Emergency rooms refused to treat pregnant women, leaving one to miscarry in a lobby restroom
WASHINGTON (AP) — One woman miscarried in the lobby restroom of a Texas emergency room as front desk staff refused to check her in. Another woman learned that her fetus had no heartbeat at a Florida hospital, the day after a security guard turned her away from the facility. And in North Carolina, a woman gave birth in a car after an emergency room couldn’t offer an ultrasound. The baby later died.
Complaints that pregnant women were turned away from U.S. emergency rooms spiked in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, federal documents obtained by The Associated Press reveal.
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.
<bsp-list-loadmore data-module="" class=«PageListStandardB» data-gtm-region=«Read more» data-gtm-topic=«No Value» data-gtm-modulestyle=«List B»> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> Read more </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> New rules for Pregnant Workers Fairness Act include divisive accommodations for abortion </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> Progressive candidates are increasingly sharing their own abortion stories after Roe’s demise </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> Arizona just revived an 1864 law criminalizing abortion. Here’s what’s happening in other states </bsp-custom-headline> </bsp-list-loadmore>“It is shocking, it’s absolutely shocking,” said Amelia Huntsberger, an OB/GYN in Oregon. “It is appalling that someone would show up to an emergency room and not receive care — this is inconceivable.”
It’s happened despite