More than 100 pregnant women, many of whom were in medical distress that included bleeding or emergency labor, found themselves being illegally turned away by emergency rooms or negligently treated since 2022 according to a complaint filed with federal regulators.
The Biden administration says hospitals must offer abortions when a woman's life depends on it, despite state bans implemented after the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion over two years ago.
Kyleigh Thurman, 25, told the Associated Press that she was unaware her doomed pregnancy could kill her.
Emergency room doctors at a Texas hospital had given her a pamphlet on misscarriage and advised her to "let nature take its course" before discharging her without treatment for her ectopic pregnancy.
Three days later, the 25-year-old was still bleeding, and only then did doctors finally agree to give her an injection to end her pregnancy, according to the complaint filed by Thurman and the Center for Reproductive Rights.
In separate incidents in Florida and Texas, two women were forced to miscarry in public restrooms, while another in Arkansas went into septic shock, killing her fetus after an emergency room turned her away.
Hospitals face a federal investigation, hefty penalties, and threats to their Medicare funding if they violate the federal law.
Kelsie Norris-De La Cruz, 25, lost a fallopian tube and most of an ovary after an Arlington, Texas, hospital sent her home without treating her ectopic pregnancy, even after a doctor said discharge was "not in her best interest."
"I'm filing this complaint because women like me deserve justice and accountability from those that hurt us," she said.
