Idaho Republicans want to keep doctors from treating ectopic pregnancies

1
This session, two Republican state legislators introduced a bill that would clarify key concepts in the state’s felony abortion ban. These include defining when an abortion is necessary to save the life of the pregnant person, and confirming once and for all that it’s not a felony to treat ectopic and nonviable pregnancies and to remove fetuses that have died.

It would also stop doctors who perform life-saving abortions from automatically being dragged before a judge to plead medical necessity as an affirmative defense.

Whatever happens with the felony abortion ban, Idaho doctors risk devastating lawsuits for treating one of the most common and dangerous gynecological emergencies: ectopic pregnancy.
The Idaho Republican Party sent out an email Tuesday night claiming that the proposed changes were a ruse by doctors to “have more leeway to perform abortions in Idaho.” The head of the far-right Idaho Family Policy Center fretted in an email to supporters that a “special interest group” had drafted some of the language.

That group is the Idaho Medical Association, an utterly mainstream group that has been promoting medical excellence in the state since 1893. A hearing on the bill has been postponed amid the antichoice outcry.
Even the antichoice movement is tiring of the charade. Instead of grappling with the ethical implications of denying life-saving care, national antichoice groups have started promulgating the absurd lie that abortion is never medically necessary.

In 2022, the Idaho Republicans voted nearly four to one to amend their party platform to criminalize all abortions, including lifesaving terminations. An exception for ectopic pregnancies was proposed and rejected.
https://www.alternet.org/idaho-republicans-2659652264/

Of course wealthy Repugs will have their family members wanting or needing an abortion go to other states to have the procedure, leaving the poor and needy to suffer and die.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: Idaho Republicans want to keep doctors from treating ectopic pregnancies

2
The Party of Freedom (TN) wants to control women's health care, control whom you can marry, control what is taught in schools, prevent the learning of actual history, install an authoritarian into dictatorship, exploit children as underage baby factories and as cheap labor because...freedom.

Nope. A thousand nopes. Vote out Republicans.

CDFingers
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack

Re: Idaho Republicans want to keep doctors from treating ectopic pregnancies

5
This cannot be tolerated.

I lost a dear friend-- and former lover-- to an ectopic pregnancy. She was a central figure in our network of friends in college, and we mourn her loss to this day. Even without these insane laws eliminating crucial health care for women, ectopic pregnancies are very challenging to diagnose and treat.

I also feel that this kind of pointless exercise of binary, all-or-nothing thinking is, in itself an existential threat to life on this planet.

Re: Idaho Republicans want to keep doctors from treating ectopic pregnancies

6
SunRiseWest wrote: Sat Mar 25, 2023 6:14 pm This cannot be tolerated.

I lost a dear friend-- and former lover-- to an ectopic pregnancy. She was a central figure in our network of friends in college, and we mourn her loss to this day. Even without these insane laws eliminating crucial health care for women, ectopic pregnancies are very challenging to diagnose and treat.

I also feel that this kind of pointless exercise of binary, all-or-nothing thinking is, in itself an existential threat to life on this planet.
Agreed entirely. And sorry for your loss.

Re: Idaho Republicans want to keep doctors from treating ectopic pregnancies

7
SunRiseWest, I, also, am sorry for your loss.

For many years, I've been using the term "gynoticians" to denote politicians who think they know better than OB/GYN doctors and the patients they help. The efforts these gynoticians put forth are, at best, inhumane. There is NOTHING "pro-life" about preventing timely treatment of, for example, an ectopic pregnancy. There is nothing respectful about forcing a pregnant person to carry that pregnancy to term.

I've stood on the property line of an abortion clinic. I've escorted people who had appointments at that clinic. I've heard the sanctimonious bovine excrement spewed by the would-be preachers and thumpers of bibles. Through it all, I've been non-engaging, and focused on creating space for people who are but want to no longer be pregnant--for whatever reason, because their reason is none of my business, just as it's not the purview of a government that allegedly represents me (but clearly doesn't, as Kentucky has some of the more draconian anti-choice laws in force these days).

I've sometimes mused that such gynoticians are poster children for the effort to make abortion retroactive. I wonder if their parents would have aborted them if they had known how awful these overbearing patriarchal dirtbags would be. I know that *I* would have a hard time living with myself if a child of mine turned out to be that awful a person.
Eventually I'll figure out this signature thing and decide what I want to put here.

Re: Idaho Republicans want to keep doctors from treating ectopic pregnancies

8
Pro-life? Ectopic Pregnancies never, EVER result in a living baby. They cannot. If the woman is lucky she mis-carries, but if not she bleeds to death. That's not Pro-Life.
Even where it's legal, aborting an ectopic pregnancy is major surgery, frequently resulting in the loss of an ovary or fallopian tube.

This is akin to saying a surgeon cannot remove a bullet from someone's body because he's violating the shooter's 2nd amendment right!
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: Idaho Republicans want to keep doctors from treating ectopic pregnancies

9
YankeeTarheel wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 9:44 am Pro-life? Ectopic Pregnancies never, EVER result in a living baby. They cannot. If the woman is lucky she mis-carries, but if not she bleeds to death. That's not Pro-Life.
Even where it's legal, aborting an ectopic pregnancy is major surgery, frequently resulting in the loss of an ovary or fallopian tube.

This is akin to saying a surgeon cannot remove a bullet from someone's body because he's violating the shooter's 2nd amendment right!
To often this crap is pushed by white MEN, who know exactly nothing about the science. Idaho, no less. As gooned up as texass and florida.

Re: Idaho Republicans want to keep doctors from treating ectopic pregnancies

10
More ignorance about the human body, it's not an abortion.
An ectopic pregnancy occurs when a fertilized egg grows outside of the uterus. Almost all ectopic pregnancies—more than 90%—occur in a fallopian tube. As the pregnancy grows, it can cause the tube to burst (rupture). A rupture can cause major internal bleeding. This can be a life-threatening emergency that needs immediate surgery.
https://www.acog.org/womens-health/faqs ... 0bleeding.

Idaho doesn't have a public medical school, they have a cooperative program with UWash, Seattle for ID residents. People in the West often drive or fly distances for specialty medical care, it's not like the east coast. People in ID will drive to Spokane and Seattle in Washington, Portland in Oregon, Reno in Nevada and Salt Lake City in Utah.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests