Brendan Pearson
LONDON: Two women are calling on US health authorities to investigate a Texas hospital that refused to perform an abortion for a dangerous ectopic pregnancy, their lawyers said on Monday, highlighting continuing uncertainty over emergency abortions in a state that largely bans them.
The complaint, dated Aug. 6 and filed with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), accuses Ascension Seton Williamson Hospital in Round Rock and Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital in Arlington of violating federal law requiring hospitals to provide emergency care.
“While we cannot discuss the specifics of this matter at this time, Ascension is committed to providing quality health care to all who seek our services,” an Ascension spokesperson said in an email. A Texas Health spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mark Hearon, senior counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing the two women, said it was the first such complaint about an ectopic pregnancy he knew of.
An ectopic pregnancy is one in which a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, usually in a fallopian tube. An ectopic pregnancy cannot develop into a fetus, and if left untreated, it can cause the fallopian tube to rupture, resulting in life-threatening bleeding.
In Texas, abortions are banned in almost all cases but are permitted in cases of ectopic pregnancy. Nevertheless, Kylie Thurman alleges in her lawsuit that Ascension Hospital refused to provide her with an ectopic pregnancy in February 2023, despite doctors diagnosing it.
Three days later, when she continued to bleed, she returned to the hospital and received an injection to terminate the ectopic pregnancy, but the treatment came too late: Her fallopian tube ruptured and she needed emergency surgery to remove her right tube, potentially affecting her future fertility, according to her lawsuit.
In a second complaint, Kelsey Norris de la Cruz similarly alleges she was discharged from Texas Health Arlington Hospital with an ectopic pregnancy. After getting a second opinion from another doctor, she was able to undergo emergency surgery a few hours later, but by that point, the ectopic pregnancy was on the verge of rupturing and she also needed to have her fallopian tubes removed, according to the complaint.
Both complaints allege the hospital violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Delivery Act (EMTALA), a federal law that requires hospitals to stabilize patients with emergency medical conditions or, if necessary, transfer them elsewhere.
“These women demonstrate that even the most explicit abortion bans do not mitigate the risks by making exceptions,” Beth Brinkman, senior director of U.S. litigation at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement. “As long as these bans remain in place, doctors will be afraid to perform any kind of abortion.”
Texas’ abortion ban has a clear exception for ectopic pregnancies but is less clear for other medical emergencies. The state’s Supreme Court refused to clarify the exception in June in a patient-doctor lawsuit.
Texas is one of numerous Republican-led states that have enacted anti-abortion laws with narrow medical exceptions since the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling that will eliminate a nationwide right to abortion that has been recognized since 1973.
The potential conflict between these bans and EMTALA remains unresolved. In June, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that EMTALA preempts Idaho’s near-total ban, but litigation on the issue is expected to continue.
Last month, a Kansas woman filed what may be the first federal lawsuit against a hospital that refused to provide her with an emergency abortion.
The cases are Thurman v. Ascension Seton Williamson Hospital, handled by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and Norris de la Cruz v. Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital.
Thurman and Norris de la Cruz; Molly Duan and Astrid Marisela Ackerman of the Center for Reproductive Rights
Ascension Seton Williamson Hospital: Christine McCoy, General Counsel
Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital: Kenneth Kramer, General Counsel
read more:
Kansas hospital sued for refusing emergency abortions
Texas Supreme Court denies right to abortion in complicated pregnancies
U.S. Supreme Court allows emergency abortions in Idaho for now
U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, ending constitutional right to abortion (Editing by Brendan Pearson and Daniel Wisner in New York)
