Uphold injunction on Texas law putting bounties on doctors’ heads

What’s new: The AMA and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) spearheaded a coalition of 19 health associations in filing an amicus brief moving the 5th, six weeks after enforcement, while the litigation progresses.

Texas Legislature, Senate Bill 8 (SB 8) invites private parties to bring civil actions against anyone who performs or “aids and incites” an abortion. A successful civil lawsuit under the law would entitle plaintiffs to rake in at least $ 10,000 for each contested abortion.

Find out how SB puts 8 rewards on the minds of doctors to ensure care.

Why it matters: The law “represents a harmful, unconstitutional and unethical interference with the ability of women in Texas to receive essential medical care,” and “violates patient health, law, and basic principles of medical ethics,” it said the pleading in the USA v Texas case.

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“SB 8 puts clinicians in an impossible position: they cannot provide the best medical care available, consistent with the ethical principles above, without risking significant legal and personal penalties. By creating liability for each person … SB 8 not only prevents abortions but also prevents clinicians from practicing, ”the letter reads.

Other organizations joining the AMA-ACOG briefing are:

• American Academy of Pediatrics.
• American Academy of General Practitioners.
• American College of Nurse Midwives.
• American College of Osteopathic Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
• American Medical College.
• American Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics.
• National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health.
• Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine.

AMA President Gerald E. Harmon, MD, a family doctor from South Carolina, said, “The American Medical Association stands firmly against government interference in the clinical examination room, particularly laws and regulations such as Texas SB 8 that criminalize the practice of medicine and childbirth hinders evidence-based care and undermines the patient-doctor relationship. “

Studies have shown that women are more likely to rely on harmful self-induction tactics when they encounter barriers in reproductive health care. Those forced to carry pregnancies to term “will be at significantly higher risk to maternal health and mortality due to SB 8,” the letter said. “This is particularly worrying given that the maternal death rate in Texas is one of the highest in the United States.”

And the law is disproportionately harmful to people from historically marginalized communities, people on low incomes, and people who live in rural areas, said Dr. Harmon.

“The profoundly unjust impact this law will have on access to reproductive health care for already marginalized patients is dangerous and unconstitutional,” he said. “We must immediately stop these unnecessary government encroachments on doctors’ clinical judgment – or risk irreparable harm to the health of our Texas patients and the general health of the nation.”

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Learn more: The AMA recently filed a Friend of Court brief (PDF) with ACOG and nearly 30 other clinic-sponsoring organizations and other organizations challenging a Mississippi state law that bans abortion procedures after the first 15 weeks of gestation . The Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization case is in the US Supreme Court and threatens to overturn the Supreme Court against Abortion Rights, established nearly 50 years ago under Roe v. Wade.

The AMA also filed an amicus briefing with ACOG and others in a South Carolina case in the U.S. 4th appeals court that will determine the constitutionality of a law in that state that bans almost all abortions after six weeks of gestation. The brief urges the court to uphold a district court injunction preventing enforcement of the law during the lawsuit, Planned Parenthood South Atlantic et al. v. Wilson et al., Works through the court system.

Find out more about the cases the AMA Litigation Center provides assistance and learn more about the Litigation Center’s case selection criteria.