Rep. Kat Cammack, a pro-life Republican lawmaker from Florida, nearly died last year after doctors delayed treatment for her ectopic pregnancy due to the state’s six-week abortion ban, and she’s blaming Democrats.
Cammack told The Wall Street Journal that she was five weeks pregnant when she went to the emergency room in May 2024. Doctors discovered that the embryo had implanted where the fallopian tube meets the uterus. There was no heart beat and her life was at risk.
Cammack needed a shot of methotrexate to help expel the embryo but since Florida’s six-week abortion ban had just taken effect, medical staff were worried about losing their licenses or potentially going to jail if they gave her the drug.
She pull up the law on her phone to show medical staff and even tried contacting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) before staff relented and gave her the drug hours later.
Despite her ordeal, Cammack, a staunch anti-abortion advocate who co-chairs the House pro-life caucus, believes Democrats’ messaging is to be blamed for her health scare and not the controversial Florida law.
“It was absolute fearmongering at its worst,” Cammack told The Journal, but acknowledged that abortion rights groups might interpret her experience differently and blame the restrictive anti-abortion law.
“There will be some comments like, ‘Well, thank God we have abortion services,’ even though what I went through wasn’t an abortion,” she added.
Florida’s restrictive abortion ban took effect on May 1, 2024, making abortions illegal after six weeks with narrow exceptions. Violating the law could result in doctors facing harsh penalties of up to five years in prison, fines of up to $5,000 and loss of medical licenses.
Molly Duane, a senior attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights pushed back on Cammack’s argument blaming the left. Duane noted that Florida lawmakers did not define an ectopic pregnancy in the legislation and regulators have made it clear that they will aggressively enforce the ban.
Alison Haddock, the president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, told The Journal that care in early pregnancy is a “medically complicated space” and that doctors in abortion-restricted states worry “whether their clinical judgment will stand should there be any prosecution”.
WHAT A CLUSTER F@#%