FactCheck.org on ATLA Ad

ATLA produced an ad targeting Rick Santorum (R-PA) in connection with the obstetrics-specific bill (defeated in the Senate last week).  FactCheck.org is unimpressed:

The ad shows him cruising through space and accuses him of saying he “questions why some women work.”  In fact, Santorum was defending women who give up careers to care for children.

The ad also says he sponsored a bill that “restricts the rights of women injured by medical errors.” The bill was actually an attempt to address soaring malpractice insurance rates for obstetricians and gynecologists, and would have limited awards for non-economic “pain and suffering” to $250,000 per doctor or hospital. Not mentioned in the ad is that the bill also would have capped lawyer’s contingency fees.

Of course, I think it remains accurate to say that a cap on pain and suffering is a “restrict[ion]” on the rights of “women injured by medical errors.”  Today, in many states, there are no such caps — women (and men) have the right to seek non-economic damages above $250,000.  Adding those caps = a restriction on a previously-existing right.

Certainly one stated purpose of the bill was to reduce malpractice insurance rates (no cite given by FactCheck.org for the rates “soaring,” by the way), and clearly many people believe that the restriction on non-economic damages is a sensible approach to those rates — but it’s not inaccurate as stated.  One-sided, but that’s no surprise.