Kaiser Health News | June 28, 2022
Axios: Defining “Life-Threatening” Can Be Tricky In Abortion Law Exceptions
While most state abortion bans include some sort of exception when the life of the mother is at risk, it will fall to doctors to prove whether a patient qualifies in an emergency, or possibly face charges. Every case is unique — and the murky wording of some of the laws could create confusion and put pregnant women’s lives at risk, experts say. “What these laws do is they place physicians in an untenable position not knowing that if they serve the medical interests of their patients, whether they’ll be subject to criminal liability,” Lawrence Gostin, a law professor at Georgetown University, told Axios. (Reed, 6/28)