Sarah Varney:
Justice Sotomayor is saying that if the federal authorities cannot compel states to supply medical care, within the sense that it is all the time going to be as much as the state then to make that decision, so then, conceivably, a state like Idaho, which does have fetal personhood, might prioritize fetal life over a pregnant lady’s life, even when that being pregnant is just not more likely to survive.
And the briefs on this case are filled with real-life tales of pregnant girls being denied normal medical care in Idaho and across the nation. Justice Sotomayor described a real-life case of a lady in Florida. She was 16 weeks pregnant when she went to the E.R. And she or he felt a gush of water go away her physique, as many people who’ve been pregnant know that that is a untimely rupture, which places you in danger for severe uncontrolled an infection.
She was refused therapy as a result of the fetus, which might not survive, was nonetheless alive. And, finally, the girl bled out and was lastly given an abortion. This was — these are the sorts of instances that the justices had been citing as we speak.
And the justices right here had been targeted way more on the hurt and struggling, everlasting hurt, hysterectomy, lack of fertility, that girls face with being pregnant. And at one level, it was really actually shocking.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who’s a staunch opponent of abortion rights, appeared form of shocked by what she was listening to that was taking place at hospitals in Idaho and elsewhere.