By AMANDA SEITZ (Associated Press)
WASHINGTON (AP) — A woman experienced a miscarriage in the lobby restroom of a Texas emergency room because the front desk staff refused to admit her. Another woman discovered 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 increased 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.
“It is surprising, it’s absolutely surprising,” expressed Amelia Huntsberger, an OB/GYN in Oregon. “It is shocking that someone would show up to an emergency room and not receive care — this is inconceivable.”
It’s happened despite federal mandates that the women be treated.
Federal law requires emergency rooms to treat or stabilize patients who are in active labor and provide a medical transfer to another hospital if they don’t have the staff or resources to treat them. Medical facilities must comply with the law if they accept Medicare funding.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday that could weaken those protections. The Biden administration has sued Idaho over