menu_open
Columnists Actual . Favourites . Archive
We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close
Aa Aa Aa
- A +

Doctors Face “Perpetual Rollercoaster” as SCOTUS Prepares to Hear Abortion Cases

19 0
21.01.2024

This story was originally published by The 19th.

Less than two years ago, the Supreme Court eliminated the federal right to an abortion, a decision that the court’s conservative majority suggested would remove them from further litigation of abortion rights..

”The Court’s decision properly leaves the question of abortion for the people and their elected representatives in the democratic process,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a concurring opinion.

But this term, the court is now set to hear two cases that could further undercut access to the procedure.

As those cases unfold, doctors who care for pregnant people say their work has taken on new levels of uncertainty; they’re unsure what care they can legally provide and often unable to follow best medical practices.

“I feel like I’m standing in the middle of a crowded room, screaming, warning, ‘Bad things are coming,’ and nobody’s listening,” said Dr. Amy Adante, an OB-GYN from outside of Chicago, where abortion remains legal.

The cases touch on different legal questions and could affect the entire country, not just states that have banned abortion. One, stemming from a challenge filed in Texas, concerns the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of mifepristone, which is one of two drugs commonly used in medication abortions. The other, out of Idaho, addresses whether the federal emergency medicine law known as EMTALA protects the right to an abortion when it is the necessary treatment to save the life of a patient. The EMTALA case is set to be argued in April; the court has not set a date for arguments in the mifepristone case.

Doctors across the country told The 19th that they have struggled to stay on top of the latest developments in abortion lawsuits since the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned federal abortion protections. That confusion, some said, could stop physicians even from providing legal pregnancy-related........

© Truthout


Get it on Google Play