Hours after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding emergency abortion care, Florida health regulators issued new rules with little fanfare late Thursday to clarify how medical providers must respond to pregnant women with complications that put them at risk.
New rules issued by the Agency for Health Care Administration address how hospitals must maintain medical records and what specific conditions may trigger emergency abortion care under state law. In Idaho, where there is a strict abortion ban, doctors have reported being mandated to transport women to other states for emergency abortion care. The Supreme Court ruling aims to prevent that from happening.
Florida’s six-week abortion ban allows for emergency exceptions. He says that if a woman’s water breaks prematurely, trying to induce labor is not defined as an abortion if the fetus does not survive, nor is treating an ectopic pregnancy or trophoblastic tumor, a rare growth that forms in the uterus. The state clarified these exemptions on May 2, a day after the six-week ban went into effect.
However, doctors say these exemptions have gray areas and each hospital has worked on creating policies.
In rules issued by health regulators on Thursday, hospitals must maintain written policies and procedures for how they respond to emergency pregnancy complications that threaten a woman’s life, review them annually and revise them as needed.
Anya Cook says she arrived for emergency care at Coral Springs Hospital in early 2023 after her amniotic sac ruptured. She says the hospital cited the state’s abortion law and sent her home on antibiotics. Soon after, she went to a bathroom and gave birth to a stillborn child. The hemorrhage and infection that followed nearly cost her her life and her uterus, she said. At the time, the state had a 15-week ban and no rules for exemptions.
“I know she should never have been in a life-or-death situation trying to have our baby,” Derick Cook previously told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Health regulators addressed Anya’s scenario in their new rules, further clarifying what should happen if a woman’s membrane ruptures prematurely. The rules issued Thursday say a patient would be admitted for observation “unless the attending physician determines that another course of action is more medically appropriate under the circumstances to ensure the health of the mother and unborn baby.” The doctor must now document the reasons for emergency abortion care if that is the route they take.
The rules also state that health care providers can perform emergency care for an ectopic pregnancy or a trophoblastic tumor, and these procedures will not be considered an abortion. However, the new language requires doctors to document the treatment in the medical record.
Gynecologist from Miami, Dr. Cecilia Grande said the rules issued Thursday by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration came in response to the Supreme Court ruling.
“It’s good to have clarification on these things, but there are still some circumstances that haven’t been addressed,” she said. “There are many other clinical situations that are problematic. You can’t teach medicine.”
Florida Sun Sentinel health reporter Cindy Goodman can be reached at cgoodman@sunsentinel.com.
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