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    • Women in Texas who were denied abortions for ectopic pregnancies file complaint
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    Women in Texas who were denied abortions for ectopic pregnancies file complaint

    Eira Gwyneth Posted on

    Two Texas women are calling on the Biden administration to investigate hospitals after they say they were denied treatment for ectopic pregnancies.

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    AUSTIN, Texas — Two Texas women have filed a complaint in federal court against hospitals that denied them abortions due to ectopic pregnancies, saying they nearly died and suffered a loss of fallopian tubes after being repeatedly denied treatment.

    Under Texas law, doctors are allowed to terminate ectopic pregnancies. In these pregnancies, a fertilized egg grows outside the uterus, where it cannot survive. Ectopic pregnancies are the leading cause of maternal death in the first trimester and one of the most common complications, occurring in two out of 100 pregnancies.

    “For weeks I was in and out of emergency rooms trying to get the abortion I needed to save my future fertility and my life,” Kyleigh Thurman said in a statement Monday. “This should have been a clear-cut case. Yet I was left completely in the dark, with no information or options for the treatment I deserved.”

    The complaints, announced Monday, ask the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to investigate Ascension Seton Williamson and Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital in Arlington, Texas, for allegedly violating the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, a federal law that requires hospitals to provide “stabilizing treatment” to patients during a medical emergency.

    Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago, striking down the constitutional right to abortion, 14 states have passed abortion bans. While there are exceptions for cases where a pregnancy endangers the mother’s life, doctors say the complicated wording of the new laws and the harsh penalties for performing abortions – including up to life in prison in Texas and elsewhere – have caused fear and confusion.

    “How many more people have to almost die before something changes?” asks Beth Brinkmann, senior director of U.S. litigation at the Center for Reproductive Rights. “It’s impossible to keep the patient’s best interests in mind when you’re facing a life sentence. The authorities in Texas have put doctors in an impossible position.”

    Lawsuit: Doctors’ inaction threatened patients’ lives

    After a month of cramping, dizziness and nonstop bleeding, Thurman sought help from her gynecologist, who suspected an ectopic pregnancy and recommended that she terminate the pregnancy with methotrexate, according to the complaint filed last week. Her doctor did not have the drug in his office and told her to go to the emergency room, where it also apparently was out of stock.

    Thurman, who lives about 60 miles northwest of Austin in Burnet County, then drove an hour for treatment at Ascension Seton Williamson in Round Rock, Texas. The complaint says doctors found signs of an ectopic pregnancy but discharged her and told her to return in two days.

    After she returned, the hospital again saw signs of a possible ectopic pregnancy but did not offer treatment. Thurman’s gynecologist had to drive to the hospital to beg medical staff to give Thurman methotrexate as treatment, the complaint states.

    It was too late, her lawyers say. The ectopic pregnancy ruptured days later, leaving her with heavy bleeding and stabbing pains. To save her life, doctors removed her right fallopian tube, the lawsuit says, effectively reducing her chances of a successful pregnancy in the future.

    Ascension Seton Williamson, part of a nationwide network of Catholic hospitals, declined to comment specifically on Thurman’s allegations.

    “While we cannot provide details about this case, Ascension is committed to providing quality care to everyone who uses our services,” a hospital spokesperson wrote in an email Monday to the Austin American-Statesman, part of the USA TODAY Network.

    Complaint: Woman was denied treatment after diagnosis

    Nearly three hours away, Kelsie Norris-De La Cruz reported a similarly harrowing experience at a hospital in Arlington, a city of about 400,000 residents halfway between Dallas and Fort Worth.

    Norris-De La Cruz, a senior, began planning her child after a pregnancy test came back positive. But after she experienced cramping and other symptoms, Medical City Healthcare Center told her she may have suffered a miscarriage or had an ectopic pregnancy, according to the complaint filed last week.

    After weeks of severe pain, Norris-De La Cruz went to Texas Health Arlington, where an ultrasound revealed a large mass near her uterus and further signs of an ectopic pregnancy. An emergency room doctor told her she could either opt for a methotrexate injection, which would cause the mass to be absorbed by her body over several weeks, or surgery, according to the complaint. She chose the surgery to prevent further bleeding.

    Then, according to the complaint, “two different gynecologists on duty acknowledged that her pregnancy could terminate but still refused to provide her with medical care” and told Norris-De La Cruz to return in 48 hours. Records show that they doubted her statements about her sexual history and suspected that she might suffer a miscarriage as a result of another pregnancy.

    Convinced that Texas Health Arlington would not treat her, the 25-year-old and her mother called an abortion clinic in New Mexico, which told them that treating ectopic pregnancies was legal in Texas, the lawsuit says. They tried another gynecologist recommended by a friend, who then performed emergency surgery. The mass had grown so large that they had to remove most of Norris-De La Cruz’s right fallopian tube and about three-quarters of her right ovary, the lawsuit says.

    “Doctors knew I needed an abortion, but these bans make it nearly impossible to get basic emergency medical care,” she said. “That’s why I’m filing this complaint, because women like me deserve justice and accountability from those who hurt us. Texas state officials cannot continue to ignore us. We cannot allow that.”

    Texas Health Arlington did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

    Biden administration and Texas Attorney General argue over access to abortion

    Lawyers with the Center for Reproductive Rights, an organization that advocates for abortion rights, filed the lawsuits on behalf of the two women. The group has represented Texas women in several major court cases, including Zurawski v. Texas, in which 22 patients and two gynecologists sued the state over a lack of clarity in the state’s abortion laws.

    Plaintiffs in the case, which was decided in the state’s favor in May, alleged that vague medical emergency exceptions led Texas gynecologists to delay or deny abortion care to women with serious pregnancy complications.

    The Biden administration’s emergency abortion guidelines under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) have been blocked in Texas since 2022 after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton obtained a preliminary injunction against the order in federal court. Paxton argued that the federal rule – which says hospitals must terminate pregnancies when necessary to stabilize emergency patients – would force hospitals to perform abortions in cases where Texas law does not allow them. The federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the preliminary injunction in January.

    Given the injunction, it is unclear whether and to what extent EMTALA applies to the two women’s case. Their attorney, Molly Duane, argues that EMTALA still requires hospitals in Texas to perform emergency abortions when they are legal in the state, including in cases of ectopic pregnancy.

    “(EMTALA) is the most direct way to bring this hospital and others in Texas into line,” Duane said in an interview with the Statesman on Monday, noting that the federal government can require hospitals that do not comply to prove that their policies and procedures prevent repeat incidents.

    Texas’s near-total abortion ban prohibits doctors from performing the procedure unless the patient is “in a life-threatening condition” that puts her at risk of death or has “a substantial impairment of a major bodily function.” Doctors found guilty of violating the ban can face criminal penalties up to life in prison.

    In response to questions from the Statesman, State Senator Bryan Hughes, the author of the 2021 Texas abortion ban, emphasized that terminating an ectopic pregnancy is excluded from the definition of abortion in the Texas health law.

    “Mothers in (these) situations … should have been treated, as there is nothing in Texas law that prevents doctors from treating them,” Hughes wrote in an email Monday. “These mothers’ lives were clearly in danger, so they also fall under the exceptions.”

    Methotrexate is the most commonly used drug to treat ectopic pregnancy, according to the American College of Obstetrician-Gynecologists, and is strictly regulated in Texas. senatee Bill 4, a 2021 law that restricts access to “abortion-inducing drugs.”

    But the groups that have lobbied for the bans claim that medical exemptions to the ban protect women’s lives and health while preserving the fetuses they carry. The Texas Alliance for Life has pointed out in monthly press releases that Texas has seen between one in 10 “medically necessary” abortions each month since the Roe v. Wade decision was overturned.

    Before the Supreme Court’s landmark decision, the Texas Tribune reported that at least 50,000 abortions occurred in the state each year between 2014 and 2021.

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    Eira Gwyneth
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