ICYMI: One year after Dobbs, Republicans’ extreme abortion ban causing “confusion and concern” for Georgia women and doctors

Atlanta doctor: “[I]t’s a very, very difficult situation and doctors are very, very worried and concerned”

A year ago this week, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, paving the way for Georgia Republicans to enact one of the most extreme abortion bans in the country that outlaws abortion before most women even realize they are pregnant.

New reporting highlights how the restrictive ban has jeopardized Georgia women’s health, forcing doctors to wait “hours — sometimes days — for an infection or another complication putting a woman’s health at risk” before they can administer life-saving care. 

Read on to learn more about how Brian Kemp and Georgia Republicans’ extreme abortion ban is causing “confusion and concern” for doctors, “[getting] in the way of the patient-doctor relationship,” and putting lives at risk.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: A year later: Dobbs decision paved way to limit abortion access in Georgia

Maya T. Prabhu, 6/16/23

Key Points

• Georgia’s law has also caused some confusion and concern in the medical world.

• Since the restrictive abortion law went into effect, Dr. Jeffrey Marcus with the North Atlanta Women’s Specialists gynecological and obstetrics practice, said he’s experienced very difficult situations including instances when there is still fetal cardiac activity but the woman’s water has broken too early for the pregnancy to be viable.

• He said doctors must wait hours — sometimes days — for an infection or another complication putting a woman’s health at risk before they can medically intervene by giving treatment that causes labor to begin. The abortion law prevents them from inducing labor otherwise.

• “It’s a predicament,” he said. “You have to wait for something to happen that makes it such that the mother is at risk. But it’s a very, very difficult situation and doctors are very, very worried and concerned about getting prosecuted and being reported by somebody on staff because you did something that was not exactly what they agreed with. It’s gotten very, very touchy.”

• Before the abortion law changed, Marcus said, “you would use your clinical judgment and make a decision of what you thought was right. You don’t have that luxury anymore.”

• “You know, I understand all sides,” he said, “but I think it’s taken a lot of autonomy away from the patient and it’s really gotten in the way of the patient-doctor relationship to allow it to be respectful of what the patient wants.”

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