A Missouri woman is suing a Kansas hospital, alleging she was denied an emergency abortion after experiencing premature labor at 18 weeks of pregnancy. The lawsuit claims she was refused critical health-stabilizing care.
This lawsuit follows a government investigation by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which found that hospitals in Missouri and Kansas violated federal law by not providing Mylissa Farmer with abortion care.
Farmer is suing the University of Kansas Health System and its governing hospital authority under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), a federal law mandating emergency stabilizing care for all patients in Medicare-funded hospitals.
According to the lawsuit, in August 2022, Farmer experienced preterm premature rupture of membranes, where her water broke before the pregnancy was viable. By the time she arrived at the Kansas hospital, she had lost all her amniotic fluid. She alleges she was referred to this hospital after being turned away from a Missouri hospital due to the state’s abortion ban.
Without proper treatment, Farmer was at risk of severe blood loss, sepsis, loss of fertility, and death, the lawsuit states.
Farmer claims that the hospital’s physicians “refused to perform even routine emergency checks such as taking her temperature and assessing her pain.”
Although the hospital staff informed her of the risks she faced without an emergency abortion, they still turned her away without any treatment, according to the lawsuit.
Farmer eventually received abortion care two days later in Illinois, but by then, her prolonged miscarriage had “caused extensive damage to her health,” the suit claims.
She is seeking a declaration that the hospital violated federal and Kansas law by turning her away, along with financial compensation for the harm she suffered, as stated by the National Women’s Law Center, which is representing her.
“What happened to me should never happen to anyone. Denying me care not only put my life at risk but inflicted irreparable trauma, physical and mental suffering, and financial hardship on me and my husband,” Farmer said in a statement.
The lawsuit states that Farmer “continues to suffer physically, psychologically, and financially as a result of her ordeal. Her doctor believes the trauma from the denial of care exacerbated a chronic illness, for which she has been hospitalized several times since the denial of care.”
“The psychological and physical manifestations of the trauma Ms. Farmer suffered ultimately prevented her from working for many months. Without the ability to earn wages, Ms. Farmer lost the home she owned,” the lawsuit further states.
This lawsuit follows a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that blocked Idaho’s ban on abortions in cases where the mother’s health is at risk. This case marked the first time the court has addressed a state abortion law since overturning Roe v. Wade, ending federal protections for abortion rights.
The University of Kansas Health System told media “It has not seen the lawsuit and doesn’t want to comment on something we’ve not had the opportunity to review.”
However, following last year’s complaint, the hospital stated it was following policy.
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“It met the standard of care based upon the facts known at the time, and complied with all applicable laws,” according to the statement, adding that it will “respect” the government’s process regarding the complaint.
