7mo ago

Report: Hospitals Rarely Advise Doctors on How to Treat Patients Under Abortion Bans

www.propublica.org

6 comments

what a time to be alive :/
I'm not a doctor, but isn't the headline desirable?
Like don't we want doctors calling those shots and not the hospitals they work for?
Idk, fuck abortion bans. I might not understand what's being said here fully.
- Issue is doctors don't know what might get them fired, have their license revoked or suspended, or facing civil or criminal charges.
  
  And the hospital avoids liability entirely.
  
  Expanding on this: a doctor will want to maximize the good they can do. They can't do any good if they lose their license or go to jail. To that end, if doing a good thing now would cause that to happen, they may have to give up doing that good thing in order to be able to do more good things later. The problem with not being able to consult with a lawyer is that they might not know which good things they're allowed to do and which ones they aren't. If they think they aren't allowed to do a good thing that they are allowed to do, or they don't know if they're allowed to do it, they can end up not doing it when they could've done the good thing. This is where having a lawyer involved in the process is helpful. It helps enable the doctor to maximize the good things they do.
- No it’s not.
  We usually have guidelines and protocols to follow which minimise the chance of harm and standardise care. Here we’re left with nothing, unsure what we’re allowed to do or not, unsure what we should do. There have already been multiple reports of mismanagement of pre-natal care resulting in deaths because of this.

6 comments