Florida’s two state health agencies clarified for doctors on Thursday morning that an abortion is allowed at “any stage in pregnancy” to save the life and health of the mother, according to a press release.
“Providers are reminded that Florida requires life-saving medical care to a mother without delay when necessary, and the Florida Department of Health and the Agency for Health Care Administration will take regulatory action when a provider fails to follow this standard of care,” the press release says in bold text.
The release, aimed to dispel what the state called “misinformation” about abortion in Florida, also says “miscarriage is not an abortion” in bold text and warns health care facilities and providers that a failure to provide life-saving treatment for pregnant women may constitute malpractice.
This is the best thing I’ve read about Florida in a long time.
It is great, but does the Attorney General care what the health agencies say?
The chilling effect from the abortion bans also comes from contradictory regulations, rules, and guidance with medical professionals trying to error on the side of not being prosecuted because the AG wants to drag them to court over whether the mother’s life was in danger.
In Thursday’s press release, the agencies mention “fatal fetal abnormality” as an exception to the abortion law along with rape, incest and human trafficking. The press release later explains the exceptions for rape, incest and human trafficking have a cut off for 15 weeks, but the agencies do not say whether that applies to “fatal fetal abnormality.”
Sadly this is just damage control ahead of an election. What they say and what they do don’t match up. Within the next year, guaranteed that a healthcare worker is going to get prosecuted by the state for even suggesting to a pregnant woman an abortion would save her life, much less make moves to enable such an action.
If they gave the damn about the lives and long term health of mothers they wouldn’t have worked so hard to restrict abortion access and demonize anyone willing to say that not every pregnancy is safe to carry to term.
One would think that. But the test of the state prosecutorial agencies will fight this tooth and nail.
Unfortunately, as we have seen in other states (and possibly also Florida), hospitals are willing to let women die rather than take the legal risk even when the law says that the life or health of the mother is at risk. And now all they’re doing here is putting those facilities between a rock and a hard place. Either they perform the abortion and risk breaking the law or they don’t perform the abortion and risk malpractice. I’m guessing they’ll probably err on the side of malpractice.
That’s what insurance is for. - the executive at the hospital
I wager that DeSantis ordered this to make republicans looks better in the face of all the horror stories about women being left, mid miscarriage, with fetuses rotting inside of them, until they are on deaths door where the law would finally let it be removed without the doctors being arrested.
Don’t worry, Governor DeathSantis is on the case
Such bullsh*t.
“Dear Doctors… You should perform abortions when it’s medically necessary… oh and if we don’t agree it was medically necessary (yet) you lose your license and possibly face criminal charges. - Sincerely Florida”
Someone asked me once if I had the option to save one life or the other, which would I choose? It wasn’t about abortion, but more like diverting the train. I said, “The moment I decide who to save is also the moment I decide who dies. There will either be an action or inaction, but that decision is what makes me a murderer. People may tell me it’s not true because I only did it to save a life, but one life was already about to be lost, and I didn’t change the outcome. If someone walks into traffic and you decide to risk your life and push them to safety, you are putting yourself at risk where there was no risk before and therefore potentially trading your life for another. You could both die, but you could both live, and that’s the difference. If someone is trying to kill you, but you kill them, you prevented a decided action to kill, and therefore, it wasn’'t your decision.”
The decision should be made between the mother and the doctor.
