California’s Attorney General, Rob Bonta, sued Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka on Monday, accusing the Catholic hospital of refusing to provide an emergency abortion to a woman in February, despite her water breaking prematurely, which put her at risk of life-threatening infection and hemorrhage. Bonta charged the hospital with discriminating against pregnant patients and violating California’s law that mandates hospitals to provide necessary emergency care.
The lawsuit, filed in Humboldt County Superior Court, seeks a court order to prevent the hospital from denying medically necessary abortions in the future, along with civil penalties. The hospital did not immediately respond to the lawsuit.
According to the suit, the woman, Anna Nusslock, was transferred to another hospital 12 miles away, where she was dangerously hemorrhaging by the time she reached the operating table. Nusslock, who was pregnant with twins, stated at a press conference that doctors at Providence St. Joseph Hospital had agreed she needed an abortion to prevent life-threatening complications. However, the doctors said they could not perform the procedure because the hospital’s Catholic-affiliated policy prohibited any intervention as long as “fetal heart tones” were detected, unless her life was in immediate danger.
Before her transfer to Mad River Community Hospital, a nurse gave Nusslock a bucket of towels in case of an emergency during the drive. Nusslock described the hospital’s policy as inflicting “needless protracted pain, bleeding, and trauma.”
Bonta condemned the hospital’s actions, drawing comparisons to the experiences of women in states with abortion bans. He emphasized that California law clearly requires hospitals to perform abortions when medically necessary, stating, “We need hospitals to follow the law, at the bare minimum. That is not too much to ask.”
This case adds to a growing number of legal battles over emergency abortions following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision allowing states to ban the procedure. In July, a Kansas woman sued the University of Kansas Health System for refusing to provide a medically necessary abortion. Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld a ruling that federal law on emergency care supersedes Idaho’s near-total abortion ban in medical emergencies, though ongoing litigation continues.
