on the sports book. The Terps have won the last two meetings between these two schools.
Below are the details for Saturday’s matchup between the Spartans and Terps:
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Game time: 3:30 p.m. ET on September 7
Location: SECU Stadium (College Park, Md.)
TV: Big Ten Network
Live Stream: fuboTV (try it free)
Listen: Spartan Media Network or MSUSpartans.com
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