An Associated Press article last week suggested pregnant women have been turned away from emergency rooms due to state abortion bans, but the examples do not appear to support that narrative.
The report, which was published Friday, cites three examples — two women who were turned away from emergency rooms and another woman who delivered her baby in a car and lost it after a hospital told her they could not give her an ultrasound. The AP cites federal documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request filed early last year.
“The cases raise alarms about the state of emergency pregnancy care in the U.S., especially in states that enacted strict abortion laws and sparked confusion around the treatment doctors can provide,” the article states.
Pregnant women have “become radioactive to emergency departments” in states with abortion bans, the AP quoted a health law and policy professor as saying.
The woman who delivered in a car and lost her baby initially showed up with stomach pain at Person Memorial Hospital in Roxboro, North Carolina, where staff told her they would not be able to give her an ultrasound.
The hospital staff failed to tell her it would be risky to leave without being stabilized, federal investigators said. She delivered her baby in a car while on the way to another hospital 45 minutes away, and the baby did not survive.
It is unclear how North Carolina’s 12-week abortion ban would have affected this woman’s devastating situation.
Person Memorial Hospital reported the incident, and a hospital spokeswoman said they continue to “provide ongoing education for our staff and providers to ensure compliance.”
In another example the AP cites, a woman who was having contractions was turned away from Falls Community Hospital in Marlin, Texas, when the doctor on duty told her they did not have “obstetric services or capabilities,” according to federal investigation records. The doctor recommended the patient drive to a Waco hospital about 35 minutes away.
The hospital broke the law, according to investigators with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The article does not explain how Texas’ abortion ban, which includes exceptions for cases where the pregnancy would risk the life or a major bodily function of the mother, would have affected this woman’s case.
Another woman miscarried in a restroom toilet after staff at a stand-alone emergency room in a Houston strip mall refused to check her in when her husband asked for help delivering the baby.
The woman’s husband called 911 as she miscarried in the Sacred Heart Emergency Center’s lobby restroom, telling first responders in Spanish, “She is bleeding a lot and had a miscarriage … I’m here at the hospital but they told us they can’t help us because we are not their client.”
First responders arrived 20 minutes later and took the woman to a hospital. They appeared confused about the staff’s refusal to help the woman, 911 transcripts cited by the AP show.
State law requires stand-alone emergency rooms to treat or stabilize patients, a spokeswoman for Texas Health and Human Services told the AP.
Again, it is unclear how Texas’ abortion ban would have affected this case.
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In yet another example, a security guard at Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne, Florida, would not allow a pregnant woman into the triage area because she had a child with her. Medical staff could not find a fetal heartbeat when she returned the next day, the AP said.
Florida bans abortions after six weeks, but it is not clear how the law would have affected this case.
Legacy media outlets have made a variety of claims about the repercussions of state abortion bans, saying they affect everything from miscarriage care to treatment for ectopic pregnancies.
However, in many cases, the details reveal these situations are much more complex.
