'Makes my blood boil': Justice Samuel Alito's cancer comment leaves doctor furious
June 27, 2024
A U.S. Supreme Court decision was leaked Wednesday after Idaho v. United States was accidentally uploaded to the court's website amid the release of other cases.
Though it was quickly removed, the document appeared to detail the decision on the Idaho case regarding women facing emergency care due to pregnancy complications.
In the dissent, Justice Samuel Alito compared an abortion to having an experimental cancer treatment that hasn't been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration.
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Speaking to MSNBC Wednesday afternoon, Supreme Court reporter Dahlia Lithwick noted that the court claims to publish decisions as they're ready — but Wednesday's slip makes it appear that they are actually releasing whenever they see fit. She speculated that the Court may be more political than previously known.
"Predictable, but depressing and certainly not helpful to the court," said host Nicolle Wallace.
She went on to read the comments from Alito, reading his comparison between cancer drugs and abortion.
"Dr. Patel," Wallace asked, speaking to guest Dr. Kavita Patel, the former Obama White House policy director, "there is still this delusion that women are out there demanding abortions like they demand, you know, Spanx or undergarments, or it is a view obviously seemingly shared in the household. It is wrapped in the disinformation that has been peddled by the extreme wing of the pro-life movement for decades.
"It is incredibly out of step with American public opinion and it is incredibly out of step with anything that happens in a doctor's office. Between a patient and a doctor."
Patel agreed, but said it may help to explain what women are facing in emergency rooms. She said that they come in for a variety of reasons — either high blood pressure or bleeding.
It happened 54 times at St. Luke's in Boise, Idaho, where the case first began.
In one case, a patient's water broke before the fetus could live outside the womb, but the fetus still had a heartbeat. "You could have infection quickly spread. We've talked about sepsis, which is life-threatening. Without a ban in place, what would happen is the doctor would recommend termination of the pregnancy to avoid sepsis and death or potential death of the mother."
In Idaho, that was blocked.
"Keep in mind the nearest place is Portland or Seattle," the doctor explained. "And that is about eight hours away."
Those comments by Justice Alito, she said, "just make(s) my blood boil because we're not talking about on-demand health care. Making that analogy to cancer is disrespectful to cancer patients. And what we're really talking about is access to care. And that's why I think you saw the outrage in Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's statement."
See the full comments in the video below or at the link here.
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