The Golden State is taking a hospital to court over a refusal to perform a possible life-saving procedure on a patient.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Monday that the state would be suing a Catholic hospital after a woman having a miscarriage was denied an emergency abortion.
In February, California resident Anna Nusslock's water broke only 15 weeks into her pregnancy with twins. Nusslock, who went to Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka, Humboldt County for treatment, was diagnosed with previable preterm rupture of membranes (PPROM).
Not only would Nusslock's twins not survive, but she herself was at risk of life threatening complications, including hemorrhaging. However, hospital policy prohibited her from accessing the treatment that she needed.
"The doctor at Providence Hospital informed Anna that hospital policy prohibited them from providing Anna the needed treatment so long as one of Anna's twins had detectable heart tones, unless Anna's life was sufficiently at risk - that is, more at risk that it already was," says the complaint filed against the hospital. "Until such time, all they could do was watch and wait. Despite every doctor agreeing that Anna needed immediate intervention, Providence Hospital police would not allow it."
The complaint continues to describe how Nusslock was subsequently forced to travel to a smaller, community hospital 20 minutes away in order to access treatment. Staff at Providence St. Joseph Hospital provided her with towels and a bucket "in case something happen[ed] in the car."
The lawsuit also states that a doctor at the Catholic hospital told Nusslock: "If you try to drive, you will hemorrhage and die before you get to a place that can help you."
They recommended that she be helicoptered to University of California, San Francisco Medical Center (UCSF) for treatment, but Nusslock's insurance would not have covered the $40,000 cost of the flight.
Bonta, who filed the lawsuit in Humboldt County Superior Court, stated that the hospital violated California's Emergency Services Law, the Unruh Civil Rights Act and the Unfair Competition Law in their refusal to provide emergency care.
"So even in California, a champion for reproductive freedom, we are not immune from practices like the one we're seeing today," said Bonta. "We will not stand by as it occurs. We will take action as we're doing today and move to end it immediately."
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