California's Democratic attorney general Sept. 30 sued a Catholic hospital he accused of refusing to provide an emergency abortion to a pregnant woman despite an "immediate threat" to her life.
Attorney General Rob Bonta accused Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka of having a policy that "discriminates against pregnant patients" due to its policy forbidding performing an abortion where a fetal heartbeat is present.
Bonta's lawsuit seeks a court order to require the hospital to perform emergency abortions.
In a statement provided to OSV News, a spokesperson for the hospital said while it does not perform elective abortions, it does not deny emergency care and provides necessary interventions to save the lives of pregnant women in complex circumstances.
"Providence is deeply committed to the health and wellness of women and pregnant patients and provides emergency services to all who walk through our doors in accordance with state and federal law," the statement said, adding, "We are heartbroken over Dr. Nusslock's experience earlier this year."
The statement was referring to Anna Nusslock, named in the lawsuit as the patient. She alleged Providence did not perform an emergency abortion after she was diagnosed with Previable Premature Pre-labor Rupture of Membranes in February. She said she was told her unborn twins would not survive, but since doctors could still detect heartbeats, an abortion would violate policy. She alleged she was instead instructed to drive to another hospital 12 miles away to get an abortion and was hemorrhaging by the time she reached it.
"As part of our pledge to deliver safe, high-quality care, we review every event that may not have met our patient needs or expectations to understand what happened and take appropriate steps to meet those needs and expectations for every patient we encounter," the hospital's statement said.
In an Oct. 1 message to employees of the hospital, Garry Olney, CEO of the Providence Northern California service area, wrote, "We are heartbroken over the experience this patient had while in our care and reached out to her today in an effort to express our profound apologies."
"This was a tragic situation that did not meet our high standards for safe, quality, compassionate care," Olney said. "We are immediately re-visiting our training, education and escalation processes in emergency medical situations to ensure that this does not happen again and to ensure that our care teams have the training and support they need to deliver the best possible care for each patient we serve."
"As devastated as we are," he added, "we can't begin to imagine what the patient and her family have been through. We will learn from this and renew our commitment to ensuring that the care and experience we deliver are aligned with our high standards, every time and in every care setting."
Bonta said in a statement, "California is the beacon of hope for so many Americans across this country trying to access abortion services since the Dobbs decision," the Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade.
He emphasized that "abortion care is a constitutional right" in California. "With today's lawsuit, I want to make this clear for all Californians: abortion care is healthcare. You have the right to access timely and safe abortion services," he said. "At the California Department of Justice, we will use the full force of this office to hold accountable those who, like Providence, are breaking the law."
The Catholic Church teaches that all human life is sacred and must be respected from conception to natural death, and as such, opposes direct abortion.
The U.S. bishops' "Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services" outlines how this teaching plays out in practice in Catholic medical settings. The document also states that "operations, treatments, and medications that have as their direct purpose the cure of a proportionately serious pathological condition of a pregnant woman are permitted when they cannot be safely postponed until the unborn child is viable, even if they will result in the death of the unborn child."
Guidance for individual Catholic hospitals forbid direct abortions but generally permit what are sometimes called indirect abortions, procedures where the immediate purpose is to save the mother's life, where the death of the unborn child "is foreseen but unavoidable," one such document states.
The California case is the latest in a series of litigation over abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that overturned prior precedent making abortion access a constitutional right, notably Roe v. Wade.
