stopthatgirl7Oct 5, 2023

A Woman Was Denied Medication for Being of ‘Childbearing Age.’ She Just Sued the Hospital

Tara Rule says her doctor in upstate New York was “determined to protect a hypothetical fetus" instead of helping her treat debilitating pain.

https://jezebel.com/childbearing-age-medication-denied-lawsuit-1850899899

A Woman Was Denied Medication for Being of ‘Childbearing Age.’ She Just Sued the Hospital

Tara Rule says her doctor in upstate New York was “determined to protect a hypothetical fetus" instead of helping her treat debilitating pain.

Jezebel
Show threadFlowVoidOct 6, 2023
This sort of thing was common practice long before Dobbs. And it is usually motivated by a fear of getting sued over birth defects, especially if there is an alternative that is not teratogenic. And there almost always is an alternative.
Show threadSuddenlyBlowGreenOct 6, 2023
What birth defects would there be in this case?
Show threadFlowVoidOct 6, 2023

I don’t know, because the medication in question hasn’t been identified.

But in general, if a medication causes any birth defects (or, more often, miscarriages) in lab animals then it won’t be used at the equivalent dose in pregnancy. It would be unethical to try to find out what it does to a human fetus.

Show threadSuddenlyBlowGreenOct 6, 2023
So the woman was pregnant?
Show threadbranchOct 6, 2023

From the text in the original post, I assume she was not.

“determined to protect a hypothetical fetus"

Show threadFlowVoidOct 6, 2023
She’s not pregnant, but doctors try to avoid giving teratogenic drugs long-term to patients who might become pregnant while taking them.
Show threadLavaPlanetOct 6, 2023
Which is super not ok. You get that, right?
Show threadt_jpegOct 6, 2023
It is okay if there is a non teratogenic alternative that treats the targeted disease. Why risk teratogenicity when you can altogether avoid it?
Show threadLavaPlanet
You are assuming a few things, you’re assuming she hasn’t tried anything else and jumped straight to the deep end. And you’re assuming that it’s ok to say to one group of people they’re incapable of mitigating risks for themselves, and need that to be decided for them. Taking away their autonomy entirely. She’s been to many doctors. She’s tried everything already. This causes people to feel suicidal because of the levels of pain on a frequent basis. And she’s told she just has to live with the pain, her pain is inconsequential in comparison to an imaginary non existent person.
Oct 7, 2023 at 10:23pmWeb