The California Attorney General filed a lawsuit against a Catholic hospital on Monday. The hospital is accused of turning down a lady who needed an emergency abortion in February because her water broke too soon, placing her at danger of bleeding and infection that might have been fatal.
Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, charged Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka with discriminating against expectant patients and breaking a state statute mandating that hospitals provide essential emergency care.
The Humboldt County Superior Court action requests civil penalties in addition to a court injunction prohibiting the facility from going forward refusing medically required abortions.
According to a Providence spokesman, the hospital is investigating the claim. “Providence is deeply committed to the health and wellness of women and pregnant patients and provides emergency services to all who walk through our doors in accordance with state and federal law,” the spokesperson stated in an email. “We are heartbroken over Dr. Nusslock’s experience earlier this year.”
By the time the lady, chiropractor Anna Nusslock, arrived at the operating table, she was bleeding severely, according to the lawsuit. She was taken to a different hospital 12 miles (19 km) away.
At a news conference on Monday, Nusslock—who was expecting twins—stated that her doctors at Providence concurred that she required an abortion to prevent potentially fatal complications.
The Catholic-affiliated hospital’s policy, according to the doctors, forbade any intervention while they could hear “fetal heart tones” unless there was an imminent threat to the patient’s life, thus they were unable to provide one, Nusslock continued.
A nurse handed her a bucket full of towels “in case something happens in the car” before she headed to the adjacent Mad River Community Hospital, according to Nusslock. Nusslock continued, “The hospital’s policy inflicted on me needless protracted pain, bleeding, and trauma.”
According to Bonta, Nusslock’s experience was similar to what women go through in states controlled by Republicans that forbid abortion. According to California law, hospitals are required to provide abortions if they are deemed medically necessary, as stated by Bonta.
“We need hospitals to follow the law, at the bare minimum,” Bonta stated. “That’s not asking for too much. You can see how terrible this was if you’re a person.”
The lawsuit is the most recent in a string of court cases concerning emergency abortion following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision permitting states to outlaw the procedure. For example, a lady from Kansas sued the University of Kansas Health System in July 2022, claiming that the institution had denied her a medically necessary abortion. The matter is not yet resolved.
Although litigation over the matter is anticipated to continue, the U.S. Supreme Court in June upheld a lower court’s decision that federal law on emergency care supersedes Idaho’s nearly complete ban on abortion in medical crises.
