{"id":3359,"date":"2024-10-07T09:27:13","date_gmt":"2024-10-07T09:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/?p=3359"},"modified":"2024-10-07T09:27:16","modified_gmt":"2024-10-07T09:27:16","slug":"catholic-hospital-offered-bucket-towels-to-woman-it-denied-an-abortion-california-ag-said","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/?p=3359","title":{"rendered":"Catholic Hospital Offered Bucket, Towels to Woman It Denied an Abortion, California AG Said"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When Anna Nusslock showed up at her local hospital 15 weeks pregnant and in severe pain earlier this year, she said, a doctor delivered devastating news: The twins she and her husband had so desperately wanted were not viable. Further, her own health was in danger, and she needed an emergency abortion to prevent hemorrhaging and infection.<\/p>\n

Providence St. Joseph Hospital, in the small Northern California coastal city of Eureka, refused to provide the care she required because doctors could detect fetal \u201cheart tones,\u201d Nusslock said at a news conference<\/a> Monday. California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit<\/a> against the Catholic hospital detailing Nusslock\u2019s dangerous experience and alleging the hospital violated multiple state laws when it discharged Nusslock \u2014 with an offer of a bucket and towels \u2014 to go elsewhere for what he described as standard medical care.<\/p>\n

Bonta also filed a motion for a preliminary injunction<\/a> in Humboldt County Superior Court, asking that it require Providence to treat anyone with an emergency medical condition. \u201cThe need for immediate relief is about to intensify,\u201d the motion said. That\u2019s because Mad River Community Hospital, where Nusslock ultimately got care 12 miles up the road, is slated to close its birth center this month.<\/p>\n

Providence will be the only hospital within about 85 miles to offer labor and delivery, according to a KFF Health News analysis. When care is more than an hour away, academic researchers typically define the area as a hospital desert<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt begs the question, what happens next time someone in Anna\u2019s situation shows up at Providence? There will be no Mad River for them to go to,\u201d Bonta said at a news conference. \u201cWith a dire lack of services, even here in California, and an influx of patients from states with abortion bans, we need hospitals to follow the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The case illustrates how even in California, where the right to an abortion is enshrined in state law, there\u2019s a glaring loophole. Catholic hospitals, which restrict reproductive health care because they follow the church\u2019s \u201cEthical and Religious Directives<\/a>,\u201d are aggressively expanding nationally by acquiring secular hospitals. In swaths of the country, including parts of Northern California, they are the only choice. At the same time, maternity wards are closing rapidly, leaving more patients to contend with religious directives instead of accepted medical standards.<\/p>\n

California\u2019s lawsuit also comes amid uncertainty that emerged after the Supreme Court in 2022 overturned the constitutional right to an abortion: whether federal law requires hospitals to provide abortions as emergency medical care even in states that have banned the procedure. The high court punted on the question this summer. The Biden administration reaffirmed<\/a> its policy that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act requires hospitals to stabilize or treat any patient who shows up at an emergency room. Texas is suing the administration over the policy.<\/p>\n

The issue is also playing out in the presidential election. During the Oct. 1 vice presidential debate, Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz noted a Georgia woman who died because a hospital delayed care. Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) answered, in part, by asking Walz if he wanted to force Catholic hospitals to perform abortions against their religious beliefs, saying that \u201cKamala Harris has supported suing Catholic nuns.\u201d<\/p>\n

With federal protections in limbo, Bonta said California must rely on its state laws to protect patients. Specifically, Bonta, who is widely expected to run for governor<\/a>, alleges that Providence violated a California law mandating<\/a> that hospitals provide care \u201cnecessary to relieve or eliminate the emergency medical condition.\u201d<\/p>\n

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