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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   29201 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 13, 2025

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Another abortion case (edit: this article is is based off of and links to a lengthy ProPublica article on the case) finds its way to the front page of reddit. To its credit, it's not the ragebait that the "mother-fails-to-go-to-hospital-after-days-of-heavy-bleeding-caused-by-abortion-pills" seen recently.

The expectant mom had woken up on the day of her baby shower with nausea and vomiting, which turned out to be a deadly infection.

But she had to plead for medical assistance, with doctors waiting to perform two ultrasounds to confirm her fetus had no heartbeat before they would intervene.

Wait, what? Two ultrasounds? One ultrasound confirming no heartbeat wasn't enough? The article heavily winks that it was all due to that crummy heartbeat law:

Experts told the publication that there was ‘no medical reason’ to make Crain wait for two ultrasounds before taking action to save her.

But wait a minute, what does the law itself say? Per Wikipedia:

Section 3 of the Act requires a physician to test for a "fetal heartbeat" (or "cardiac activity") before performing an abortion and prohibits abortion if a "fetal heartbeat" is detected. The only exception is for when "a physician believes a medical emergency exists that prevents compliance." The term "medical emergency" is not defined in the statute.

Okay, sure, it's a little vague on what emergencies are. But I think you could pretty easily argue that a deadly infection is a medical emergency. Especially after you already have one ultrasound confirming no heartbeat.

As the article says, this is one of two cases where someone died upon waiting for two ultrasounds. At what point is this medical malpractice that has little to do with abortion laws? I have to wonder if the doctor is an activist doctor that is morally opposed to the heartbeat bill and is willing to let people die to further the cause. If someone's on the brink of death, you should treat them, legality should be an afterthought. But to wait for two ultrasounds, it seems like saving people was the afterthought here.

Edit: They also turned her away for sepsis without treating her, as The_Nybbler points out. Hmm, seems like abortion laws aren't entirely the reason for her death. You kind of have to treat people for that instead of just shrugging that you can't kill her fetus and then send her home. In fact, maybe the sepsis caused the fetus to die? But they missed that it was sepsis.

From the source propublica article:

“Dr. Totorica states to not move patient,” she wrote after talking with him. “Dr. Totorica states there is a slight chance patient may need to go to ICU and he wants the bedside ultrasound to be done stat for sure before admitting to room.”

Though he had already performed an ultrasound, he was asking for a second.

The first hadn’t preserved an image of Crain’s womb in the medical record.“Bedside ultrasounds aren’t always set up to save images permanently,” said Abbott, the Boston OB-GYN.

The state’s laws banning abortion require that doctors record the absence of a fetal heartbeat before intervening with a procedure that could end a pregnancy. Exceptions for medical emergencies demand physicians document their reasoning.

You can read the relevant statute here is §171.205. The additional regulatory burden is not an accident. It’s one of the main mechanisms by which Texas is reducing abortions performed in-state.

I expect the goalposts to recede into the distance as the usual suspects try to place the blame somewhere, anywhere but on the pro-life bloc.

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