California sues Catholic hospital over allegedly refusing to provide an abortion

SACRAMENTO, California — Attorney General Rob Bonta is suing a rural Catholic hospital for allegedly refusing to provide an abortion to a patient even though her pregnancy was not viable and her health was at risk.

“We have a hospital policy reminiscent of heartbeat laws in extremist red states,” Bonta said at a press conference Monday. “We’ve heard tragic stories from across the country of women denied life-saving treatment, but it usually comes out of states that have outlawed abortion. We’re not immune from this problem.”

The lawsuit accuses Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka of violating state laws by not providing abortions for people experiencing miscarriages or “other obstetric emergencies.” It's the first time post- Roe that a state has gone after a hospital for violations of abortion protections. The federal government has sued hospitals in Texas and Idaho, but no state has tested abortion-rights protections in this way.

Bonta said he became aware of the hospital's policy when he was approached by a patient, Anna Nusslock.

Nusslock and her husband had for years been trying have a baby. After several miscarriages, she found out she was pregnant with twins. But at 14 weeks, she began bleeding, and a week later, her water broke.

Doctors at Providence St. Joseph told her that neither twin would survive, and after consulting doctors in another hospital, she learned she needed to terminate the pregnancy, according to the lawsuit, filed in Humboldt County Superior Court.

"I needed an abortion so that my husband didn't lose both of his daughters and his wife in one night," Nusslock said at the press conference.

But she was told that hospital policy prohibited doctors from terminating a pregnancy when a fetal heartbeat is detected, according to the lawsuit, and she drove 12 miles while miscarrying to be treated at a different hospital.

Nusslock said a nurse sent her away with a bucket of towels for the car ride. "A bucket full of towels," she said Monday. "Like you would use to clean a bathroom."

The delay in care and transit caused her to hemorrhage and put her at risk of infection, Bonta said.

Bonta is seeking an injunction to guarantee that the hospital's patients are getting emergency health care, including abortion. It's especially important, he said, because Providence St. Joseph will soon be the only hospital in Humboldt County with a labor and delivery unit. The hospital where Nusslock was eventually treated — Mad River Community Hospital — is closing its labor and delivery unit in October.

The hospital said in a statement it was unaware of the case until the lawsuit had been filed and was reviewing its records to determine what had occurred.

"Providence is deeply committed to the health and wellness of women and pregnant patients and provides emergency services to all who walk through our doors in accordance with state and federal law," the hospital said. "Because this case is in active litigation and due to patient confidentiality, we cannot comment on the matter."

The suit is twofold. Bonta alleges that Providence violated state laws guaranteeing a right to emergency care, as well as Nusslock’s civil rights. While all other patients are able to make medical decisions in conjunction with their doctors, Bonta said Providence’s policy denies that right to pregnant patients.

While California does have a so-called conscience law that allows doctors with religious objections to opt out of providing that care, it doesn't apply to emergency situations.

“In California, state law is clear: hospitals are required to provide emergency, lifesaving care. No exceptions,” said K.M. Bell, one of Nusslock's attorneys and senior litigation counsel at the National Women's Law Center. "Religious refusals to provide care are an increasing problem in this country, especially after Dobbs . Hospitals should not be allowed to discriminate or risk patients’ lives.”

California has been shoring up its abortion protections since the Supreme Court ended the national right to abortion, but the laws Bonta is citing in this case predate that push.

Though Bonta is the first state attorney general to pursue such a case, the federal government has tried a similar approach, using a similar law that guarantees stabilizing treatment for patients in medical emergencies.

The Supreme Court heard arguments this year on whether Idaho’s abortion ban violates that federal law, but it chose to sidestep the merits of the case and send it back to lower courts for further consideration, making another showdown at the high court likely in the coming years.

Tyler Katzenberger and Alice Ollstein contributed to this report.