Florida Republican Representative Kat Cammack was widely criticized after opening up to reporter Tara Palmeri about having trouble accessing abortion for an ectopic pregnancy in Florida after she helped pass a six-week abortion ban in the state.

Cammack told the Wall Street Journal that she faced delays in receiving treatment for a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy shortly after Florida’s six-week abortion ban took effect in May 2025.


Cammack blamed those delays not on the law itself but on what she described as misleading messaging from abortion-rights advocates that had made healthcare workers fearful of legal repercussions, telling the Journal:

“It was absolute fearmongering at its worst. There will be some comments like, ‘Well, thank God we have abortion services,’ even though what I went through wasn’t an abortion.'"

  • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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    “It was absolute fearmongering at its worst. There will be some comments like, ‘Well, thank God we have abortion services,’ even though what I went through wasn’t an abortion.'"

    ‘My abortion is different and special’

  • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
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    Fucking gutter scum.

    The sooner we rid ourselves of the conservative/regressive cancer killing our society, the sooner our quality of life improves.

  • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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    Republican: Starts a fire

    Republican: sticks their hand in the fire and burns themselves

    Republican: in their panic, they set their entire house on fire

    Republican: “THE EVIL GODLESS DEMOCRATS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL THIS, GOD DAMN THOSE WOKE LIBERAL DEVILS!”

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      “Blame the Democrats” works as a strategy because conservative Democrats will just mirror whatever a more-popular Republican is saying in order to win votes. That’s how Al Gore fucked us all in 2000. That’s how John Kerry fucked us all in 2004. That’s how Hillary Clinton fucked us all in 2016 and Harris fucked us in 2024. Nevermind all the downticket races where some empty suit or partisan hack tries to run to the right by screaming “I hate liberals!” louder than the Republican in the race.

      Florida is absolutely flush with “Pro-LIfe” Democrats. It’s not uncommon to live in a blue county in a red state, where liberal municipal officials meticulously enforce fascist legislation on the grounds that they’re powerless to do otherwise.

      The end result is Republicans getting away with this bullshit by insisting “We don’t oppose all abortions, just the wrong kind of abortions” and then pointing to the Democrats stuck with the drudgework of enforcing their shitty laws when it comes time to pass blame. Democrats could resist Republican legislation as fiercely as Republicans fight liberal laws in red states and districts. But if they’re just the lackeys of reactionary state government, they’re easy whipping boys.

      • Alkali@lemmy.ml
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        I’m not a Harris fan by any means, but what did she do to “fuck us?”

        I mean, her stance on Israel and Palestine wasn’t great, but it was massively better than Trump.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          what did she do to “fuck us?”

          Three months campaigning with Liz Cheney, one of the least popular politicians in the country, just for starters.

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            And shutting down Palestinian voters, saying she’d stick to the Biden plan, not saying no more money, vetos, and weapons for genocide…

            • Alkali@lemmy.ml
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              Yes, letting the guy who actively supports the genocide win was a much better option. I’m sure she learned her lesson.

              • bthest@lemmy.world
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                Well she’s talking to Mamdani now. So maybe she has finally accepted that being anything other than full anti-Israel is a losing position.

          • Alkali@lemmy.ml
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            I mean… trying to win over moderate, independent, and anti-Trump Republican voters seems like a reasonable approach given the way the current voting system works.

            If anything, it seems that Biden and the DNC fucked us by not having a primary. Biden should have committed to a one and done. She may have fucked us by accepting the nomination without a primary, but I honestly blame Biden for that far more.

            I do agree that Kamala didn’t help the situation all that much. But I still don’t see how she really fucked us.

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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              trying to win over moderate, independent, and anti-Trump Republican voters seems like a reasonable approach

              It consistently failed to win elections

              • Alkali@lemmy.ml
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                It was how Biden won his election, so… it has won elections. It was just a bad strategy for Harris.

            • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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              I mean… trying to win over moderate, independent, and anti-Trump Republican voters seems like a reasonable approach given the way the current voting system works.

              How many elections must they fail to win before it finally becomes obvious that, no, it is not a reasonable approach.

              And to really drive the point home, how much did Obama go to the right to win? Or how much did he run on actually trying to improve this fucked country?

              • Alkali@lemmy.ml
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                I’m a bit confused, are you saying Obama was not center left and occasionally right leaning? I would have sworn he relied on market-based solutions for healthcare, supported for free trade agreements, aggressively used executive military power and drone striked the shit out of the middle east, and the maintained many Bush-era tax rates. He even had a beer with a cop who arrested a black man trying to get into his own house as an “apology” for stating the cop acted stupidity (the cop did) during his first term. So, he went to the right during his actually presidency. Am I mis-remembering these things or something?

                • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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                  I’m clearly pointing out how Obama’s campaign breaks your assertion that you have to go right to win, despite the Democrats losing every election this century when they tried to go to the right.

                  Obama explicitly campaigned to the left by advocating for policies to make thing better, hence that whole last bit. Whether his presidency veered more towards the right is immaterial to the point at hand.

                  Also, how much of your paragraph is related to the campaign and isn’t just you trying to find any excuse why your a argument doesn’t hold water? Because we’re not talking about the presidency, that’s you moving the goalposts. This is about the campaigns that were run (and lost!) by democratic candidates despite your incorrect assertion that campaigning right is necessary to win.

    • NottaLottaOcelot@lemmy.ca
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      They do it because it works. How often do you see a post where the comments make it clear that most people read the headline, but not the article? If enough people internalize the headline and pass it on socially, the message spreads like wildfire because 1) we are more inclined to believe news we have heard from known friends and 2) because the article with real information is separated from the conversation and probably difficult for the person to find.

      We don’t live in a society based on facts anymore. It’s reactionary headlines playing a game of telephone

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    Oh no, a few hours delay while they verified that they weren’t going to break Florida’s draconian laws and face criminal prosecution. You should celebrate, the law is working as designed!

  • bitjunkie@lemmy.world
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    “Misleading messaging” i.e. saying that the law prevents things like this instead of just straight-up shooting a toddler in the face, which is what most Republicans seem to think abortion is. Rot, bitch.

    • Sunflier@lemmy.worldOP
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      While I get the sentiment, mental retardation was targeted by the Nazis. Given the current situation and the government’s propensity for Nazism, I am disinclined to support that sentiment.

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    “what I went through wasn’t an abortion.”

    Wooooow. The cognitive dissonance is strong with this one.

    • arctanthrope@lemmy.world
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      it couldn’t have been an abortion, there was no satanic priest in a hooded black robe, goat skull headdress, and ritual dagger

    • Jay@lemmy.ca
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      Welcome to 'murica, where everything is made up and the definition of words don’t matter!

      • DougPiranha42@lemmy.world
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        Except that this is defined in the law, this is why healthcare providers are advised by their legal teams not to do it.

        • osanna@lemmy.vg
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          I believe in either Florida or Texas (I don’t remember which. Probably both tbh) it’s considered murder to get an abortion and can be punishable by death penalty. Fucking arsehats

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            “We care about life so much that if you are about to die due to complications and you have an abortion we will kill you.”

            I guess at least with leathal injection it will most likely be less painful than dying in childbirth.

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              Nah, they don’t give a fuck after you’re born. But before? LIFE IS PRECIOUS! Except mothers who need an abortion, for reasons as ectopic pregnancies etc. oh, wait. Those aren’t abortions* apparently. At least according to Kat

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      The procedures are often the same. A D&C is a D&C, whether it’s used to deliberately abort a viable fetus or to clean out an unviable fetus. It literally means to Dilate the cervix (so the doctor can see inside and get their instruments in there) & Curratage (use a tool to scrape tissue out of the uterus).

      Or popping a pill to expel a fetus, viable or otherwise. Mifeprestone then Misoprostol vs Methotrexate then Misoprostol. In both cases, the first drug stops development, and the second drug expels the fetus.

      In all of these cases, you’re aborting the fetus. The context changes, the act is the same.

      • Janx@piefed.social
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        Wait until she learns about ectopic pregnancies…

        EDIT: Never mind, that’s what she had. I didn’t read it…

        • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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          She had an ectopic pregnancy. That’s why she needed an abortion, which she got (because it’s okay when it’s for me) but she’s complaining about the fact that fear of prosecution under HER law made pharmacies unwilling (edit: I should have said “hesitant”) to provide the necessary pills. It’s the fact that it wasn’t in her uterus that she’s using to claim it “wasn’t an abortion.”

          • arrow74@lemmy.zip
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            She didn’t get it “because it’s okay when it’s for me”

            She got it because it is a life-threatening condition that Florida’s anti-abortion laws do take into account, unlike some other states.

            However, doctors are so afraid of the law she supported that before they act they are compelled to document as much as possible and test and test.

            Additionally

            and either (1) two physicians so certify this conclusion “in [their] reasonable medical judgment” in writing, or (2) a single physician certifies that the risks are “imminent” and “another physician is not available for consultation.”12 “Reasonable medical judgment” is defined as “a medical judgment that would be made by a reasonably prudent physician

            If I were a physician I would almost always wait for the 2nd physician to sign off before allowing a Florida court judge me.

            She got treatment exactly as prescribed by the law

            https://abortiondefensenetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Florida.pdf

            • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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              What I meant was not that she was allowed to get it, of course the law was written to allow a bare minimum of protection for the life of the mother. And I have edited because I should have said hesitant rather than unwilling. They did give her the pills.

              My point was that she chose not to die for her beliefs, but instead carved out a nonsensical mental exception for herself by denying that the abortion was an abortion. When push came to shove, she chose to have her fetus (embryo? I bet she lied about it only being 5 weeks) killed instead of letting it die naturally and probably kill her in the process.

              Which, by the way, is the only sane decision and yet it’s the one she denies.

              • arrow74@lemmy.zip
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                of course the law was written to allow a bare minimum of protection for the life of the mother

                Yeah, I got some bad news about that.

                https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/a-review-of-exceptions-in-state-abortions-bans-implications-for-the-provision-of-abortion-services/

                Basically 6 states (Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama, Idaho, South Dakota, and Wisconsin) have no provision to protect the health of the pregnant person. They only have provisions to protect the life of the mother. The issue is it’s so poorly written in many states they have to wait until the mother is actively dying to act.

                Ectopic pregnancies are deadly, eventually. They can stay in place for weeks without actually killing the woman. It’s well documented that in many states women have been told to wait in the parking lot until the condition became severe enough that it was life threatening.

                • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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                  I’m well aware. It’s so brutal that saying it’s barbaric is unfair to barbarians. Fortunately for her, Florida wasn’t on that list. In the terrible past, a woman could say “I’ll kill myself if I have to continue this pregnancy,” which would allow the doctor to act to save her life. In the more-terrible present, the draconian laws are written to prevent any such acts of humanity. The thumb is pushing so hard on the scale towards the “baby” rather than the woman (who has no value except as a mother) that the laws are indeed poorly written, on purpose.

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            Back in the day, your birth tally, as recorded for every childbearing woman, terminations were terminations. 3 miscarriages? 3 terminations. 3 abortions? 3 terminations. 2 miscarriages and one abortion? 3 terminations. That’s not political, that is the neutrality (ideally) of medicine.

            Gravida: # of times pregnant Para: # of pregnancies that reached viable gestation, alive or not. Termination: # of losses previable

            So this gal, if it was her only pregnancy, would be G1, P0, T1 by that system.

            That’s when I was in school. I’m not in OB, but now they use GTPAL (you guys can look it up in total). I cannot find the year of the switch. But know older terminology may be referenced by some people.

            The P is preterm. Births between 20-37wks, live or stillborn.

            The A is abortion, and includes ALL losses before 20wks. Your body can self abort due to issues with the fetus. A lot of early miscarriages are like that, and, often happen on a toilet. GASP

            By the newer GTPAL system, this gal would be (assuming this was her only pregnancy): G1, T0, P0, A1, L0

            Note that A1 is Abortion: 1.

            I feel no joy in this. For me, it simply is, but this gal will likely continue to see it as something else.

            • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              Yeah but all that sounds so complicated and it’s easier to just say it’s all the same and it’s all “murder”

              • Zephorah@discuss.online
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                Yeah. Take the D&C. The D is for dilation (of the cervix), so the doctor can see into the uterus and use instruments. The C stands for the tool used to scrape stuff out of the uterus. Could be a miscarriage. Could be an abortion. Could be polyp removal (like a uterine version of a skin tag, but can cause bleeding). Obtain a sample from an irritated uterus to test for cancer. Post menopausal women get this procedure. Old ladies. Young ladies.

    • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      They’ve decided that if you’ll die if you don’t get it then it’s not an abortion, because abortions are elective. No, this is not a real medical distinction; It’s the same surgery.

      • tempest@lemmy.ca
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        You’re close but it’s actually

        “They’ve decided that if I die if I don’t get it then it’s not an abortion, for everyone else it is an abortion”

        Small distinction I know but it makes a world of difference.

        You could likely actually trim it up a bit to a more simple

        “If I get it, it’s not an abortion”

    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      Its religious fundamentalism, aka, structured and mandated persistent irrational delusions, anti-reality cult member behavior

      When you realize these people just are a kind of insane that isn’t recognized as a mental disorder because you can still work a wage slave job while having it… … and because its broadly popular … everything starts to make more sense.

      America was founded by mostly a mixture of petty criminals and their descendants, and religious nutjobs, and their descendants.

      … if you abandon the melting pot / tapestry of differences with a backbone of principles … idea of America… you revert back to old habits and entrenched norms and material power structures.

  • Wispy2891@lemmy.world
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    The idiots thought that 6 weeks is 6 weeks from the intercourse, so “plenty of time to discover it”.

    Instead it’s 6 weeks from the last period, meaning in most cases, unless you were actively trying to get pregnant, when you discover that you’re pregnant the 6 weeks are already passed or almost passed. You can’t even know that the pregnancy is ectopic before 8 weeks, because at 6 weeks the embryo is so small that you can’t see it with the ultrasound.

    And in this case, an ectopic pregnancy, the embryo is planted in the wrong position, so there are only two outcomes:

    1. Surgical removal before the 8 week (technically a forbidden abortion)
    2. Do as God intended and do nothing (at the 10th week the embryo dies because can’t grow and after weeks of extreme pain the mother dies of hemorrhaging and sepsis)

    So, maybe if the mother at the 5th week and half was experiencing some weird pain in the belly, and had a good insurance that covered a transvaginal ultrasound, they could discover the problem and schedule the abortion before the deadline.

    If the mother didn’t have a good insurance, just thought “well maybe my belly pain it’s just a temporary problem because I’m a week late with my period”, when the doctors discover the problem they will say “sorry we discovered the problem 3 days too late according to the arbitrary deadline that the legislators decided, you have two painful weeks left and then you’ll die”

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    In a follow-up interview with Palmeri, Cammack said her experience brought her "down a path of understanding…

    Yep. Sounds legit.