Based on unreliable outcomes in a government inquiry by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, healthcare facilities in Missouri and Kansas broke the rules this past summer as they declined to perform an immediate abortion on a lady that experienced preterm labor at almost 18 weeks and faced contracting a dangerous infection.
This inquiry, the first of its type, highlights the ongoing legal complexity in some states that restrict abortions yet make permits whenever a patient’s life is in danger. Advocates for abortion rights claim that there’s no set rule for determining when a health problem is severe enough to warrant interference and that doctors frequently lack clarity on how to handle medical problems in a way that doesn’t break anti-abortion laws.
Investigators discovered that Mylissa Farmer of Joplin, Missouri, was advised to have an abortion since doing so might break state abortion laws even though she was warned she ran the risk of contracting an infection as well as serious issues if she carried the pregnancy past the time her water had broken.