Abortion saves lives. I’ve seen it over and over.

About a decade ago, my colleague treated a woman who had gone into early labor; her water broke 19 weeks into her pregnancy. She developed an infection, but the fetus was not yet viable outside her body. At some point, her body would expel the fetus naturally, but it would not survive. And unless an abortion was performed to empty the uterus and allow antibiotics to take effect, the woman would not survive either. Two lives would be lost.

Such a medical intervention could now be prohibited by law in many states.

The ruling by the Supreme Court in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health is clearly not pro-life. On the contrary, overturning Roe v. Wade will put pregnant people’s lives at risk.

Just look at what happened in Ireland in 2012. A mother (and fetus) died because the doctors were afraid to provide the necessary care — which would require removing the fetus — as that meant violating the law. In response, Irish citizenry voted overwhelmingly to legalize abortion.

The majority on the Supreme Court has opened the floodgates for states to ban abortion from conception onward. This decision will deny many people the right to make personal and medical decisions with their physician, free from government intrusion. More than half the states in the U.S. are poised to or have enacted abortion bans, and our Pennsylvania legislature has long been chomping at the bit to join this effort.

Such intrusive laws will lead to the deaths of many pregnant individuals, particularly those without the time, money, or access to comprehensive health care that includes abortion.

As a physician who practiced obstetrics and gynecology for over 30 years, I can attest to the dangers of criminalizing a safe medical procedure. Legal abortion is much safer than carrying a pregnancy to term, labor, and delivery. Making abortion illegal will not stop abortion. It did not do so before 1973, when the Roe v. Wade decision was handed down. Back then, we saw women die, become infected, hemorrhage, or be mutilated by illegal, unsafe, or self-induced abortions.

I am 76 years old and saw this with my own eyes, long before I became a doctor. A girl in my high school attempted a self abortion in the bathroom and was carried out on a stretcher in a pool of blood. A colleague who is older than I used to take care of women in what were called “septic tanks,” where women who had botched self-induced or illegal abortions were treated for infection and hemorrhage, sometimes with hysterectomy to save their lives.

Let me share another example: One of my practice’s patients, a woman with two young children, looking forward to her third, was diagnosed with a life-threatening situation. In her tenth week, the placenta had invaded the wall of her uterus and extended into her bladder. Medical consultants all agreed that continuing the pregnancy would result in severe hemorrhage and emergency surgery. The chances of the woman’s death were high; she would leave a husband and two children, and the fetus would die in any case. She and her husband chose to terminate the pregnancy. Would they still have that choice now that Dobbs is on the books?

» READ MORE: Religion doesn’t always justify antiabortion rhetoric. Look at Judaism.

If women are to have control over their own bodies and medical decisions with their physicians, no judge or legislator should interfere.

I speak out not only as an OB-GYN, but also as a Jewish woman and a member of the National Council of Jewish Women. We believe that abortion restrictions impinge upon our religious freedom as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. No religious opinions about when life begins have a place in our laws. Jewish tradition not only permits but encourages abortion if the mother’s life is in danger. Abortion access is a Jewish value, and we will not stand idly by as our sisters’ lives and rights are endangered. We will not stand by as women die.

Sherry Blumenthal is a Board-Certified OB/GYN, now retired, who practiced at both Einstein Medical Center and Abington Memorial Hospitals.