What I'm reading: Abortion bans in action
Worst-case scenarios already unfolding
Less than a month after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, state-level abortion bans are already undermining essential health care. No doubt you’ve heard about the 10-year-old rape victim who had to travel from Ohio to Indiana.
But did you know some physicians are delaying treatment for ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages? One Texas hospital told a doctor to wait until the ectopic pregnancy ruptured (a life-threatening complication) before treating it.
Frances Stead Sellers and Fenit Nirappil reported for The Washington Post,
At one Kansas City, Mo., hospital, administrators temporarily required “pharmacist approval” before dispensing medications used to stop postpartum hemorrhages, because they can also be also used for abortions.
And in Wisconsin, a woman bled for more than 10 days from an incomplete miscarriage after emergency room staff would not remove the fetal tissue amid a confusing legal landscape that has roiled obstetric care.
The bans are undermining health care even for some Americans who aren’t pregnant. Olivia Goldhill reported for Stat News that physicians in some states are hesitating to prescribe a medication used to treat lupus and arthritis, because it can be used to induce abortion.
One affected patient in Tennessee spoke to Dr. Erica Jalal of ABC News: "I'm a 48-year-old woman without a uterus […] I didn't think the abortion ban would affect me."
All of those scenarios could come to Iowa, if Governor Reynolds succeeds in reinstating the six-week abortion ban Republicans enacted in 2018, or signs a similar measure into law next year.
Laura Hazard Owen wrote a great piece for Nieman Lab: Unimaginable abortion stories will become more common. Is American journalism ready?
I also recommend a few deep dives on the U.S. Supreme Court majority that set these tragedies in motion.
By Michelle Boorstein: “Under right-leaning Supreme Court, the church-state wall is crumbling”
By Ian Millhiser: “The post-legal Supreme Court: What happens if the Court rejects the rule of law?”
By Joshua Zeitz: “The Supreme Court’s Faux ‘Originalism’”
Now I’m off to write the latest edition to my free email newsletter, which comes out two or three times a week, with links to all recent Bleeding Heartland coverage. (Here’s the link to subscribe; I don’t share my email list with anyone.)
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