USA – The state of California sues Catholic hospital over refusing to provide an abortion +State judge strikes down Georgia abortion ban, allowing abortions to resume

The state of California sues Catholic hospital over refusing to provide an abortion

California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta has sued a rural Catholic hospital for allegedly refusing to provide an abortion to a patient, even though her pregnancy was not viable and her health was at risk.

“We have a hospital policy reminiscent of heartbeat laws in extremist red states,” Bonta said at a press conference Monday. “We’ve heard tragic stories from across the country of women denied life-saving treatment, but it usually comes out of states that have outlawed abortion. We’re not immune from this problem.”

The lawsuit accuses Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka of violating state laws by not providing abortions for people experiencing miscarriages or “other obstetric emergencies”. It’s the first time post-Roe that a state has gone after a hospital for violations of abortion protections. The federal government has sued hospitals in Texas and Idaho, but no state has tested abortion rights protections in this way.

Bonta said he became aware of the hospital’s policy when he was approached by a patient, Anna Nusslock. Nusslock and her husband had for years been trying have a baby. After several miscarriages, she found out she was pregnant with twins. But at 14 weeks, she began bleeding, and a week later, her waters broke. Doctors at Providence St. Joseph told her that neither twin would survive, and after consulting doctors in another hospital, she learned she needed to terminate the pregnancy.

But she was told that Providence St Joseph hospital policy prohibited doctors from terminating a pregnancy when a fetal heartbeat is detected, according to the lawsuit, and she drove 12 miles while miscarrying to be treated at a different hospital.

Nusslock said a nurse sent her away with a bucket of towels for the car ride. “A bucket full of towels,” she said. “Like you would use to clean a bathroom.” The delay in care and transit caused her to haemorrhage.

While California does have a so-called conscience law that allows doctors with religious objections to opt out of providing that care, it doesn’t apply to emergency situations.

“In California, state law is clear: hospitals are required to provide emergency, lifesaving care. No exceptions,” said K.M. Bell, one of Nusslock’s attorneys and senior litigation counsel at the National Women’s Law Center. “Religious refusals to provide care are an increasing problem in this country, especially after Dobbs. Hospitals should not be allowed to discriminate or risk patients’ lives.”

SOURCE: Politico, by Rachel Bluth, 30 September 2024

+++

State judge strikes down Georgia abortion ban, allowing abortions to resume

The state law, known as the Life Act, banned abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. It was signed by Republican Governor Brian Kemp in 2019, but it didn’t take effect until July 2022, after it faced a legal challenge and the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade.

The state Attorney General’s office said an appeal was forthcoming. A judge in Georgia’s Fulton County struck down the six-week abortion ban on 30 September 2024, in a 26-page opinion, ruling that the ban was unconstitutional and allowing abortions to resume, saying it must be regulated as it was before the law took effect in 2022, and making it legal up to 22 weeks of pregnancy.

SOURCES: NBC News, by Fallon Gallagher, Rebecca Shabad, Dareh Gregorian, 30 September 2024 ; The Guardian US, by Carter Sherman, 30 September 2024.