Florida Republican Rep. Kat Cammack has faced widespread criticism after describing difficulties she experienced while seeking treatment for an ectopic pregnancy under a state abortion law she supported.
Cammack told The Wall Street Journal that hospital staff initially delayed providing medication for the life-threatening condition shortly after Florida’s six-week abortion ban took effect in May 2025.
According to Cammack, she was five weeks pregnant when she woke up bleeding heavily and went to a hospital. Doctors determined that she had an ectopic pregnancy, a nonviable condition in which a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus and can become fatal without treatment.
Cammack said she chose methotrexate, a medication commonly used to treat ectopic pregnancies, rather than undergoing surgery. However, hospital workers were reportedly hesitant to administer the drug because they feared possible legal and professional consequences under Florida’s abortion restrictions.
Florida law permits the treatment of ectopic pregnancies and contains an exception when a pregnant patient’s life is at risk. However, doctors and patients have reported uncertainty about how the law should be applied, raising concerns that fear of prosecution or disciplinary action could delay emergency care.
Cammack said she showed medical staff the law on her phone and attempted to contact the office of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. She ultimately received the medication several hours later.
The congresswoman blamed the delay on messaging from abortion-rights groups rather than the law itself.
“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.'”
During a later interview with journalist Tara Palmeri, Cammack said the experience took her “down a path of understanding… how broken the system is and how politics has really, really endangered a lot of women’s lives in a lot of vulnerable moments.”
Palmeri questioned how a patient without Cammack’s education, political connections or access to transportation might have handled the situation.
Cammack said those concerns remained on her mind throughout the emergency.
“In my case, and I know there are a lot of different circumstances that women have faced on this, the entire time that this went on from the minute I took that pregnancy test to the minute I found myself in the ER, I kept telling my husband, ‘What about the women who don’t have a doctor? What about the women who don’t have a car to get to the ER?'”
“I must have asked that question to him 30 times. As we sat there, and again, this is my experience and I know women have had many different experiences, as I was in the ER, the nurse who was taking care of us was very kind and she said, ‘Listen, there’s going to be a delay. There’s some stuff that admin has to figure out.'”
Cammack said she asked the nurse why the hospital was delaying treatment.
“I asked what’s going on and she said, ‘According to the law, if we give you a shot of methotrexate, we are going to be held liable and the doctor is very concerned.’ I said, ‘One, I’m five weeks [along and] the law says six. And I’m five weeks, there is no heartbeat, this is very clearly a danger to the life of the mother situation.'”
She said the nurse then showed her material claiming medical workers could be imprisoned for assisting patients experiencing miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies.
She said, ‘I know that,” and then she takes her phone and she shows me an advertisement from a group that said any nurse, technician, doctor that had helped any woman who was miscarrying or having an ectopic [pregnancy], they would go to jail.”
Cammack’s account has intensified debate over whether exceptions written into abortion laws provide enough clarity and protection for healthcare workers treating pregnancy emergencies.