The Washington Post details an exploding number of cases where hospitals have had to pause treatment for pregnant patients facing life threatening situations because hospital administrators weren’t clear on what medical procedures were legally permissible under the new anti-choice laws imposed by Red states afte Roe was revoked.

A woman with a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy had to flee to Michigan to obtain an abortion after her local hospital would not treat her.  Another Wisconsin woman who suffered a miscarriage and was bleeding severely waited ten days to receive an operation to remove fetal tissue because of questions if the procedure was legal under an 1849 anti-abortion law that is currently believed to be in force.

The tumult caused by the Supreme Court’s revocation of Roe means hospital administrators are trying to figure out how to CYA legally and financially, which means denying lifesaving care to pregnant patients at risk. 

Some Republican lawmakers claim that their overreaching and draconian laws are not a risk to pregnant patients because they allow for pregnancy termination–which they falsely claim are not abortions–at the point that the patient’s life becomes at risk.

“Those procedures would remain legal and would not be considered abortion,” said Eric Scheidler, executive director of the nonprofit Pro-life Action League. “No physician can claim not to know that,” ignoring the fact that the definition of abortion is terminating a pregnancy.

“With a patient with heart disease, at what point in her pregnancy is she going to die?” said Dr. David Hackney, a specialist in high-risk pregnancies in Ohio. “You don’t want to reach that point, where things are that clear.”