Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-1323_c07d.pdf
Page Number: 119.0

4 

JUNE MEDICAL SERVICES L.L.C. v. RUSSO 

GORSUCH, J., dissenting 

clinics have failed to maintain supplies of emergency medi-
cations and medical equipment for treating surgical compli-
cations.  One clinic used single-use hoses and tubes on mul-
tiple  patients,  and  the  solution  needed  to  sterilize 
instruments was changed so infrequently that it often had 
pieces  of  tissue  floating  in  it.    Hospital  credentialing  pro-
cesses, witnesses suggested, could help prevent such viola-
tions.  In the course of the credentialing process, physicians’ 
prior safety lapses, including criminal violations and medi-
cal malpractice suits, would be revealed and investigated,
and incompetent doctors might be weeded out.

The  legislature  heard,  too,  from  affected  women  and 
emergency  room  physicians  about  clinic  doctors’  record  of 
abandoning their patients.  One woman testified that, while 
she  was  hemorrhaging,  her  abortion  provider  told  her, 
“ ‘You’re  on  your  own.    Get  out.’ ”    Eventually,  the  woman 
went to a hospital where an emergency room physician re-
moved fetal body parts that the abortion provider had left 
in her body.  Another patient who complained of severe pain
following her abortion was told simply to go home and lie
down.  When she decided for herself to go to the emergency
room, physicians discovered a tear in her uterus and a large 
hematoma containing a fetal head.  The woman required an
emergency  hysterectomy.    In  another  case,  a  clinic  physi-
cian allowed a patient to bleed for three hours, yet a clinic
employee testified that the physician would not let her call
911 because of possible media involvement.  In the end, the 
employee  called  anyway  and  emergency  room  personnel
discovered that the woman had a perforated uterus and a
needed  a  hysterectomy.    A  different  physician  explained 
that  she  routinely  treats  abortion  complications  in  the 
emergency  room  when  the  physician  who  performed  the
abortion lacks admitting privileges.  In her experience, that
situation “puts a woman’s health at an unnecessary, unac-
ceptable risk that results from a delay of care . . . and a lack 
of continuity of care.”  Admitting privileges would mitigate