Representative Kat Cammack, a Florida Republican, waited for hours to receive treatment for a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy last year. Medical professionals claimed they were afraid of running afoul of Florida’s six-week abortion ban. Cammack blames misinformation and “fearmongering” from pro-abortion advocates.

According to an exclusive Wall Street Journal report this week, Cammack rushed to the emergency room in May 2024 with an ectopic pregnancy, a condition where the embryo implants outside of the uterus. Instead of receiving immediate care, she had to wait around for hesitant healthcare professionals to agree to administer the drugs to expel the pregnancy.

“She said doctors and nurses who saw her said they were worried about losing their licenses or going to jail if they gave her drugs to end her pregnancy,” the report states. “She pulled up the state law on her phone for hospital workers to read. She said she called the governor’s office late at night for help, but no one picked up.”

Cammack, who is now pregnant again, finally got the treatment she needed “hours later.” Speaking of the incident for the first time, Cammack emphasized the importance of women’s healthcare.

“I would stand with any woman — Republican or Democrat — and fight for them to be able to get care in a situation where they are experiencing a miscarriage and an ectopic” pregnancy, she said.

But it wasn’t the abortion ban that stood between her and life-saving care last year: “It was absolute fearmongering at its worst.”

Florida’s six-week abortion ban took effect on May 1, 2024, just before Cammack’s tragic trip to the emergency room. In September, Florida’s “chief health policy and planning entity” clarified what many pro-life advocates had already argued, that the abortion ban includes exceptions to “allow treatment, including abortions, for women who experience premature rupture of membranes (PROM), ectopic, or molar pregnancies.”

This wording clearly explains that care should not be denied to women experiencing life-threatening complications, but it is unnecessarily confusing as treatment for an ectopic pregnancy, in which the life of the preborn baby simply cannot be saved, is not the same thing as an abortion, in which the fetus’s life is arbitrarily snuffed out. As the American Association of Pro-Life OBGYNs explains, “Ectopic pregnancy is a life-threatening condition and treating it is not the same thing as performing an abortion.”

When it comes to abortion laws and maternal care, misinformation abounds. Writer Leah Sargeant has explained how many high-profile cases supposedly involving women killed by abortion bans simply do not qualify.

But this hasn’t stopped the myth of “life-saving abortion access” from perpetuating, and pro-abortion advocates were outraged that Cammack would choose to fault them for her initial lack of care.

Her Instagram post announcing her current pregnancy is flooded with negative comments such as “You’re not pro-life. You’re pro-YOUR-life.” The New Republic claimed that it was “Florida’s extreme abortion ban” that “almost killed” the House Pro-Life Caucus co-chairwoman.

The Biden administration boosted the false perception that abortion access saves lives by directing hospitals to perform “necessary” abortions under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, guidance that the Trump administration has just rescinded.

In order for mothers across the country to receive the healthcare they need, two things are necessary. First, pro-life laws must include exceptions for the life of the mother, as all of them do, and they must clarify how to provide swift, life-saving care in rare cases such as those of ectopic pregnancy. Second, pro-abortion advocates must stop spreading the lie that women need no-questions-asked abortion access in order to stay alive. This is simply not true, and it’s an excuse for malpractice.

“Doctors shouldn’t be able to hide behind abortion laws to cover for poor care,” Sargeant writes. “A doctor should safeguard a woman and her child together, not pit them against each other.”