Imagine you’re CPR-certified and you come across a car accident. The driver isn’t breathing. You know CPR could save their life because you’re trained for exactly this moment. Generally, Good Samaritan laws protect you, but you know that performing chest compressions will probably break their ribs and you’ve heard stories of people being sued for injuring someone while trying to help.
So you hesitate. You ask yourself: How bad does it have to get before you’re sure you won’t be held liable? Should you wait until they’ve been without oxygen for one minute? Two? What if they weren’t really dying and you broke their ribs for nothing? The law says you’re protected if you’re helping in an emergency, but it doesn’t define exactly when that protection kicks in. You just know that if you’re wrong, you could lose everything.
How long would you stand there, with someone potentially dying in front of you, weighing the risks?
This is what Texas has forced doctors to do for the last three years. Let’s dive in.
For three years, Texas doctors have been too scared to treat pregnant women having medical emergencies. The fear was so bad that women have literally died waiting for care that should have been obvious and immediate. Doctors watched their patients get sicker and sicker from pregnancy complications they knew how to treat, but were terrified of going to prison if they acted.
Some women got life-threatening infections from miscarriages. Some experienced organ failure. Some died.
Now, finally, the Texas Medical Board is telling its doctors when they’re actually allowed to save a pregnant patient’s life.
The Texas Medical Board has created a mandatory training course that walks doctors through the medical emergencies where abortion is still legal under the state’s near-total ban. The training is required by a 2024 law called the Life of the Mother Act and uses real medical situations to show doctors when they can help their patients without risking their medical licenses, their freedom, or spending the rest of their lives in prison.
It’s a big deal for women’s healthcare in Texas. It’s also proof that the state’s abortion ban has been killing women.
Understanding the “Chilling Effect”
The phrase “chilling effect” refers to when people self-censor or avoid taking legal, legitimate actions because they fear punishment or negative consequences, even when those actions are technically allowed or protected.
This is relevant in Texas because since Texas essentially banned abortion in 2021, doctors have been confused and paralyzed when trying to treat pregnancy emergencies. The law technically says abortion is allowed to save a patient’s life or prevent serious, permanent damage to her body BUT it threatened doctors with losing their medical license, fines up to $100,000, and up to 99 years in prison, if they gauged that scenario wrong, applied the exception, and were later sued for it.
Continue reading over at the Women in America Substack.
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