Careful medical charting can help prevent patient criminalization.

Medical charts keep a record of patient care, but they are also frequently weaponized in criminal proceedings against a patient or an emergency physician. As such, emergency physicians should be wary of including information in a medical chart that is neither required by law, nor clinically significant for a future medical professional to have on hand.

Emergency physicians must prepare for an increase in patients with complications from abortion and be aware that those patients may be criminalized.

Criminalization is a health hazard—the risk or possibility of arrest deters patients from seeking health care, potentially subjecting them to inhumane, unsanitary, and dangerous conditions. Criminalization itself takes patients away from their families, and can cause the loss of employment, income, and dignity. The duty to do no harm can be an important reminder of your commitment as a medical professional as it relates to post-abortion care, regardless of how you personally feel about abortion itself. Emergency physicians should decide their own personal risk level and work with an attorney who understands the specific laws in your state to navigate a post-Roe landscape.

Lauren Paulk (@laurenbpaulk) is Senior Research Counsel at If/When/How, where she focuses on in-depth legal research in support of If/When/How’s litigation and policy team and state and grassroots advocates.

References

1. Self-managed abortion: know your rights. Repro Legal Helpline. Available at: https://www.reprolegalhelpline.org/sma-know-your-rights/. Accessed Aug. 1, 2022.
2. (OCR) Ofor CR. HIPAA privacy rule and disclosures of information relating to Reproductive Health Care. HHS.gov. Available at: https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/guidance/phi-reproductive-health/index.html. Accessed Aug. 1, 2022.
3. Huss, L., Diaz-Tello, F., & Samari, G. (2022). Self-Care, Criminalized: August 2022 Preliminary Findings. If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice. https://www.ifwhenhow.org/resources/self-care-criminalized-preliminary-findings/
4. End surveillance of families. upEND Movement. https://upendmovement.org/end-surveillance-families/. Accessed Aug. 1, 2022.
5. Reinforcement of EMTALA obligations specific to patients who are pregnant or are experiencing pregnancy loss (updated July 2022). CMS. Available at: https://www.cms.gov/medicareprovider-enrollment-and-certificationsurveycertificationgeninfopolicy-and-memosstates-and/reinforcement-emtala-obligations-specific-patients-who-are-pregnant-or-are-experiencing-pregnancy-0. Accessed Aug. 1, 2022.