By Anna Spoerre
On Tuesday, she filed a lawsuit against one of the hospitals — The University of Kansas Health System — accusing the hospital of sex discrimination and saying it violated a federal law meant to ensure doctors treat patients who come into the emergency room.
(Photo- Mylissa Farmer shares her story for a 2022 TV ad for Democratic Senate candidate Trudy Busch Valentine/screenshot).
“While Ms. Farmer was clearly in the midst of a complicated and dangerous miscarriage — and there was no chance her fetus could survive — the care she needed was an abortion because fetal cardiac activity was still detectable,” states the lawsuit filed in Kansas federal court. “Ms. Farmer was entitled to this emergency abortion care under state and federal law.”
Farmer was living in southwest Missouri when she miscarried. Several weeks earlier, Missouri banned abortion in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the constitutional right to the procedure.
The day she went to an emergency room — cramping and bleeding at 18 weeks pregnant — Kansas voters were heading to the polls to vote in favor of keeping abortion legal in that state.
Farmer went to the emergency room at Freeman Health’s emergency department in Joplin at her OB-GYN’s urging. There, medical staff determined the pregnancy was no longer viable, but because the fetus had a heartbeat, and because Farmer’s condition wasn’t immediately life-threatening, she was turned away.
According to the lawsuit, doctors told Farmer that she was at risk of infection, severe blood loss, the loss of her uterus and death. But they would not help her because of Missouri’s abortion ban, which had only been in place for several weeks, outlawing all abortions with limited exceptions in cases of medical emergencies.
Farmer then traveled three hours across the border to a hospital in Kansas, where abortion is limited after 22 weeks gestation. However, doctors at the University of Kansas Health System also refused to perform an abortion. Kansas law bans abortions at any facilities run by the University of Kansas Hospital Authority, with exemptions for the life and health of the mother.
“Ms. Farmer arrived at (the University of Kansas Health) heartbroken, in pain and terrified for her life,” the lawsuit reads.
The doctor who saw Farmer initially told her the hospital would induce labor so Farmer could then hold her daughter and say goodbye, according to the lawsuit. But the doctor later said her decision had been overridden by others at the hospital, and that she could no longer induce labor because it would be too “risky” in Kansas’ “heated” political environment to do so when the fetus still had a heartbeat.
Instead, according to the suit, the hospital refused to even perform routine checks such as taking her temperature and assessing her pain. She was turned away without so much as Tylenol or antibiotics to ward off potential infection despite Farmer being at high risk for infection and experiencing heavy bleeding, mental fog and acute pain.
She returned to the Joplin hospital the next day, was kept overnight and then released without additional treatment.
Farmer eventually traveled several hours to Hope Clinic in Granite City, Illinois, for an abortion on Aug. 5. On the drive there, according to the suit, she was in excruciating pain, by then several days into her miscarriage and almost fully dilated.
Back home after the abortion, Farmer’s OB-GYN diagnosed her with an infection and prescribed her antibiotics.
The damage to Farmer’s health and wellbeing was long-term, the lawsuit argues. She was hospitalized several times after the miscarriage, and was unable to work for months. She eventually lost her home and moved out of Missouri.
What Farmer experienced at the Kansas hospital “compounded the trauma of her pregnancy loss and denied her the ability to mourn that loss on her own terms,” the suit reads.
Farmer, who has a history of polycystic ovary syndrome, had feared she and her husband would not be able to get pregnant prior to the summer of 2022, the lawsuit reads.
Her story caused national outrage as women and providers in states with abortion bans and restrictions navigated new and often vague laws. Under Missouri’s new ban, health care providers who perform abortions that weren’t deemed medical emergencies can be charged with a class B felony. If convicted, they would face up to 15 years in prison and their medical license could also be suspended or revoked.
In a letter to the hospitals several months later, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra warned that both locations had to provide all necessary care required by federal law. A report by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services found both hospitals had violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act.
This act, known as EMTALA, requires that hospitals treat patients with emergency conditions despite their ability to pay.
“Although her doctors advised her that her condition could rapidly deteriorate, they also advised that they could not provide her with the care that would prevent infection, hemorrhage, and potentially death because, they said, the hospital policies prohibited treatment that could be considered an abortion,” Becerra wrote in May 2023. “This was a violation of the EMTALA protections that were designed to protect patients like her.”
The federal lawsuit comes in the wake of an Idaho EMTALA case recently argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. While awaiting the decision, thousands of doctors, including dozens across Missouri, asked the court to uphold EMTALA.
The nation’s highest court sent the case back down to the court of appeals. Earlier this year, several women with high-risk pregnancies were airlifted to other states in order for emergency physicians to avoid performing emergency abortions in a state with a ban on the procedure.
Unlike the Idaho case, which was brought by the government, Farmer’s is the first high profile EMTALA lawsuit brought after the fall of Roe by an individual denied an emergency abortion, said Kenna Titus, a legal fellow with the National Women’s Law Center, the organization representing Farmer.
“In the post-Dobbs world, we know that these protections that are provided by EMTALA for pregnant people are more important than they’ve ever been,” Titus said. “A clear decision in this case will make it clear for people across the country that are dealing with this that this is not a gray area. Federal law requires abortion care in emergency situations like this.”
As of Wednesday, no lawsuit had been filed in federal court against the Joplin hospital.
A spokesperson with the health system did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“While Ms. Farmer was clearly in the midst of a complicated and dangerous miscarriage — and there was no chance her fetus could survive — the care she needed was an abortion because fetal cardiac activity was still detectable,” states the lawsuit filed in Kansas federal court. “Ms. Farmer was entitled to this emergency abortion care under state and federal law.”
Farmer was living in southwest Missouri when she miscarried. Several weeks earlier, Missouri banned abortion in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the constitutional right to the procedure.
The day she went to an emergency room — cramping and bleeding at 18 weeks pregnant — Kansas voters were heading to the polls to vote in favor of keeping abortion legal in that state.
Farmer went to the emergency room at Freeman Health’s emergency department in Joplin at her OB-GYN’s urging. There, medical staff determined the pregnancy was no longer viable, but because the fetus had a heartbeat, and because Farmer’s condition wasn’t immediately life-threatening, she was turned away.
According to the lawsuit, doctors told Farmer that she was at risk of infection, severe blood loss, the loss of her uterus and death. But they would not help her because of Missouri’s abortion ban, which had only been in place for several weeks, outlawing all abortions with limited exceptions in cases of medical emergencies.
Farmer then traveled three hours across the border to a hospital in Kansas, where abortion is limited after 22 weeks gestation. However, doctors at the University of Kansas Health System also refused to perform an abortion. Kansas law bans abortions at any facilities run by the University of Kansas Hospital Authority, with exemptions for the life and health of the mother.
“Ms. Farmer arrived at (the University of Kansas Health) heartbroken, in pain and terrified for her life,” the lawsuit reads.
The doctor who saw Farmer initially told her the hospital would induce labor so Farmer could then hold her daughter and say goodbye, according to the lawsuit. But the doctor later said her decision had been overridden by others at the hospital, and that she could no longer induce labor because it would be too “risky” in Kansas’ “heated” political environment to do so when the fetus still had a heartbeat.
Instead, according to the suit, the hospital refused to even perform routine checks such as taking her temperature and assessing her pain. She was turned away without so much as Tylenol or antibiotics to ward off potential infection despite Farmer being at high risk for infection and experiencing heavy bleeding, mental fog and acute pain.
She returned to the Joplin hospital the next day, was kept overnight and then released without additional treatment.
Farmer eventually traveled several hours to Hope Clinic in Granite City, Illinois, for an abortion on Aug. 5. On the drive there, according to the suit, she was in excruciating pain, by then several days into her miscarriage and almost fully dilated.
Back home after the abortion, Farmer’s OB-GYN diagnosed her with an infection and prescribed her antibiotics.
The damage to Farmer’s health and wellbeing was long-term, the lawsuit argues. She was hospitalized several times after the miscarriage, and was unable to work for months. She eventually lost her home and moved out of Missouri.
What Farmer experienced at the Kansas hospital “compounded the trauma of her pregnancy loss and denied her the ability to mourn that loss on her own terms,” the suit reads.
Farmer, who has a history of polycystic ovary syndrome, had feared she and her husband would not be able to get pregnant prior to the summer of 2022, the lawsuit reads.
Her story caused national outrage as women and providers in states with abortion bans and restrictions navigated new and often vague laws. Under Missouri’s new ban, health care providers who perform abortions that weren’t deemed medical emergencies can be charged with a class B felony. If convicted, they would face up to 15 years in prison and their medical license could also be suspended or revoked.
In a letter to the hospitals several months later, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra warned that both locations had to provide all necessary care required by federal law. A report by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services found both hospitals had violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act.
This act, known as EMTALA, requires that hospitals treat patients with emergency conditions despite their ability to pay.
“Although her doctors advised her that her condition could rapidly deteriorate, they also advised that they could not provide her with the care that would prevent infection, hemorrhage, and potentially death because, they said, the hospital policies prohibited treatment that could be considered an abortion,” Becerra wrote in May 2023. “This was a violation of the EMTALA protections that were designed to protect patients like her.”
The federal lawsuit comes in the wake of an Idaho EMTALA case recently argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. While awaiting the decision, thousands of doctors, including dozens across Missouri, asked the court to uphold EMTALA.
The nation’s highest court sent the case back down to the court of appeals. Earlier this year, several women with high-risk pregnancies were airlifted to other states in order for emergency physicians to avoid performing emergency abortions in a state with a ban on the procedure.
Unlike the Idaho case, which was brought by the government, Farmer’s is the first high profile EMTALA lawsuit brought after the fall of Roe by an individual denied an emergency abortion, said Kenna Titus, a legal fellow with the National Women’s Law Center, the organization representing Farmer.
“In the post-Dobbs world, we know that these protections that are provided by EMTALA for pregnant people are more important than they’ve ever been,” Titus said. “A clear decision in this case will make it clear for people across the country that are dealing with this that this is not a gray area. Federal law requires abortion care in emergency situations like this.”
As of Wednesday, no lawsuit had been filed in federal court against the Joplin hospital.
24 comments:
Freeman getting sued? How shocking?! Lol
Hope she financially cleans them out. Welcome to the world of far right magat oppression.
I bet you're fun at parties.
TOO BAD SHE CAN'T SUE THE TALIBANGELICALS AND RIGHT WING CATHOLICS THAT CAUSED THIS.
SOO MANY FAKE XTIAN GOD HUSTLERS IN THE REPUBE PARTY!
IF THEY AND THEY AND THE NAZIS LEFT THE PARTY THERE WOULDN'T BE ENOUGH LEFT TO ELECT A DOG CATCHER!
Hey if this guy gets to use all capital letters. I should be able to ask him what his pronouns are, keep it fair
Good point. I was trying to be nice. I just assumed he had no idea which letters should be capitalized and was compensating for his lack of knowledge. No on the pronoun remarks. You're an intelligent guy. Rely on your reasoning and not on your insults. You may even bring some of your opponents around.
The right only views us as baby makers. No thoughts, feelings, goals, etc. We are vessels for dudes to put babies in-that's it. They don't care if we die.
That is one of the most outrageous statements I’ve ever read. I don’t think you could find anyone that would agree with that, but you might guess…
As a frequent contributor, and consistant receiver of Randy's discipline for getting out of line, I can proudly say I'm not the author of 920 or 946. I can say however, that I am indeed the life of the party 906. Is this more acceptable Randy?
Sounds more like the left to me, keeping you down and dumb and keep voting Dem
Women who are in significant medical distress are being turned away from health care facilities because they are pregnant and uhmerrycan republican lawmakers have gotten all up in the doctors and patients business?
They are driving out of state to get healthcare for emergent conditions?
Jesus take the wheel!
Randy I truly think we would get along even though we have different views, it really is that easy I believe, just disagree to disagree a go on. Thank you for what you do. The pronoun guy 🤣
I agree with 1041. The Republicans believe more people on earth is the answer and women are nothing more than objects to use and beasts of burden to overpopulate an already resource stressed world. Argue all you want, the republican repeal of Roe vs Wade demonstrates the disrespect and fear/hatred of women so eloquently demonstrated by the angry old man in obvious cognitive decline, the misogynistic raper and felonous insurrectionist himself, the leader of this deplorable cult: donnie j trump.
10:41AM and 1:10PM - Women - If you don't want to become Pregnant - then "STOP", allowing it.
We keep hearing that it is the Republican's or Men's Fault that you get Pregnant - Then Stop allowing this to Happen - "Close Shop Up" - Unless you are a Victim of Rape - but do not use "Abortion", to Fix your Problems, because you do not have enough Common-Sense to Not get Pregnant - then Blame Others because you did - Get Your Head on Straight and Out of Your Azz.
Maybe, and just hear me out here, maybe Republicans just don't like killing babies. There is such a thing as birth control that doesn't involve dismembering a fetus.
To your other nonsensical argument: Abortion is still legal, it's up to the states. The judicial overreach was corrected.
I'm at bit stoned at the moment and sounds like 352 is too. Would someone please explain what 352 is getting at? I got lost after 10:41AM.
6:34 PM - No 3:52PM is telling Women to take Responsibility for Yourself - Unless you are a Victim of Rape / Incest / Medical Condition - You are Responsible for Yourself - STOP Using Abortions to Fix your inability to Abstain or Practice Safe Sex...
Republicans are Not Stopping you from Abstaining or Practicing Safe Sex... The only one to Blame for your Issues you have put yourself is Yourself - Stop Blaming Others...
827 and 352 are completely tone deaf. No arguing or debate when they don't even get the issue....wow.
She had a miscarriage. Like can you read? Not every woman is a sex worker using abortions for birth control. We die from pregnancy and child birth and have as much right to life as a man. Stop forcing us to die for cells.
She was having a miscarriage. What do you even mean?
Do forced birthers read? Like the only rebuttal you have is for women to close their legs but haven't read anything from the article. She was having a miscarriage and was denied care.
Yall want to punish us for sex by allowing us to die in pregnancy.
This whole situation was tragic! Wait for the baby to legally die, or allow the pregnancy that is unviable to infect you to septicemia. I am so sorry that the ER doctors couldn't make the best decision for the mother, which was to save her life so she could have a future.
Magat theology is a heinous example of fear,hatred,and ignorance. Said it before, needs said again: magats don't love their children or their women. The evidence lies in obsession with 2nd amendment and suppressing women rights. A school shooting kills a few kids,no problem! It wasn't the guns fault, dems did it. A women dies of complications with pregnancy, no problem! Oh well, She's replaceable. Wake up, people. The magat party white nationalists are killing Americans by guns, covid, and lack of heathcare.
So is the timeline August 2nd to the 5th?
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