A U.S. Congresswoman who faced challenges receiving appropriate care for an ectopic pregnancy last year blames pro-abortion fearmongering for hospital staff’s confusion.
Key Takeaways:
- In May 2024, the same month that Florida’s six-week abortion law took effect, Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) went to the ER with an ectopic pregnancy.
- Doctors delayed treatment out of fear of prosecution under the pro-life law — despite the fact that her baby had no heartbeat, she was only five weeks pregnant, and her life was at risk.
- Cammack had to show doctors the text of the law on her phone before they finally agreed to give her an injection of methotrexate to prevent a rupture, saving Cammack’s life.
- Cammack blames pro-abortion fearmongering for her delayed care.
- Since states began enacting pro-life laws, the media and abortion industry have promoted narratives blaming pro-life laws for women’s injuries and deaths. This was the plan all along.
The Details:
According to The Independent, Rep. Kat Cammack went to the emergency room in May 2024, where she was estimated to be about five weeks pregnant and suffering from an ectopic pregnancy. Although she was facing a medical emergency, doctors were reluctant to treat her. At the time, news outlets were rife with stories claiming that women were being denied necessary care because of pro-life laws.
A Florida law protecting preborn babies from abortion when an embryonic heartbeat is detectable (at about six weeks gestation) had taken effect on May 1, and the claim that most women don’t know they are pregnant before six weeks was circulated. However, pro-abortion research has shown that two-thirds of women do learn they are pregnant before six weeks.
On May 2, 2024, the day after the six-week abortion law took effect, and earlier in the same month Cammack experienced the ectopic pregnancy, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration published rules for hospitals and abortion businesses regarding emergencies during pregnancy. Medical emergencies, including ectopic pregnancy, were described as presenting “an immediate danger to the health, safety and welfare of women and unborn children in hospitals and abortion clinics.”
According to The Wall Street Journal, Cammack said when the doctor at the unnamed hospital found that her embryo had implanted where the fallopian tube meets the uterus and had no heartbeat, he told her, “If this ruptures, it’ll kill you.”
Doctors decided that surgery to remove the fallopian tube and embryo was not necessary and Cammack could be treated with methotrexate, an injection of folate which causes the preborn baby’s remains to be reabsorbed in the body, leaving the fallopian tube intact. But hospital staff refused to administer the drug, blaming the new pro-life law that protects preborn children after six weeks of pregnancy.
Yet Cammack was only five weeks pregnant, there was no heartbeat, and her life was in immediate danger.
Why It Matters:
Cammack blames pro-abortion messaging in the media for her delayed treatment, saying it has stirred up fear in doctors that they will face prosecution for carrying out lifesaving, legal treatments. Cammack had to look up the law on her phone and show it to hospital staff before they finally agreed to treat her.
“It was absolute fearmongering at its worst,” she told the Wall Street Journal. “There will be some comments like, ‘Well, thank God we have abortion services,’ even though what I went through wasn’t an abortion.”
And that has been one of the main issues with media and pro-life laws — the fearmongering and deception simply snowball. One media outlet blames the pro-life law, and then the next does the same, and the next, and the next — seemingly without even checking the language of the law itself.
This false reporting has misled even medical professionals — especially those whose hospitals have been lax in providing guidance on policy regarding pro-life state laws.
The abortion industry had claimed long before that if women could not gain unfettered access to abortion because of state laws, that the confusing pro-life laws would be to blame. This was a prediction they made sure to fulfill by using the media to do the job of actually creating confusion and fear about the laws.
And they’re still doing it. Take a look at the entirely dishonest headline from The New Republic about Rep. Cammack’s ectopic pregnancy, which reads “GOP Lawmaker Nearly dies Due to Abortion Ban—The Blames the Left:
Deceptive headline blaming “abortion ban” in story about Congresswoman who proved it was not the law that delayed her care; it was caused by ignorance and media-created fear about the law. (Screenshot: The New Republic)
The New Republic seems to have missed the entire point Cammack is making: the media’s efforts to create confusion about the law — just like The New Republic is modeling in such an exemplary way with this headline — worked.
Media created confusion about what the law actually allowed and did not allow. And when Cammack showed hospital staff the actual text of the law, they then knew they could legally provide her with ectopic pregnancy care.
So, no, the “abortion ban” didn’t cause a delay in care.
Deception about the law did.
And the pro-abortion medical organizations — which would normally offer clarity and guidance on such laws — have remained suspiciously silent, apparently more concerned with attempting to protect abortion than with protecting women and their children in need of real healthcare.
Making things clearer:
In September of 2024, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration provided even greater clarity on the pro-life law for the medical professionals who apparently listen too much to the media:
Section 390.0111(1), Florida Statutes, currently lists express exception that allow for an abortion at any point in pregnancy to save the pregnant woman’s life or avert a serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.
These exceptions allow treatment, including abortions, for women who experience premature rupture of membranes (PROM), ectopic, or molar pregnancies, and as such, physicians in Florida are expected to follow standards of care regarding the most appropriate course of action in these situations.
It also said, “Providers are reminded that Florida requires life-saving medical care to a mother without delay when necessary, and the Agency for Health Care Administration and the Florida Department of Health will take regulatory action when a provider fails to follow this standard of care.”
The Bottom Line:
When Cammack went to the ER, she should have been treated immediately. Instead, she faced pushback from the doctors and had to inform them about the law, despite the clear guidance from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration.
Based on the rampant deceptive reporting from media feeding the public a pro-abortion narrative, it is likely that Cammack is correct to blame the media’s pro-abortion fearmongering for the delay in her care.
Cammack is now pregnant with her second child, a baby girl who is due in August.
