While the Supreme Court appears poised to send abortion regulation back to the states, recent experience in Texas shows that medical care resulting from miscarriage and dangerous ectopic pregnancies would also be at risk if restrictions continued to spread. A Texas law passed last year lists several drugs as abortion-inducing drugs and largely bans their use for abortions after the seventh week of pregnancy. But two of those drugs, misoprostol and mifepristone, are the only drugs recommended in the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists` guidelines for treating a patient after early pregnancy loss. Elizabeth Weller never dreamed that her own hopes of having a child would be caught up in the web of Texas abortion law. In some cases, the infection can become serious or life-threatening, leading to sepsis, hysterectomy, or even death. In 2012, a woman died in Ireland after her waters ruptured after 17 weeks and doctors refused to allow her to have an abortion. The case sparked a movement that led to the lifting of Ireland`s abortion ban in 2018. From his point of view as a doctor, this is considered a medical emergency: “The emergency now prevents this.” But such a move is not legally recognized in Texas, she said. The crisis the Wellers have been through is emblematic of the enormous and perhaps unintended medical implications of criminalizing abortion in Republican-led states. New abortion bans — or old laws that are being revived in a post-Roe world — are rigidly drafted and not reviewed by the courts. Many do not offer exceptions for rape, incest or fetal anomoly. But Prager thinks laws in Texas — and perhaps soon elsewhere — could increase doctors` susceptibility to medical malpractice lawsuits. Consider the patient whose miscarriage is delayed and develops a serious infection and other complications, Prager said.
“And they decide to sue for wrongdoing,” she said. “They absolutely can.” However, Mayo said his reading of the law allows the use of methotrexate to treat an ectopic pregnancy. In addition, he said, other Texas laws and Roe v. Wade provides an exception to allow abortion if a pregnant person`s life is in danger. Since 1. Abortion in September is illegal in Texas after six weeks of pregnancy, with one exception: if a doctor determines that a patient is facing a “medical emergency” if the pregnancy continues, he can then perform an abortion without breaking the law. A federal judge has suspended the application of Texas law, which effectively prohibits abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Elizabeth`s pregnancy crisis began — and ended — weeks before June 24, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down federal abortion law in its Dobbs v. Jackson decision. Parmet noted that today`s political environment is more hostile to abortion than in previous decades. Even before Roe, she said, law enforcement was unlikely to intervene if a hospital committee said an abortion was performed for a patient`s health.
In an amicus curiae letter filed by six regional Planned Parenthood groups in Texas, several patients explained how the law had affected them. One, a single mother who cannot have an abortion in the state under SB8, does not know if she can take time off or get child care for her new pregnancy. Another patient, a retail employee, is struggling to get through the workday and isn`t sure if seeking out-of-state abortion care is an option, Jennifer Gerson of The 19th reports. Gingrich-Gaylord said Trust Women, which owns two clinics in Oklahoma and Kansas, was not worried about their work being hampered by potential lawsuits they might face as providers of abortion services to out-of-state Texans. For Elizabeth, termination also seemed to be the most compassionate option for her fetus. Even with a low chance of survival at 24 weeks, the newborn would face intense physical challenges and aggressive medical interventions. Reproductive health experts and abortion providers like Planned Parenthood, with whom The 19th spoke, don`t know how the lawsuits made possible by Senate Bill 8 could play out. For example, whether someone who wants to take legal action against a Texas provider could be criticized for trying to access a patient`s medical records is an open question. The court ruled that abortion was a “matter of profound moral and social importance.” In their dissent, the court`s three liberal justices argue that the justices who ruled Roe recognized the moral issue by allowing states to regulate abortions on the basis of viability. The U.S. military does not ban abortions, but it also does not cover the cost of abortions or offer abortions at military facilities, according to the Wall Street Journal.