Dear John ,

In a callous and blatantly political decision in advance of the upcoming presidential election, the Supreme Court failed to answer a straightforward question: Does federal law, known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), that requires hospitals to provide whatever necessary care – including abortion – is required to stabilize a pregnant woman facing potentially life-threatening complications, supersede a state's abortion ban?

Instead, the Court dismissed the case which involved Idaho’s near-total abortion ban in a challenge to the mandates of EMTALA, sending it back through the appellate process while leaving in place a lower court order that prevents Idaho from enforcing its abortion ban in emergency cases – for now.  

But the court's action leaves unaddressed similar bans in 13 other states, like Texas, which argues it need only allow abortion in cases to save a woman’s life – but not in cases when an abortion is necessary to stabilize her and preserve her health. These draconian abortion bans mean that physicians have to wait as a matter of law until a patient’s condition deteriorates to the point where she faces imminent death before they can provide the necessary care to stabilize her. Doctors in states like Texas and Idaho face prison time should they defy the state’s ban.

This is not an academic debate. Maternal mortality rates, already a crisis in Black communities, are worsening in states with strict abortion bans. Increasingly, women are presenting at hospital emergency rooms actively miscarrying and being denied surgical abortion procedures or medication for treatment, jeopardizing their health – and in some cases, their lives.

I’ve enclosed a letter from Dr. Damla Karsan, Kate Cox’s physician. What happened in Texas to Kate Cox and Dr. Damla Karsan in the aftermath of the Dobbs decision is now happening in state after state as the Republican right-wing goes on the attack.

I’ve also attached an image of a toe tag – the kind that’s fastened to the deceased in hospital morgues. Why a toe tag? Because as long as dangerous abortion bans like the one in Texas are in force, there will be more danger, more fear and yes, more deaths for American women.

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But as Dr. Karsan explains in her letter below, there’s something you can do about it. I hope you will become a Ms . Partner and help us continue reporting on and debunking the false claims of the reactionary right. [[link removed]]

Kathy Spillar


Dr. Damla Karsan, OB/GYN
Houston, Texas

Dear John,

Let me start with my story because it reflects what tens of thousands of women and hundreds of physicians are going through right now.

I am the Texas doctor who was blocked from providing my patient Kate Cox with an abortion. Kate had a nonviable and potentially life-threatening pregnancy, but Texas’ draconian, ambiguous and punitive abortion ban forces doctors to wait until their patients are near death before performing an abortion, or send them out of state for care. If physicians are found to violate the current law, we face as many as 99 years in prison, $100,000 in fines, and loss of our medical licenses.

To challenge Texas’ law and allow me to perform her abortion, I joined with Kate in a lawsuit brought by the Center for Reproductive Rights. To this day, I can’t shake the feeling of helplessness that engulfed me watching Kate deteriorate as we awaited a decision. Kate had already required emergency room care on four occasions.

A county judge ruled that I could perform the abortion and enjoined Texas from prosecuting me, but the right-wing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton immediately appealed the decision to the nine-member Texas Supreme Court (composed entirely of Republicans). The Supreme Court denied our request, and Kate was forced to go out-of-state for the care that preserved her life and future ability to have children.

Meanwhile, the right-wing extremists go out of their way to fight against life-saving care for pregnant women. They believe – and want you to believe – there is no circumstance in which an abortion is needed.

The Power of Knowledge, Action and You

In this critical election year of 2024, you and I and everyone who cares about the future of reproductive health and personal freedom must get fully informed about the dangerous implications of the actions lawmakers are taking, and apply that knowledge at the ballot box.

One source for me are the daily updates and truthful, informed reporting by Ms. magazine that’s available online, with bulletins, newsletters and podcasts each week, and the print magazine that goes into tens of thousands of homes, libraries and medical offices.

I admire and thank you because as part of the Ms. Community you’ve helped make this vital flow of information possible.

Ms . has been an especially critical information source when it comes to the issue of abortion and reproductive health. [[link removed]] You see, there’s so much misinformation and disinformation flooding our country and the only way to counter this is with truth-telling. That’s what Ms. does. Hour after hour. Day after day.

There’s just one problem. We need to get more information about the horrific impacts of abortion bans to more voters – especially younger voters – as quickly as possible to assure we have a massive turnout this fall in support of reproductive health and personal freedoms.

And that’s where your special help as a Ms. Partner comes in.

As someone who understands and appreciates how much Ms. means, I hope you will make as generous a contribution as you can to assure Ms. has the resources it needs. [[link removed]]

As you consider the size of your Ms. Partnership contribution, please glance again at that toe tag. Please realize that there are tens of thousands of pregnant women who are now forced to choose between the threat of dying in their state where no help is available, or fleeing out-of-state for help. Many will suffer life-long injuries.

And some will die. Like Yeniifer Alvarez, a young Texas woman suffering from hypertension and diabetes, who died from pregnancy complications after a Catholic hospital failed to offer critical abortion care. Her death was preventable, a direct result of policies that value ideology over women's health and lives. Her family now visits a grave, instead of a nursery.

With your help as a Ms. Partner , reason and compassion can prevail. [[link removed]] Let the health and lives of women – like Kate – be valued. Let doctors – like me – practice medicine without fear of retribution.

Thank you for caring and acting,

Dr. Damla Karsan

READ THE REST [[link removed]] | GET THE MAGAZINE [[link removed]] | SUPPORT MS. [[link removed]]

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