More than 100 pregnant women in medical distress who sought help from emergency rooms were turned away or negligently treated since 2022.

Bleeding and in pain, Kyleigh Thurman didn’t know her doomed pregnancy could kill her.

Emergency room doctors at Ascension Seton Williamson in Texas handed her a pamphlet on miscarriage and told her to “let nature take its course” before discharging her without treatment for her ectopic pregnancy.

When the 25-year-old returned three days later, still bleeding, doctors finally agreed to give her an injection intended to end the pregnancy. But it was too late. The fertilized egg growing on Thurman’s fallopian tube would rupture it, destroying part of her reproductive system.

That’s according to a complaint Thurman and the Center for Reproductive Rights filed last week asking the government to investigate whether the hospital violated a federal law when staff failed to treat her initially in February 2023.

“I was left to flail,” Thurman said. “It was nothing short of being misled.”

Even as the Biden administration has publicly warned hospitals to treat pregnant patients in emergencies, facilities continue to violate the 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.

  • dactylotheca@suppo.fiEnglish
    105·
    4 months ago

    Conservative abortion bans remind me of the phrase “the purpose of a system is what it does” (wiki):

    The purpose of a system is what it does (POSIWID) is a systems thinking heuristic coined by Stafford Beer, who observed that there is “no point in claiming that the purpose of a system is to do what it constantly fails to do.”

    Conservative policies in general practically never do what they are “supposed” to do. Their actual purpose is what they inevitably end up causing

  • Tyfud@lemmy.worldEnglish
    22·
    4 months ago

    trump and the republican party did this. Intentionally. It’s not an accident. This is exactly what they wanted.

    • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      4 months ago

      Yup. Everyone said this would be the result of their laws, and now here we are. This was expected. They knew what they were doing when they pushed for these laws.

      • SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        6·
        4 months ago

        I know the people that pushed this are liars, but it still galls how critics of their assault on women’s rights said this is exactly what would happen and their response was the laws would make exceptions for these situations. Then they didn’t. They’re the worst kind of people.

  • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
    171·
    4 months ago

    First of all, obviously the best strategy is actually fixing the problem by throwing out the misogynist christofascist nutjob GOP and repealing their insane laws.

    But I want to talk about the next-best strategy: we need an organized legal campaign to actively and aggressively make it even riskier/more expensive for doctors to engage in negligence or malpractice by refusing treatment than it is for them to risk “violating” the aforementioned insane laws by performing treatment. They need to be more scared of our retaliation against them for not doing their goddamn job than they are of the nutjobs’ retaliation against them for doing it.

    I understand that putting even more pressure on doctors and trapping them in a potentially untenable position is not great. But their comfort is not as important as their patients’ health, so there is really no alternative.

    We also need to organize things like legal defense funds – along with, perhaps, more “extralegal” tactics – to defend doctors who do act right.

  • cashmaggot@piefed.socialEnglish
    9·
    4 months ago

    Ah, I figured it had to be an abortion situation. Yeah, that’s fucking awful. I am not really sure we decided to walk backwards as a people. But what we do about it from this point on is really in the hands of the voters.

    • explodicleEnglish
      4·
      4 months ago

      Or we could take direct action, help women get access to abortions even if they’re illegal. Everything from driving them to Mexico to darknet market abortion pills.

      • cashmaggot@piefed.socialEnglish
        3·
        4 months ago

        I hear you but ectopic pregnancies I am not sure that’s something that can just be handled with pills.

        *Ah, see the drive to Mexico thing. I have a bleak hot-take on it that’s not very nice and it’s definitely coming from a dark place. I guess I’ll just put there’s certain places in America I have always avoided regardless of their small bastion cities. And generally people never really got why I felt that way if I opened my mouth on it. But I think people are starting to see big picture how I formed that opinion, over twenty years ago.

        Ultimately though, women should be able to seek medical assistance at their closest hospital. And the fact that, that’s not on the table and sits right with a large chunk of Americans seems bizarre.

        The reason why I am just saying vote is because liberals (which I will assume is a large chunk of this space in general) put up a large fervor but where was that fervor when Trump got elected first go round? My dipshit ex wrote in Bernie Sanders regardless of how much I pleaded for her to just vote Hilary and look at where we’re at. And yeah, Russians blah - blah -blah! But at the end of the day liberals lived too far in their own heads and created this mess in the first place. So get off your asses this November and vote! Dips.

  • Skates@feddit.nlEnglish
    7·
    4 months ago

    What the fuck do you mean they “continue to violate federal law”. Isn’t this why you have this massive defense budget for? Where’s the fucking army, America? Where’s the navy busting in and laying down the law? Where are the drones? Why isn’t the airforce out there bombing the doctors and nurses? Why the fuck is the FBI not responding? Where are the CIA and NSA and other three-lettered dipshits? HOW IN THE FUCK DO YOU HAVE A FUCKING CIVIL WAR AGAINST WOMEN AND YOU DO LITERALLY NOTHING ABOUT IT?

    How in the fuck does this actually happen more than exactly once before it is swiftly met with disproportionate retaliation and superior firepower?

    • cashmaggot@piefed.social
      3·
      4 months ago

      I had a talk with my shrink about this the other day. We’re both queer women, I’m a poc - both have health issues. America doesn’t give a fuck about women. I am not really sure who does. France? Whoever it is, kudos to you! You dun did good. If a federal law took urinals out of bathrooms people would be burning flags and marching on Washington until there were urinals back in bathrooms at a rate of 2x before. So yeah. Eh, it is what it is. It’s heartbreaking but it is what it is. There will be moves at some point, but I am not sure when. You can only break the law for so long and I think this article is made to create outrage to make said moves.

  • VarykEnglish
    81·
    4 months ago

    the laaand of the freeeeee…

  • SendMePhotos@lemmy.worldEnglish
    423·
    4 months ago

    In a really fucked up way, this would encourage evolution towards a stronger reproductive system if only the perfect systems pass through the barrier…