licenses are pieces of paper representing their years of training losing will not make them not doctors does not work that way

Without those pieces of paper, they cannot practice medicine.

The problem is that right now if they choose to save one patient, they will have their licenses yanked and thrown in jail, which means that many other women would suffer due to a lack of services. These doctors know that their decisions led to the deaths of these two women. But they also know that having their own licenses yanked would do nothing but probably lead to the deaths of several more.

For doctors, it’s basically a Sophie’s Choice.