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.
That is the problem.
The department of health can say whatever they want. The risk there is that a doctor’s license might be suspended or, more likely, they get a slap on the wrist.
The legal system will put a felony (looks like third degree) on the doctor and potentially throw them in prison for five years.
Theoretically, doctors care more about saving lives and will risk anything. In reality? Doctors (and all medical professionals) have been tortured for years because of all the anti-medicine shit that comes out of the fascists and is more likely to say “Fuck it, take my license. I am gonna go deliver pizzas in a blue state rather than deal with one more minute of this shit”
Hard to save lived from jail or without a license to practice, so they are still choosing to save lives in general when they make the decision not to save specific patients.
I wonder if a woman simply stating she was raped is enough to get the abortion. Kind of like how there are 14 approved reasons for Americans to travel to Cuba, so travelers simply have to pick one and they can go.
Proof is required for rape exceptions in Florida’s proposed abortion law
Also limited to 15 weeks, which is way too short for forcing a decision in normal circumstances, much less from surviving a traumatic event and not necessarily knowing that one is pregnant yet.
Edit: Found a better article
Jeez. All the women in abusive relationships being forced to have children 😰
This was 100% done to try and combat the abortion measure on the ballot. Like their government website that gives false information on the ballot measure.
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.