California sues Catholic hospital for denying emergency abortion

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: USA Today

Published 12:45 a.m. ET Oct. 1, 2024 | Updated 12:45 a.m. ET Oct. 1, 2024


California on Monday sued a rural Catholic hospital accused of denying an emergency abortion in February to a woman whose water broke prematurely, putting her at risk of potentially life-threatening infection and hemorrhage.

Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka, California, is accused of violating multiple state laws by discriminating against pregnant patients and refusing to provide abortion care to people experiencing obstetric emergencies, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said during a Monday news conference. In addition to civil penalties, the lawsuit, filed in Humboldt County Superior Court, also seeks a preliminary injunction against the hospital.

In February, chiropractor and Eureka resident Anna Nusslock was 15 weeks pregnant with twins when her water had prematurely broken, according to the lawsuit. Nusslock said at the news conference Monday that doctors at Providence St. Joseph Hospital told her that her twins would not survive and she needed an abortion to avoid life-threatening complications.

But Providence St. Joseph Hospital refused to provide the abortion, citing a hospital policy that prohibits any medical intervention while there is still a "detectable heartbeat," the lawsuit states.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/10/01/california-hospital-emergency-abortion-lawsuit/75459771007/

[FarPoint]

1. Such Catholic views/ hospitals have had this view for years...

Some hospitals better than others....bill services as D&C or something along those lines... now with abortion laws by supreme pricks, well the Catholic hospitals seem to slide backwards again... I think in past this got resolved by taking federal funds they were required to render emergency OBGYN services that could result in an abortion need... not a desire.

[zanana1]

13. The Catholic hospital in my town will not write prescriptions for birth control.

Lately, I'm so glad to be 72.

[wolfie001]

2. Let's see how that "Balls and Strikes" mutherfucker rules on this one

Any bets? 1-2 years from now?

[Zilli]

3. The way I see it . .

Unless she delivers a healthy baby her life is irrelevant and she will be left to die along with her baby. This is god's love in action among those who claim control over the uterus of every woman they can dominate.

[JohnSJ]

4. The question is did the hospital facilitate the transportation to the other hospital, and did the delay cause a

significant threat to the woman's life?

Humbolt country is trump world.

[Thunderbeast]

7. Life in the "FREE STATE OF JEFFERSON"

[nwduke]

5. The centuries of suffering

Caused by the Catholic Church loons continues from abusive priests who can’t marry to a pope who’s a dope!

[twodogsbarking]

6. Doesn't sound like, well, Jesus.

[FakeNoose]

8. This is puzzling because it goes against traditional Catholic teaching

I was raised in a Catholic family and went to Catholic schools in the 50s and 60s. There wasn't a whole lot of talk about abortions in those days, but there was one strong belief that I was taught. My mother ultimately had nine healthy children, plus there was at least one miscarriage that I know about.

Even the Catholic doctors and hospitals of the day always practiced this way: if it comes down to a decision of saving the life of the mother or the fetus, ALWAYS save the mother. If it means administering a D and C, well so be it.

[Retrograde]

17. Your experience is the opposite of mine

My mother once told me that her friends tried to dissuade her from having me, the first, at a Catholic hospital in the early 1950s since if there were problems they would save the baby at the cost of the mother's life. In school, 6th or 8th grade, we were told that aborting a fetus was a conscious choice on the part of the medical staff, hence a sin, while letting the mother die of complications from a pregnancy didn't require any action on their part, hence it was god's will.

[FakeNoose]

18. OK I believe you

But how would they justify allowing the mother to die, if it meant other small children would be left without a parent? That puzzles me. Also the idea that allowing the mother to die doesn't guarantee that the baby would live.

[Retrograde]

29. Her sacrifice makes her holy in the eyes of god

It's been half a century since I was a practicing Catholic, and I was amazed to find out there's a saint for mothers in labor - St. Gianna Molla. She was a modern woman who developed a form of cancer during her last pregnancy, and given the choice of an abortion, a hysterectomy, or treatment of the cancer with a low chance of success, she chose the latter and died after giving birth (skeptics say she died from a preventable infection caused by the cancer operation), leaving a newborn and 3 other children. She's been canonized, and is now revered as a role model in mainstream US Catholicism, someone who gave her life for an unborn baby.

[slightlv]

19. I took a couple of philosophy classes

in college taught by Jesuit priests. This is what they taught us as well... the life of the living, breathing woman is more important than a possible life in the uterus. Always work to save the mother, even if it means the death of a fetus. Jesuit philosophy I could get into, other sects of Catholics, not so much. But I loved these classes I took from the Jesuits. Seemed to be based much more in reality than a pie in the sky thoughtform.

[FakeNoose]

22. Thanks for the confirmation

It seems to be the christian, loving way to care for human beings. I use "christian" with the lower-case c because it's really universal.

[slightlv]

25. Actually, "catholic"

means... Of broad or liberal scope; comprehensive; Including or concerning all humankind; universal. To me, that's the small "c" catholic. I'm not a Catholic, but my sister is. I've learned a bit by osmosis from her. I've also been a seeker since I left home. We were raised in an evangelical family. I guess I've been the wide gamut of christian faiths. Too many didn't fit the mold that I've felt the path demanded. Like you, I felt christianity showed the way to treat people... and the earth... in the proper way. The christianists are the ones who've warped the faith all out of shape. If they're allowed to keep going, they're going to warp it so far out of shape that they will be the ones *defining* the faith, and I do believe that result was alluded to in the last part of Revelation. At that point, they may actually find out what it means to be a persecuted faith!

[FakeNoose]

27. Glad to make your acquaintance

I hope we're done with "killing for Christ" and "fighting wars for Christ."
It's such a medieval concept.

[in2herbs]

9. I once worked at a Catholic hospital. Nuns were still present and had admin positions but they

were positions without power. The hospital was actually run by corporate bean counters. Which brings me to this question: If these "Catholic" hospitals want religious exceptions why aren't they being required to prove that they are run by the Catholic church and not corporate bean counters in order to get exceptions under the law? Otherwise, they are a Catholic hospital in name only and exceptions should not apply.

[Warpy]

10. Good. It's malpractice and neglect.

I'm glad the state is suing them for this. Maybe Mother Rome will realize that the medicine business is going to turn distinctly unrofitable if they want to keep killing women and go back to selling plenary indulgences or something.

[twodogsbarking]

11. Make it a billion dollars. I am in.

[republianmushroom]

12. Good

[moonshinegnomie]

14. california should do more than just sue the hospital

they should arrest the top leadership of the hospital for what could be called attempted murder

[slightlv]

20. Corporations, whether secular or religious,

should be held to account for the harm they do to living people! If that means the COO or CEO goes to prison for manslaughter, then so be it. Seems like these corporations want their cake, but they want to eat it, too. IOW, they want all the rights and privileges of personhood, but they don't want any part of the accountability for laws or rules of ethics they violate. No more. Either give up one, or take on both. Normal "people" don't get to pick and choose what they'll be accountable for, neither should "personhood" companies, either.

[moonshinegnomie]

23. i agree and id go even further

if for example a company steals 10k from an individual. prosecute the company as a felon. if convicted since you cant imprison the company for 5 years as an example instead for the 5 year period 100% of the profits of the company are seized.
in addition the ceo and other top execs get fined 100% of the money they were paid by the company for the past 5 years. and if they havent been with the company for 5 years they get fined 10x what they got paid last year.

[slightlv]

26. I like your idea!

The other is to ensure the company can't do business for that 5 years, and they're monitored by a court-ordered monitor... much like Trump is currently.

[moonshinegnomie]

28. id let them stay in business

dont want to fuck over the low level employees. thats why id just take 100% of the profits

[flying_wahini]

15. Exact thing happened to me. Lost twins at 20 weeks. So thankful it was back in the day when I was

An EQUAL citizen. Able to access medical care quickly. I would have been dead if it happened today.

[TexasBushwhacker]

16. And when your water breaks IT'S OVER!

That's what I don't understand. If the fetus(es) are developed to the point that viability is possible, then by all means, do a C-section and deliver them. But this mother's pregnancy was only 16 weeks. The fetus weighs less than 4 oz at that point! They put the mother's health and life at risk to save a DYING FETUS!

[slightlv]

21. True... but then you're talking about people

who believe it's entirely possible to transplant that fetus from a fallopian tube into the womb! Talk about dumb. Seems you could tell these people to simply transplant the fetuses into someone else's womb to finish the pregnancy, but you, yourself, don't want to die. These people seem to think all kinds of miracles can happen if they just pray enough... so make them prove it.

[TexasBushwhacker]

24. Yeah, that belief in "miracles" is a problem n/t