ER Nurse Kellen Squire: Republicans Want to Criminalize Miscarriages? So Would They Be Criminals, Then, For Kneecapping COVID Mitigation Measures and Increasing the Number of Miscarriages?

I launched my campaign for the Virginia House of Delegates Friday, and thanks to everyone here, it was a huge success. I really wanted the next post I wrote to be about THAT, but then I noticed, in catching up with news I’d missed on the campaign trail, that Republicans are planning on criminalizing miscarriages as soon as Roe vs Wade is repealed.

I should be used to the Republicans racing to the bottom by now. I really should. I yell and scream to anyone who’ll listen that that’s all they know how to do, they’re experts at it. Yet, still, even sometimes I’m taken aback by the brazenness of it.

So here’s my question – if they’re going to criminalize miscarriage, when are the Republican politicians who did their best to kneecap all of our COVID mitigation methods going to be handcuffed?

Let me tell you all something. I saw more miscarriages in the last twenty five months in the ER than the nine previous years combined.

COMBINED.

I want you to imagine this scene. A packed ER waiting room, filled with people who are obviously suffering from COVID, hacking and crying and miserable. It’s maybe a six or eight hour wait to be seen, at minimum. And a patient comes in, seventeen or eighteen weeks along, with severe abdominal and pelvic pain. Cramping. Spotting. But we just have nothing we can do – they’ve gotta wait like everyone else.

And wait.

And wait.

Finally, the patient rushes to the bathroom. And a minute later, the security guard screams on the radio for the triage nurse.

The triage nurse rushes in to find the patient miscarrying right there in the triage bathroom. The triage bathroom, where every other sick person visits. Blood everywhere. Sobbing. Incredible pain.

Do you know how many times my colleagues and I had to go through that over the last two years? Do you have any idea what that does to these patients; to those of us who’ve had to help these patients?

We have, in our hospital, very small boxes with very small blankets. The blankets are obviously of incredible high quality, with intricate and ornate stitching and decorations; meticulously crafted by local volunteers who hand sew each one with the utmost of care.

The hours poured into their creation stand in contrast to the fact that they’re made only to be seen for the briefest time… usually a few minutes at most.

But those minutes can be the most profound of people’s lives.

Now that you have that image in your mind, I want you to think about what it’s like, as a healthcare provider, when you realize your hospital is quickly running out of very small blankets.

Running out.

Of very small blankets.

Oh – and by the way – now both you and the patient have to be worried as to whether the local district attorney will prosecute you, now that we’re criminalizing your tragedy.

You’ll never guess what seems to be the common link in those cases, and what could have happened over the past couple years to have made those cases increase so dramatically.

Could it be? Could it be… COVID?

Yes. Yes, that is exactly what it looks like the “common link” is for that dramatic rise, for both medical and psychosocial reasons. But we’ll never know for sure to what extent; our ability to “run that down” never existed, since the Federal government was actively pro-COVID for the first year of the pandemic.

So since these Republican politicians have such “sincere” concern for those who suffer miscarriages, I want to know – when do they report to prison to start their sentences for doing everything they could to make sure COVID spread as far and wide as possible?

Of course, that’ll never happen. They don’t actually care about abortion or anything related to it – they only want control over, not just women’s bodies, but everyone’s. Remember what I said – despite all the fuss, Republicans and Democrats are actually equally in favor of safe and easily accessible abortion. It’s just Democrats want it available for everyone, and Republicans want it only available for them, their daughters, and their mistresses.

But it’s just one reason why I’m running for office here in Virginia. It’s literally now to protect my colleagues and I personally. Imagine if I would have had to send my EMT not to a PTSD counselor, but to fucking court to be a “witness” – a witness – in a criminal proceeding against a patient who has to live out the same exact nightmare, only worse.

I want all of you to remember this story. You tell them, if they’re serious about criminalizing miscarriages, anyone who stood against our COVID mitigation measures needs to do hard time.

Seems only fair to me.

Kellen Squire is an emergency department nurse from Barboursville, Virginia, and a candidate for the 55th District in the Virginia House of Delegates. Click here to donate to, volunteer for, or get the word out about our people-powered campaign.