Ossoff Press

U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff today released a new report finding that Georgia doctors are being forced to wait for women to develop life-threatening infections before terminating nonviable pregnancies due to the State of Georgia’s abortion ban.

Today, Sen. Ossoff released new findings from his ongoing investigation into the impacts of Georgia’s 6-week abortion ban.

As part of the investigation, Sen. Ossoff’s office conducted a survey of Georgia OGBYNs, with assistance from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), in which Georgia OBGYNs revealed they are being forced to send women home to await life-threatening infections before providing necessary care for nonviable pregnancies — a direct consequence of Georgia’s six-week abortion ban.

In the survey results, several Georgia OBGYNs reported that Georgia’s abortion ban prevented them from following best medical practice, specifically regarding treatment of preterm prelabor rupture of membranes (“PPROM”) — a serious complication that occurs when a pregnant person’s water breaks before a fetus is viable, typically before 24 weeks — by forcing doctors to wait for patients to develop infections before operating.

In one shocking account, one survey respondent, Dr. Lara Hart, described a case in which a patient was forced to have an unnecessary hysterectomy because doctors waited for infection to set in instead of promptly terminating her previable twin pregnancy after her membranes ruptured. This was a wanted pregnancy, Dr. Hart said, but the fetuses had no chance of survival, and, as Dr. Hart explained, “in this situation, you can save the mother, or you can save nobody.”

Other OBGYNs reported similar instances where restrictions under Georgia’s abortion ban prevented them from caring for their patients, including how the fear and uncertainty created by the vague language in Georgia’s abortion law, which only allows abortion to protect a woman’s health when “necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman or the substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.”

“We are risking the life of the mother for an unborn fetus that has NO chance for survival,” one Georgia OBGYN wrote. “These are WANTED pregnancies that cannot survive. The mother may risk serious illness (sepsis, hysterectomy) to satisfy an arbitrary law that seems to value the life of an unborn fetus over the life of the mother,” a doctor reported in the survey.

“Previable PPROM patient … waited until signs of infection for induction. She got sicker than she needed to due to laws; has happened multiple times,” another doctor reported in the survey.

The survey comes as part of Sen. Ossoff’s continued investigation exposing the health impacts of Georgia’s abortion ban.

In March, during an oversight session hosted by Sen. Ossoff, two Georgia women described how Georgia’s abortion ban impeded their doctor’s abilities to provide medical care, leading to life-threatening infections.

Last year, as Chair of the Senate Human Rights Subcommittee, Sen. Ossoff convened two public hearings at which Georgia women and Georgia OBGYNs testified to the harmful impacts of Georgia’s abortion ban.

In July, OB-GYN doctors testified that women in Georgia are being denied care during miscarriages and gone into sepsis because of Georgia’s abortion ban, which they testified has hindered OGBYNs’ ability to do their jobs and could put them at risk of prosecution.

In September, two patients and an OBGYN testified in Atlanta that the State’s abortion ban is forcing Georgia women to continue high-risk and nonviable pregnancies.