Dear John,
It’s been nearly a month since the Supreme Court issued its decision overturning Roe v. Wade — and in its wake, many extreme abortion bans are taking effect, endangering women’s lives and disrupting critical medical care. What’s becoming clearer with each passing day, is how the bans are preventing doctors — who face potential criminal prosecution — from acting quickly in cases of miscarriage, ectopic pregnancies, and other life-threatening complications facing pregnant women and girls.
As one doctor explained to The Washington Post, she was consulted by another physician for a second opinion on a patient who was suffering from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy. “She knew exactly what she had to do because [the patient] was bleeding and was clearly going to die if nothing was done. But she wasn’t sure what she needed to document to be sure she wouldn’t be charged with a felony.”
Appearing on MSNBC, the president of the American Medical Association, Dr. Jack Resneck, stressed that physicians across the country are increasingly facing legal hurdles to performing life-saving procedures. “It’s just devastating for these decisions … to be complicated by legislators and state attorneys general sitting on your shoulder trying to second guess everything you’re doing,” said Resneck. “These decisions turn out to be quite complicated in a lot of instances. So trying to make hard and fast rules in legislative bodies that apply the same across the board is just incredibly dangerous for patients.”
What’s more, the bans aren’t only impacting pregnancy-related conditions. Resneck pointed out that a whole host of conditions are treated by medications that are classified as abortifacients — meaning that they could potentially be used to induce abortions — and that pharmacies are already refusing to dispense them. This could have dire consequences for patients trying to treat conditions including lupus, ulcers, skin cancers, and more.
Protests against the Supreme Court’s abortion ruling continued this past week, in the nation’s capital and across the U.S.. Sixteen Democratic lawmakers, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Carolyn Maloney, Barbara Lee, Jackie Speier and others were arrested after participating in a demonstration near the Court.
And in response to the continued fallout from the ruling, Democrats in the U.S. House this week tried to shore up fundamental rights that the ruling put at risk, introducing bills to protect the right to contraceptives (passed despite opposition by 195 House Republicans), as well as the right to marriage equality (opposed by 157 House Republicans) — both of which were called into question by Justice Clarence Thomas in his concurring opinion in the Dobbs ruling. Both bills now face an uphill battle in the Senate, with little likelihood of attaining the ten Republican votes necessary to overcome the filibuster.
Finally, we explore this week what a presidential declaration of a public health emergency would accomplish. While some advocates have been calling for Biden to declare an emergency in the wake of his executive action, some legal scholars argue that the action would not expand what can be accomplished beyond the executive order, and would undoubtedly prompt court disputes which could ultimately be counterproductive.
For more on the latest laws, abortion resources, and news you need to know, find our up-to-date tracker at Msmagazine.com — and know that you can count on us to keep you informed in the weeks and months to come.
