On Monday, the Center for Reproductive Rights announced it would file a federal complaint with the Biden administration on behalf of two women in Texas who were denied treatment for ectopic pregnancies. The women claim they were denied abortion care, the only treatment available for ectopic pregnancies, and face loss of fertility because of the delays.
The Center for Reproductive Rights filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on behalf of two of its clients, Kylie Thurman and Kelsey Norris de la Cruz. Thurman’s complaint alleges that she was turned away from Ascension Seton Williamson Hospital and still wasn’t offered treatment for her ectopic pregnancy when she returned several days later with vaginal bleeding. Her ectopic pregnancy eventually ruptured.
Norris de la Cruz alleges that she was denied treatment for an ectopic tubal pregnancy at Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital and discharged despite having been diagnosed. She eventually sought the opinion of another obstetrician-gynecologist and underwent emergency surgery.
Both lawsuits allege that hospitals violated EMTALA (also known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act) by failing to treat ectopic pregnancies. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court heard and rejected a challenge to Idaho’s EMTALA law. According to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the rejection was not a victory, but merely a “delay.” She further wrote in her opinion that “so long as we refuse to declare what the law requires, pregnant patients in Idaho, Texas, and elsewhere will pay the price.”
Under Texas’ current abortion ban, ectopic pregnancies are covered by the state’s medical practice. However, because Senate Bill 8’s language stipulates that “aiding or abetting” an abortion is punishable by a $10,000 fine and life imprisonment, the treatment of ectopic pregnancies and other conditions is not at all clear to medical professionals. When Senate Bill 8 was being debated in the Legislature in 2021, several medical professionals testified about how the abortion ban would affect the treatment of pregnancies and miscarriages.
The Center for Reproductive Rights draws a direct connection between what happened to Thurman and Norris de la Cruz and Texas’ current anti-abortion laws. “These women demonstrate that even the most explicit anti-abortion laws, with exceptions, do not mitigate the risks,” 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 provide any type of abortion.”
