To the editor:
Easy answers to complex problems invite unintended, often dangerous unforeseen consequences. Simple solutions are inappropriate for most social issues, which are complex, often ambiguous, and require nuanced consideration.
A recent decision by The Fifth Circuit Court on the antiabortion laws passed in Texas demonstrates this clearly. Under President Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, hospitals that accept Medicare money have to provide care to stabilize patients in a medical emergency.
That court’s three Republican judges ruled that EMTALA doesn’t preempt the Texas antiabortion law. This means that a pregnant woman’s life must be in danger before a doctor can perform an emergancy abortion to save her life.
But Molly Meegan, chief legal officer at the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists said, “even a thorough list of medical conditions that would justify an abortion can’t capture the complexities and nuances of every individual case, and the stakes are too high for doctors to try to guess.”
I’m sure the good people of Texas sought a purist approach to a higher morality when they voted for that republic’s abortion law, but now doctors hesitate to make that decision, fearing legal consequences. Now the life of every pregnant woman in Texas is in danger. In this election year, I urge you to consider how you, and those you support to represent us and lead us, use deep nuanced thinking in problem solving, so necessary in our multilayered, complex nation. Your life may depend on it.
Daniel L. Lisuk Leland
