SACRAMENTO, CA., 9/30/24 – California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit Monday against a Humboldt County hospital accused of breaking state law by failing to provide emergency abortion services to a woman whose life was endangered by a failed pregnancy.
The suit claims that Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka illegally denied an abortion to Anna Nusslock, who was 15 weeks pregnant with twin girls, despite recommendations from her doctors that she receive the procedure.
Nusslock went to the hospital in February after experiencing increased bleeding and pain for a week and after her water broke prematurely earlier in the evening.
She was diagnosed with previable preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM) and told there was no possibility of her twins surviving.
Nusslock was also told that she was at an increased risk of serious complications, including infections and hemorrhaging, that could result in permanent harm or death.
Despite this, however, she was informed that Providence St. Joseph Hospital policy forbade abortion care in her case because one of her twins still had a detectable heart tone and her own life wasn’t yet sufficiently at risk, according to the suit.
“Without abortion care I risked infection or hemorrhage, both of which are so dangerous to my health and my life and these risks increase with every minute that passed,” Nusslock said Monday at a news conference announcing the lawsuit.
“I needed an abortion to protect myself against these risks, and I needed an abortion so that my husband didn’t lose both of his daughters and his wife in one night,” she said.
Doctors initially told Nusslock that she should be helicoptered to University of California, San Francisco Medical Center for treatment but she declined knowing her insurance wouldn’t cover the estimated $40,000 cost of the flight.
When she asked if she could be driven to San Francisco instead, her doctor told her, “If you try to drive, you will hemorrhage and die before you get to a place that can help you.”
Nusslock was eventually released from Providence St. Joseph Hospital, offered a bucketful of towels in case she needed them in the car, and told to make the 20-minute trip to another provider, Mad River Community Hospital, where she was eventually able to receive the care she needed.
“Even in California, a champion for reproductive freedom, we are not immune from practices like the one we’re seeing today, and we will not stand by as it occurs,” Bonta said Monday.
The suit claims Providence St. Joseph Hospital’s policy bars doctors from providing lifesaving or stabilizing emergency abortion care even when the pregnancy is not viable.
Such a policy is forbidden by California’s Emergency Services Law, the Unruh Civil Rights Act and the Unfair Competition Law, according to the suit.
In addition to the suit, which seeks a permanent end to the policy, Bonta said he asked the Humboldt County Superior Court for a preliminary injunction to prevent the hospital from enforcing the policy immediately.
“It is damning that here in California, where abortion care is a constitutional right, we have a hospital implementing a policy that’s reminiscent of heartbeat laws in extremist red states,” Bonta said.
Providence St. Joseph Hospital officials didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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It’s a shame that people who were given the right to live can demand others death! In matter of mother’s life, hospitals should have right to deny, having patient go to one who will do it! This is another way to take money from hospital doing what they believe is right! God help EVERYONE going against HIM!
This story makes me very glad I voted for Rob Bonita.
Shame on Providence Hospital.
Abortion should be outlawed. It is nothing but murder and should be treated as such. Complications may arise, but the patient needs to find a facility that can accommodate her. Not one with a policy that does not allow them. That is their right. Kudos to Saint Joe’s.
I was not able to finish my comment. In the future when you’re dealing with a high risk pregnancy, it would be a Good idea to find out which hospital can accommodate you rather than making a hospital go against its policies that’s called. Good patient Dr relationship. Plan ahead.
Are you serious??😡 When you have an emergency situation such as this, you are taken to the closest hospital to save you & in this case twin babies lives. She, nor her husband had the time to look into this hospital’s policies. Hospitals are to save lives! So, if this was your wife & children, you would be OK with their decisions they made in this case? Wow, just wow!
They need to come up with a different medical term for removing a dead baby from the womb of the mother. Calling it an abortion isnt quite accurate. And there lies the difficulties. St Joseph’s could have helped that poor mother and removed the dead twin and waited to see if they could save the other with a heartbeat. I’m the meantime save the mother too. If the second baby died they could have removed it then too. Let’s call it like it is, Its a stillbirth. It is Birthing a dead baby. A stillbirth. It’s not an abortion. Does that make everybody less triggered? Does that allow everybody to have a little empathy for the mother and the father who are suffering the loss of their pregnancy and baby and hopes and dreams? And the mother, who’s body is going through great pain and suffering and near death herself? Where is people’s compassion?
Having been employed at this hospital I would add that mediocrity is generous in the assessment of the physicians and administration. Nursing would work hard to ensure good care, but was frequently discouraged, disciplined and counseled to go with the narrative.
The Huntington Beach hospital they together with American family housing and my apartment main manager and sheriff and investigat sheriff discrimination lawsuit agian them.please give me a call because my hands couldn’t use too much