The federal government recently found that the two hospitals violated a federal emergency care law in denying Farmer an abortion, which experts said could strengthen a malpractice claim. "But most rational people would be more afraid of going to jail." "If we want to encourage proper care, there has to be some sort of counter-risk to physicians and hospitals for refusing to provide care that should be legal," said Greer Donley, JD, an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law who studies the impact of abortion bans. Abortion rights supporters said such a case could pressure doctors and hospitals to provide appropriate abortion care, counterbalancing their fears of running afoul of state abortion bans, many of which call for criminal prosecution and revocation of medical licenses as punishment for violations. To some physicians and malpractice attorneys, the question is when - not if - a pregnant patient will die from lack of care and set the stage for a big-dollar wrongful death claim. When physicians decide not to provide treatments widely accepted as the standard of care because of these new laws, "that's perceived as substandard care and there is increased civil liability." "We will absolutely see medical malpractice cases emerge," said Diana Nordlund, DO, an emergency physician in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and former malpractice defense attorney, who chairs the Medical-Legal Committee of the American College of Emergency Physicians.
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