I saw this in my Twitter feed:
Jill Biden Is Bringing Texas Woman Who Almost Died from Miscarriage to State of the Union https://t.co/BosexrcPKx pic.twitter.com/V9BssNAmIT
— Jezebel (@Jezebel) February 7, 2023
That seems like something bullshit, so I read the article.
In August, Amanda’s water broke when she was 18 weeks pregnant, long before a fetus can survive outside the uterus. But doctors didn’t intervene in her miscarriage because the treatment is an abortion, which the state had outlawed. They sent her home to watch for signs of infection, including sepsis. Three days later her fever spiked to 103 degrees and the hospital decided she was now sick enough to be induced (which is considered an abortion when done before viability). But hours after the procedure, and even with antibiotics, her infection got worse. She developed symptoms of sepsis and was moved to the ICU, and her family members were preparing to say their goodbyes. Zurawski survived, but the infection scarred her uterus, and it’s not clear if she will be able to conceive again.
Even the ACLU of Texas acknowledges that:
Texas bans abortions at all stages of pregnancy, unless you have a life-threatening medical emergency.
I’m not a medical doctor, but it seems like a miscarriage that would lead to a life threatening infection is exactly the type of medical emergency that is exempted by the Texas law.
Malicious Compliance is defined as:
Malicious compliance is the behavior of strictly following the orders of a superior despite knowing that compliance with the orders will have an unintended or negative result.
So, I have to ask…
Did these doctors deliberately give this woman bad medical care to maliciously comply with the state’s abortion law for the purposes of creating a martyr for their cause?
Pre-COVID that might seem utterly insane.
After COVID, with just how political and partisan and distrustful the medical establishment has proven to be, I don’t know.
Would doctors harm patients for political credit?
Some are mutilating children’s bodies in the advancement of the Transgender movement.
So who the fuck knows.
But it doesn’t seem outside the realm of possibilities.
A related question – how many examples like this are out there? If this person is the only one who had this issue since the law passed … albeit it’s a life-threateningly serious one, it doesn’t seem to be affecting many people.
When an individual believes their ideology and subsequent actions are “Utopian” it supersedes everything else. It justifies the means to that end no matter what. And the belief that what comes from the mother’s womb is the property of the mother only, is in fact, the state of utopia for many people…even the ‘sperm doners’ are in agreement. However, a true father knows the child is in fact his gift to his wife, of which he is a co-owner of that child. So yes, Miguel, the possibility that a doctor could break his Hippocratic oath and do harm, is justified for the sake of a utopian ideological existence.
Prosecute them for attempted murder. At the least, file complaints with the Board.
Doctors have no critical thinking skills. Exhibit A is the covid response. They are also cowards and afraid of being sued.
Creating standing.
I would take a step back here.
In a miscarriage, the woman’s body has already terminated the pregnancy. The goal of the surgical procedure (dilation & curettage) is to remove the dead fetus and tissues, not to end the pregnancy.
Thus, this situation wouldn’t be affected by any restrictions on abortion.
So… miscarriage is not a single thing. It’s a process. When they sent her home, she was *undergoing* miscarriage. It is entirely possible for that process to stop, and for a woman to continue her pregnancy after it, and have a live birth. So unless they could confirm that the fetus was dead, the could not remove it, by law.
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The process of having a miscarriage is lengthy, and often traumatic on a number of levels. However, it is entirely natural. It does not normally include infection or sepsis. Sending her home was not an unreasonable thing to do, if they could not confirm the fetus was dead.
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Is this unusual? Yes and no. I have a friend who started to miscarry, spent several weeks with her bottom in the air to try and keep the baby in, and eventually birthed a lovely daughter. She had doctors who helped her. Not all miscarriages can be stopped, either by medical or home brew methods. They just… happen.
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With the Texas law reading as it does, I believe that they would have been unable to force the miscarriage to termination. They could only have gone in after the fetus was dead. But that’s not something that’s all that easy to assess… and it’s very rare a hospital that lets you sit around in it, checking for death. They’d rather you go home and pass it there, where you’re more comfortable (and let’s be honest, less likely to get an infection). You come back in if there are complications.
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I don’t know what happened in this case, as I haven’t read the whole thing. Likely she was upset and waited too long to come back to the hospital. It could be the doctors were being rude, but I honestly doubt it. The vasty vasty majority of miscarriages happen just fine on their own.