{"id":303584,"date":"2023-12-15T06:45:44","date_gmt":"2023-12-15T12:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=303584"},"modified":"2023-12-19T13:33:26","modified_gmt":"2023-12-19T19:33:26","slug":"pro-life-blamed-risking-life-standard-feticide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-blamed-risking-life-standard-feticide\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro-life laws blamed for risking woman’s life – but standard of care for her condition isn’t feticide"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Another story has surfaced, claiming the deliberate killing of children in the womb needs to be legal or women will die \u2014 this time with a case of preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM). And already, many in politics and the media are capitalizing on it.<\/p>\n

What happened<\/h3>\n

Anya Cook spoke to both PEOPLE<\/a> and ABC News<\/a> about her harrowing experience, which took place after years of infertility. According to ABC News, Cook had experienced 17 miscarriages<\/em> before getting pregnant again, this time hopeful the pregnancy would last.<\/p>\n

But in the parking lot of a restaurant where she and her husband had gone out for dinner, her water broke.<\/p>\n

“I literally reached down and put my hand between my legs, and I saw that it was drenched with clear fluid,” she said. “Never in my wildest dreams did I even think that that was my amniotic fluid that was leaking out of me. I still was convinced that someone threw something on me, up until Derick turned me around and said ‘Babe, there is no one here.'”<\/p>\n

Cook was just over 15 weeks pregnant, and lives in Florida, where preborn children are protected from intentional killing by induced abortion after 15 weeks gestation.<\/p>\n

The couple went to the hospital, where they received grim news. \u201c[The doctor] told me in that very moment that you can get an infection, possibly sepsis and die. All I\u2019m thinking is, \u2018Well I\u2019m at the hospital, right? I\u2019m okay. I won\u2019t die because I\u2019m at the hospital,'” she said. \u201cI looked at my husband and that\u2019s when reality hit me, because he\u2019s looking at me and he\u2019s saying, \u2018No, babe. I don\u2019t think you\u2019re understanding what the doctor is saying.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Cook was given antibiotics and was discharged by the hospital. \u201cThe nurse asked if she could pray for me. All I knew was that I was not going to survive what was happening,” she said, and added that she needed to get her hair done the next day. \u201cI didn\u2019t want my mom to have to worry about getting my locs done or having a mortuary take care of it because I knew I would die within the next two to three days.\u201d<\/p>\n

ABC News said she would soon find herself on the “brink of death,” but oddly, no further details about her situation were given.<\/p>\n

Standard of care<\/h3>\n

A similar case<\/a> caused international outrage in Malta, in which an American woman claimed she was unjustly denied an abortion due to PPROM. Yet there is a problem with this narrative: induced abortion is not the standard of care for PPROM<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Nowhere on Cleveland Clinic’s information page about PPROM<\/a>, for example, is induced abortion (in which a child is intentionally killed) listed as a treatment for this condition. Instead, the site states, “Generally, there are two options: delivery or expectant management. Expectant management is a treatment that delays labor. This includes precautions like bed rest, medications and frequent monitoring for infection or fetal distress<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Dr. Christina Francis, CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), also previously explained<\/a> in a statement to Live Action News that the treatment for PPROM is to admit the woman for observation to monitor her for any signs of infection or bleeding \u2014 not induced abortion. \u201cThere are signs of developing intrauterine infection that any physician who is well-trained in obstetrics can identify long before sepsis develops,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is why these patients are monitored very closely and often as inpatients, at least for a few days.\u201d<\/p>\n

This guidance is also recommended by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia<\/a> (CHOP), in which the standard of care is described as careful observation and waiting. In some cases, the membranes re-seal and the amniotic fluid may stop leaking, while medication can be given to stop preterm labor and to strengthen the baby\u2019s lungs. If infection is present, antibiotics are given. If there are signs of further complications, then early delivery<\/em> would be called for \u2014 something that is legal, even\u00a0in pro-life states.<\/p>\n

But ABC News incorrectly labels early delivery<\/em> “abortion care,” writing, “Had she lived in a state without restrictions on abortion care, she would have been admitted, counseled and offered an induction of labor to protect her from infection \u2014 which in this case would be considered abortion care.”<\/p>\n

If Cook’s account is indeed true, that’s not what was done by this hospital, though the standard of care for PPROM appears to be widely known, as referenced earlier. According to ABC News, “Cook said she was discharged from the emergency room because she was not yet sick enough to qualify for the emergency medical exception in Florida’s law, despite her risk for infection and hemorrhage.”<\/p>\n

According to the information above, the standard of care does not appear to have been followed, as Cook was not admitted to the hospital for observation, and was instead sent home with antibiotics despite reportedly being told she was at risk of sepsis and death<\/em>. What kind of hospital policy would allow for such a thing? Cook should have been admitted for observation of her condition, received antibiotics for any infection, and if all other options failed, early delivery of her child was warranted, which would have been ENTIRELY LEGAL.<\/p>\n

Induced abortion is meant to kill; early delivery is not done with the intention of killing a child, but of saving a woman’s life. If a child dies as a secondary and unintended result of early delivery, this is not an induced abortion and is not prevented by pro-life laws.<\/p>\n