Abortion bans are doing more than banning abortion. They're making pregnancy more dangerous and sending patients to the ER with emergencies that didn't have to happen. We're the ER doctors treating them. This is what we see.
Abortion bans aren't stopping abortions.
Mifepristone is a standard treatment for both miscarriage and abortion care. But abortion bans also restrict access to mifepristone. People experiencing miscarriage are being turned away from care they need and deserve.
Doctors know how to treat pregnancy complications. But abortion bans have made them afraid to treat their patients. They're hesitating not because they don't know what to do, but because they're scared someone will punish them for doing it.
The ER is where you end up when every other door is closed. Patients are being turned away from their local OBs and hospitals. The ER is where you go when bleeding goes on too long. Miscarriages turn into infections. Patients are losing access to local OBs and hospitals.
— Dr. Dara Kass, FemInEM
ER doctors see medication complications every day. We know what a dangerous drug looks like. Mifepristone, used safely by millions for both miscarriage and abortion care for 25 years, is not one of these drugs. What worries us is what happens when patients can't get it.
FemInEM works with emergency departments across the country to teach doctors what they are legally allowed to do, because too many aren't sure, and patients are suffering because of it. This isn't hypothetical. These are real people. Real emergencies. Things that didn't have to happen.
A patient having a miscarriage could not get the mifepristone her OB / GYN prescribed. She took what she could get and hoped for the best. Days later, on a drive out of state, she wound up admitted to the hospital, bleeding and infected, far from her home and family.
An ectopic pregnancy, when a pregnancy grows outside the uterus, can be fatal. It will not get better on its own. Doctors across the country have said they hesitated before treating it, because they weren't sure the law would protect them.
OB / GYNs are leaving states with abortion bans. Maternity wards are closing. Patients are driving hours to find care and sometimes arriving too late.
ERs were never meant to be the main place people go for pregnancy care. But abortion bans have made us the last door open. Now that door is being threatened too.
By the time a patient reaches our ER, the system has already failed her, usually more than once.
Bleeding. Pain. Something doesn't feel right early in a pregnancy. She tries to call an OB / GYN.
Doctors know what to do. But in a state with an abortion ban, prescribing mifepristone is complicated. Could providing this care mean legal trouble? Hospital lawyers say to be careful. She's told to go home and wait.
A miscarriage that could have been treated easily becomes an infection. Bleeding that should have been stopped keeps going.
She goes to the ER near her house. In some states, even ER doctors aren't sure which treatments are allowed under the ban. So they hesitate too.
The next time she reaches us, something treatable has become an emergency. This is what abortion bans are doing. None of it had to happen.
This is not a problem without a solution. The more people who understand what's actually happening, and why it matters, the harder it becomes to ignore. You're part of that now.
