Government

The Dobbs Ruling Just Made It Even Harder To Fight Cancer In States Like Missouri

It'll really hit the fan once lawmakers find out high fructose corn syrup consumption can lead to low infant birth weights.

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Judge’s gavel and stethoscope on court room table.

(Image via Getty)

Is a bike a prohibited vehicle? This is a likely familiar question — it’s a stock issue that law professors use to illustrate the force of parallel reasoning in legal settings. Imagine a park with a restriction on vehicles, which forms of transportation get let in? Cars? Hell no. Mopeds? Probably not as bad as cars, but gut check says no. Gut check says bikes and wheelchairs are fine — motorized scooters, besides being nerdy, are probably pushing it. In the wake of Dobbs, doctors will have to face the dire implications of another hypothetical question.

Is combating cancer abortion?

Before [Dobbs], pregnant people and doctors could decide on treatment like this based only on medical factors and make their own judgments about the risk to a pregnancy.

…

“This ruling calls into question giving treatment that may cause termination of pregnancy (even if intended to treat cancer),” Dr. Stephanie Blank, president of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology, told Insider.

“[C]hemotherapy and radiation therapy can, in some cases, affect a fetus and raise the risk of miscarriage, said Blank…Some cancers, like cervical cancer or gestational trophoblastic disease, are not possible to treat without ending a pregnancy.”

Providers are at risk if they are found guilty of unlawfully helping to terminate a pregnancy, Katie Keith, director of the Health Policy and the Law Initiative at the O’Neill Institute, told Insider.

In some states, they could risk a fine or lose their medical license. In others, they could be imprisoned, she said.

Now, brilliant hypothetical reader that you are, you may retort that this is fear pandering. Clearly, a common-sense application of law would prevent people from dying from a scenario like this — abnormal circumstances would call for equity and exceptions.

Not likely. See Ohio:

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If Ohio didn’t give a 10-year-old rape victim a pass, they definitely wouldn’t bat an eye at you, your mother, or your daughter if they happen to be pregnant when an organ or two becomes cancerous.

Now, dear reader, you may be thinking “Well, rape and cancer are outlying scenarios, let’s be realistic here.”

After Dobbs, is it okay to treat endometriosis? 

@abigailmartiin

i am so beyond pissed at our country right now. #roevwade #prochoice #womensrights #birthcontrol #vanlife

♬ original sound – Abigail Martin

Turns out that there are a lot of other otherwise simple medical treatments that are more dangerous — for both doctors and their patients — now that the Christian Right on the Court is forcing us to live under religious doxa as law.

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Hope you don’t suffer from Menorrhagia. Or PMS. Or PMDD. Or, and here’s the kicker, just want a lower risk of ovarian or endometrial cancer. Got to appreciate when it all circles back.

Pregnant Cancer Patients May Die Because Doctors Fear Treating Them Could Now Count As Illegal Abortion, Experts Say [Business Insider]

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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