Did the Texas abortion ban nearly kill his wife?
[This article is a transcript of “Miscarriage in Texas” courtesy of volunteer Ben Tomlin. If you’re interested in volunteering to transcribe more of our content, please complete our volunteer survey.]
(Video also available on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.)
Story out of Ms. Magazine: “Texas’ Abortion Ban Nearly Kills Wife. Now He’s Speaking Out.” This is the story of Ryan Hamilton’s wife. He’s the one who tells the story. She is not, as far as I know, in any of the press coverage of it, but she had a missed miscarriage, meaning that she miscarried, but her body did not pass all of the remains, and she needed medical intervention. Ryan has been very vocal claiming that she was not able to get the medical care she needed because of Texas’ abortion ban, and he now advocates, in general, for abortion access. But if you look at the facts that Ryan himself relays, it’s clear that the healthcare providers involved were not afraid of the Texas abortion ban.
To begin with, the first healthcare provider they went to confirmed that there was no fetal heartbeat, so immediately the abortion ban doesn’t even apply. Here’s the text of the Texas abortion law; it says, “the act is not an abortion if the act is done with the intent to remove a dead, unborn child, whose death was caused by spontaneous abortion.” That means if you have fetal remains after a miscarriage, and you need to remove them, that’s not legally an abortion in Texas.
You can tell the doctors weren’t worried that this situation was related to the abortion laws in Texas because the first healthcare provider they went to told them they could either do a D&C or take abortion pills, and they prescribed abortion pills to them right then and there. So Ryan and his wife took the prescription home. Their pharmacy nearby was already closed for the day, and so the pharmacy filled the prescription the next morning.
His wife was still having a difficult time a couple days later, so they went back to the same healthcare facility, and this time the doctor said that they weren’t going to give them more misoprostol, and they weren’t satisfied with that answer, understandably, so they went to a local hospital instead.
The hospital also confirmed that the child no longer had a heartbeat and then offered to schedule them a D&C or give them more misoprostol. The hospital did say that they would need to wait a week or two for the D&C, and Ryan seems to take this as evidence that they were afraid to give them a D&C, which is a common misconception.
I’ve done videos on this channel before about people with missed miscarriages who thought that normally they’d be offered a D&C immediately, like same day, and when they were told they might need to wait, they took it as evidence that there was something going on with the abortion ban.
I’m speaking from experience. I had a missed miscarriage when I lived in California, and California is exceedingly pro-choice. They have no problem with abortion, and they offered me the exact same thing, they offered me abortion pills, or I could schedule a D&C in the next week or two. It’s common to schedule D&Cs out when there’s not an emergency situation.
[Read more – When miscarriage is an emotional crisis, medical professionals can help.]
They didn’t want to wait that long, also understandable, because she was already having a hard time, and so they took the third dose now of misoprostol, and his wife had severe complications. She was almost unconscious from all the dehydration and blood loss, and he had to take her in for an emergency intervention. And that was very scary and traumatic for them, and understandably they don’t feel like they trust the healthcare providers that have been talking to to make sure that his wife is safe and properly cared for.
This is a problematic story where someone didn’t get the appropriate medical intervention and it ended up being dangerous for them on top of the trauma and heartbreak of already losing your baby.
That said, it’s also not a story of people afraid to intervene because of abortion laws. Not only does the text of the Texas abortion law make it explicitly clear that you can remove fetal remains after a miscarriage, but the healthcare providers in the story immediately offer either abortion pills or to schedule a D&C.
They didn’t intervene soon enough, they didn’t correctly assess what kind of danger she was in, and that matters and it’s important, but there are a lot of factors that contribute to medical problems, medical malpractice, higher maternal mortality rates, that are not related to abortion laws.
The problem with these stories is that they seem to assume from the get -go that if a woman has medical problems, obstetric-related medical problems, in a state that has abortion bans or restrictions, then it must be because of abortion bans and restrictions. There’s no critical thinking here.
This story does not have evidence that people were afraid to intervene because of abortion bans. In fact, it has evidence that they clearly weren’t, and it’s still framed as if abortion bans are the only possible reason that any woman could have medical malpractice or medical problems related to obstetrics.
If you appreciate our work and would like to help, one of the most effective ways to do so is to become a monthly donor (check the box for “show my support by making this a monthly donation”). You can also give a one time donation here or volunteer with us here.
