Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., takes a selfie with a copy of the U.S. Constitution after the House of Representatives met to elect a speaker and convene the new 119th Congress at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Jan. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

U.S. Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) nearly died after doctors feared prosecution over ending her ectopic pregnancy because of her state’s abortion laws, mirroring the experiences of millions of Midwesterners living in states with similar laws.

Cammack nearly died last May when she was taken to the emergency room just days after Florida’s six-week abortion ban went into effect. Cammack was reportedly about five weeks pregnant at the time, and the doctors determined that her ectopic pregnancy needed to be terminated to save her life.

According to Mayo Clinic, ectopic pregnancies occur when the fertilized egg grows outside of the uterus. Ectopic pregnancies cannot be carried to term and can be fatal if they are not treated quickly.

Although the doctors determined that her pregnancy could kill her at any time, Cammack had to wait hours to receive a shot of methotrexate to expel the pregnancy because the health care providers feared losing their licenses or going to prison. Under Florida’s law, there are no abortion exceptions for rape, incest or health of the mother up to six weeks after the pregnant person’s last menstrual period, which is before many people even realize they are pregnant. It also makes it a crime for doctors to perform an abortion under the penalty of five years in prison and fines up to $5,000.

Earlier this week, Cammack told the Wall Street Journal that she blames her near-death experience on abortion rights advocates for fearmongering, and not the abortion ban.

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

Keisha Mulfort, a spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida told Newsweek that Cammack’s delay in care is a direct result of Florida’s abortion law being intentionally confusing, which puts doctors in extremely difficult positions when they receive cases like an ectopic pregnancy.

Delays “experienced are not the result of advocates defending abortion access—they are a direct consequence of Florida lawmakers passing extreme, confusing, and politically motivated abortion bans,” Mulfort said.

Although treating an ectopic pregnancy with methotrexate is not technically considered an abortion procedure, the drug acts as an “abortive agent” to expel the fertilized egg. A report from the Physicians for Human Rights group from last September said Florida’s abortion ban created an “unworkable legal landscape” that compels clinicians to avoid established standards of care over fear. The ban also only permits abortion for “fatal fetal abnormalities” before the third trimester. The law states that “a fatal fetal anomaly” is one that is “a terminal condition that, in reasonable medical judgment, regardless of the provision of life-saving medical treatment, is incompatible with life outside the womb and will result in death upon birth or imminently thereafter.” Due to the vague language of the bill, doctors have expressed confusion on which anomalies can be legally terminated since some can result in the death of the child weeks or months after birth.

This vague language exists in most abortion bans with fetal abnormality exceptions, including Iowa and Indiana. Other states like Kentucky, Arkansas, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Tennessee do not have any exceptions in their total abortion bans.

In November 2022, Christina Zielke’s story made national news when NPR reported that because of the vagueness in Ohio’s then-active abortion laws, doctors sent her home when she was bleeding profusely due to a miscarriage, threatening her life. Ohioans have since enshrined reproductive rights into the state constitution.

In 2023, Oklahoman Jaci Statton was rejected numerous times by doctors to have her cancerous molar pregnancy treated because of the state’s strict abortion ban.

And last October, The Independent reported that Tennessean Nicole Blackmon was forced to deliver a stillborn and spent weeks “on the edge of death” because of her state’s abortion laws.