Dozens of pregnant women, some bleeding or in labor, being turned away from ERs despite federal law

More than 100 pregnant women in medical distress who sought help from emergency rooms were turned away or negligently treated since 2022, an Associated Press analysis of federal hospital investigations has found.

Two women – one in Florida and one in Texas – were left to miscarry in public restrooms. In Arkansas, a woman went into septic shock and her fetus died after an emergency room sent her home. At least four other women with ectopic pregnancies had trouble getting any treatment, including one California woman who needed a blood transfusion after she sat for nine hours in an emergency waiting room.

The White House says hospitals must offer abortions when needed to save a woman’s health, despite state bans. Texas is challenging that guidance and, earlier this summer, the Supreme Court declined to resolve the issue.

In Texas, where doctors face up to 99 years of prison if convicted of performing an illegal abortion, medical and legal experts say [state] law is complicating decision-making around emergency pregnancy care.

But the state law has “absolutely” made doctors afraid of treating pregnant patients, said Hannah Gordon, an emergency medicine physician who worked in a Dallas hospital until last year.

Serious violations that jeopardized a mother or her fetus’ health occurred in states with and without abortion bans, the AP’s review found.

Nursing and doctor shortages that have plagued hospitals since the onset of COVID-19, trouble staffing ultrasounds around-the-clock, and new abortion laws are making the emergency room a dangerous place for pregnant women, warned Dara Kass, an emergency medicine doctor and former U.S. Health and Human Services official.

“It is increasingly less safe to be pregnant and seeking emergency care in an emergency department,” she said.