Emergency room doctors are grappling with mortal, legal, and ethical dilemmas in treating ectopic pregnancies, a life-threatening condition where a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus. And the fear of violating abortion laws is leaving women in critical conditions untreated, as highlighted by an Associated Press report on Monday.
One such case involved Kyleigh Thurman, a 25-year-old from Texas, who sought emergency medical care at Ascension Seton Williamson for an ectopic pregnancy. In the midst of her bleeding and in pain, she was sent home with a pamphlet on miscarriage and told to "let nature take its course." When she returned three days later, her fallopian tube had ruptured.
"I was left to flail," Thurman recalled. "It was nothing short of being misled."
The ordeal led to the Center for Reproductive Rights filing a complaint on Thurman's behalf, asking for a government investigation into whether the hospital violated federal law by not providing timely treatment.
The Biden administration mandated that hospitals offer abortions to save a woman's life. But state bans, enacted following the Supreme Court's decision to return abortions to a state decision, have added a degree of complexity to the mix. Texas is challenging the Biden mandate, but the Supreme Court has declined to resolve the issue.
In Texas, doctors can face up to 99 years in prison if convicted of performing an illegal abortion, complicating emergency pregnancy cases. While state law exempts ectopic pregnancies from the definition of abortion, the severe penalties nevertheless instill fear among doctors, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights.
"As fearful as hospitals and doctors are of running afoul of these state abortion bans, they also need to be concerned about running afoul of federal law," Marc Hearron, an attorney at the center, said.
Complaints have been filed with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services against Texas emergency rooms for failing to treat patients with ectopic pregnancies.
Ectopic pregnancies can be challenging to diagnose definitively. "They're literally time bombs," Kate Arnold, an OB-GYN, said.