Doctors are left to guess at whether helping their patients will land them in prison. AbortionIsHealthcare abortionrights abortionrightsarehumanrights WomensHealth Texas txlege
Even when a doctor believes an abortion is medically necessary to save a woman’s life, often the best advice that lawyers can offer to that doctor is that it “probably” is legal, Rocap said. “When the penalty is 20 years to life, ‘probably’ is not good enough.”
For example, what is legally permissible when a patient with a viable pregnancy receives a cancer diagnosis? Many forms of treatment, such as some chemotherapy in the first trimester, would mean the pregnancy would have to be terminated. Murphree said his lawyers have told him that discussion is now off the table. “It’s perilous to even discuss that as an option with patients,” said Murphree. With just that conversation, he said, doctors “place our license and our life in jeopardy.
Once-routine cases are now coming before medical ethicists like Campo-Engelstein, delaying essential care. “Before, if someone needed a [medically necessary] abortion, a doctor would just provide it; we never heard about it,” she said. “But now, with routine cases that are not ethical issues, doctors feel like they need to check all the boxes to make sure that they are not going to get sued or lose their license.
The preamble to the American Medical Association’s code of ethics advises doctors that, in some cases, a law “mandates conduct that is ethically unacceptable.” If physicians believe a law violates ethical values or is unjust, the code continues, “They should work to change the law. In exceptional circumstances of unjust laws, ethical responsibilities should supersede legal duties.”
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