Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) accused Democrats of spreading misinformation about a Florida abortion law that led healthcare workers to express concerns about ending her ectopic pregnancy.
When the Republican congresswoman went to the emergency room last month seeking to end her ectopic pregnancy, she said medical providers worried that doing so would violate a Florida law that bans most abortions after six weeks, according to the Wall Street Journal.
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Hospital staff worried about losing their licenses or going to jail if they complied with her request, the Florida lawmaker said, even though she said that ending an ectopic pregnancy doesn’t qualify as an abortion. And even under the premise that it was an abortion, exceptions to the law allow for such procedures in cases such as ectopic pregnancies when the mother’s life is at risk, Cammack added, further arguing that since she was only five weeks along in the pregnancy, any termination wouldn’t have violated the six-week ban.
Cammack told the outlet that doctors eventually agreed to help her terminate the pregnancy after she outlined her case and pulled up the law on her phone for healthcare workers to read.
She faulted Democrats, not the state law, for her difficulty in obtaining healthcare, saying that the Left has spread misleading messaging about the abortion restrictions. Such tactics have led medical professionals to believe they could face criminal charges even if they terminate pregnancies like ectopic pregnancies, which are allowed under the law, Cammack said.
“It was absolute fearmongering at its worst,” the Florida Republican concluded, adding that she “would stand with any woman – Republican or Democrat – and fight for them to be able to get care in a situation where they are experiencing a miscarriage and an ectopic pregnancy.”
After Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the Heartbeat Protection Act into law, which bans most abortions after six weeks, Florida regulators issued guidance clarifying that terminations of certain types of pregnancies, including ectopic pregnancies, would not be classified as abortions under the 2023 law. Medical support to end ectopic pregnancies, an often life-threatening circumstance that occurs when a fertilized egg grows outside the main cavity of a woman’s uterus, would instead be classified as “treatment” options, the state Agency for Health Care Administration announced in two rules published last May.
Last September, the AHCA accused critics of the abortion law of spreading “misinformation” that the restrictions made it illegal for women to terminate ectopic pregnancies.
“The law is clear: abortion is permissible at any stage of pregnancy in Florida to save the life and health of the mother,” the state agency wrote in a notice to healthcare providers. “Abortion is also available
when the pregnancy results from rape, incest, or human trafficking, or has a fatal fetal
abnormality….Additionally, a miscarriage is not an abortion.”
A similar situation to Cammack’s fight with healthcare providers recently played out in Georgia, where hospital staff worried they couldn’t take a pregnant brain-dead woman off life support because of a state law prohibiting most abortions.
Adriana Smith’s family wanted the option to pull her life support for months, but said Emory University Hospital wouldn’t do so due to concerns that it wasn’t legally permitted to do so. Republican state officials rebuffed accusations that the LIFE Act was responsible for keeping Smith alive against her family’s wishes, arguing that “removing life support is not an action ‘with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy.’”
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“There is nothing in the LIFE Act that requires medical professionals to keep a woman on life support after brain death,” a spokesperson for Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr previously told the Washington Examiner. “Removing life support is not an action ‘with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy.’”
The debate ended last week when Smith delivered a tiny baby boy, leading the family to announce they would pull her life support on Tuesday.