Two Texas women have filed federal complaints against hospitals that reportedly denied them lifesaving treatments for ectopic pregnancies, causing them both to lose one of their fallopian tubes and likely affecting their ability to have children in the future.
The Center for Reproductive Rights filed the complaints on behalf of the women, claiming the Texas hospitals violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act as a result of the fear instilled in health professionals from the state’s strict abortion laws.
While state law bans all abortions, there is an exception for when the pregnant patient’s life or health is at risk. However, there are several factors that need to be applied, and physicians who perform an abortion in violation of the law can face up to 99 years in prison, loss of medical license and hefty fines.
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The Center for Reproductive Rights said both women — Kyleigh Thurman and Kelsie Norris-De La Cruz — had tubal ectopic pregnancies, in which a fertilized egg implants in a fallopian tube instead of in the uterus.
“The condition can cause the fallopian tube to rupture, which can cause major internal bleeding and even death,” the center explained in a statement regarding the complaints. “A patient who is near rupture needs immediate treatment to preserve reproductive organs and protect the life and health of the patient.”
But neither of the women received that care, the complaints stated.
Thurman and Norris-De La Cruz both shared stories of being turned away multiple times by different hospitals when they sought emergency medical treatment for their condition.
Thurman, who is from a city called Burnet, located northwest of Austin, was advised by her OB-GYN to go to her local emergency room after she experienced symptoms of an ectopic pregnancy. She claims she was turned away two separate times.
Thurman was sent to another hospital by her OB-GYN, Ascension Seton Williamson Hospital, where she was again sent home without treatment for the condition.
Thurman's OB-GYN then traveled with her to the hospital to plead with the staff to give her a methotrexate injection — commonly used to abort ectopic pregnancies — and they eventually agreed. But, according to the complaint, the treatment was administered too late and Thurman’s ectopic pregnancy ruptured. She had to be rushed into surgery to remove her right fallopian tube and save her life.
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In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Norris-De La Cruz sought medical treatment for bleeding and cramping after she found out she was pregnant. Emergency room staff said she was probably having a miscarriage and sent her home, according to the complaint.
Her symptoms worsened and she went to Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital’s emergency room for help, where hospital staff told her she was likely having an ectopic pregnancy. However, she claims the hospital’s on-call OB-GYNs insisted she was having a miscarriage and advised she be discharged.
Norris-De La Cruz contacted other hospitals, even a clinic in New Mexico, to seek advice and treatment for her condition, the complaint stated. Ultimately, her friend’s OB-GYN brought Norris-De La Cruz in to perform lifesaving surgery that removed most of her right fallopian tube, after the friend showed the doctor a picture of Norris-De La Cruz's sonogram.
“When facing cases of ectopic pregnancies, due to fear of prosecution, doctors are delaying care, forcing patients to wait days or weeks and to undergo additional testing to confirm and reconfirm the diagnosis to ensure the treatment would not be considered a prohibited abortion,” the Center for Reproductive Rights stated. “Such delays in care can threaten patients’ lives, since ectopic pregnancy is one of many pregnancy complications that is life-threatening and requires immediate treatment.”
Maternal mortality rates are on the rise in the U.S., and ectopic pregnancies are one of the leading causes.
According to data from the Texas Department of State Health Services, most pregnancy-related deaths in the state in 2022 were from bleeding due to ectopic pregnancies.
