In Texas, where doctors face up to 99 years of prison if convicted of performing an illegal abortion, medical and legal experts say the law is complicating decision-making around emergency pregnancy care.
Although the state law says termination of ectopic pregnancies is not considered abortion, the draconian penalties scare Texas doctors from treating those patients,
That’s horrible and unjust. But it doesn’t invalidate everything else. That poor woman is understandably looking at it from her perspective, which doesn’t give a damn about what comes next. Part of medicine and medical policy is making difficult decisions. Let’s look the other direction where what the government has done isnt evil.
The opioid epidemic has been devastating. Recently, they’ve restricted prescribing of opioid to surgeons and pain specialists instead of everyday physicians. When my back goes out and I can’t make it to the toilet do you think I care about the big picture? I’ve never had issues with opiod abuse and use them just as pain killers to get me through the worst of it. I always need up with most of my prescription expiring.
But my individual suffering is less than the societal cost of easy access to opioids.
With this insane abortion law, it’s clear the state is in the wrong, but the doctors have to look at the impact of their decisions. The doctors want to help that poor woman. It’s the easy, satisfying thing to do in the moment. But if the outcome is fewer people receiving medical treatment is it a net positive.
Maybe?
It really depends on the rate at which this is happening and whether the doctors would actually win at court.