A lawsuit filed Tuesday by the National Women’s Law Center and others alleges The University of Kansas Health System violated state and federal laws when they refused to perform an emergency abortion on Mylissa Farmer in 2022.
According to court documents, Farmer was nearly 18 weeks pregnant and experiencing a miscarriage when she went to The University of Kansas Health System emergency room in Kansas City, Kansas, for help.
Kenna Titus, a spokesperson for the National Women’s Law Center, says the hospital denied Farmer an emergency abortion and did not administer medical care.
“They sent her home with an active risk of developing sepsis or hemorrhaging, losing her fertility, even dying,” Titus says. “So this was a violation, not only of the hospital policies, but this was against the law.”
What lawyers say happened
On the morning of Aug. 2, 2022, Farmer was just shy of 18 weeks pregnant when her water broke and she began experiencing cramps, bleeding and abdominal pressure, according to court documents.
The lawsuit says Farmer went to an emergency room near her home in Joplin, Missouri, where doctors confirmed her water broke early and determined her cervix was dilated and she had lost all of her amniotic fluid.
The doctors told Farmer pregnancy loss was “inevitable,” court documents say, and because of previous pregnancy complications and loss, they told Farmer she could face serious damage to her health or die if she waited to terminate the pregnancy.
Despite this, the suit says, doctors at the Joplin hospital denied an emergency abortion, citing Missouri’s abortion ban. The state’s near-total ban had gone into effect in June of that year, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutionally protected right to an abortion afforded by Roe v. Wade. The doctors advised that Farmer seek lifesaving care outside of Missouri.
Titus says after an urgent search for a hospital, Farmer and her husband made the three-hour drive to The University of Kansas Health System.
“This was an exceptionally difficult journey for Mylissa,” she says. “She was in a lot of pain. She was heartbroken.”
Farmer and her husband arrived at the KU emergency room late at night on Aug. 2. It was Election Day; Kansans were voting whether to protect abortion rights in the state. (Voters ultimately rejected the proposed constitutional amendment that would have restricted abortion, which remains legal in Kansas up to 22 weeks of pregnancy.)
Farmer was bleeding heavily and checked into the labor and delivery unit, according to the suit. Lawyers say a doctor examined her and confirmed her pregnancy was no longer viable.
Titus says the doctor initially recommended an abortion to Farmer, and then left the room.
“When she came back, she told her that they were not actually going to be able to provide that care because it was too risky in the heated political environment,” Titus says.
