KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Joplin, Missouri, woman alleges in a lawsuit she was denied emergency abortion care required to her by law during a visit to the University of Kansas Health System in August 2022.
The National Women’s Law Center, Cohen Milstein Sellers Toll PLLC and Dugan Schlozman LLC filed the lawsuit on behalf of Mylissa Farmer.
On Aug. 2, 2022, Farmer showed up to KU Health System's emergency room with a medical emergency after her water broke at 18 weeks, according to the lawsuit.
The official name of the medical emergency she experienced was preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM)
As a result, Farmer needed medical intervention, including an abortion, because she was at "risk of severe blood loss, sepsis, loss of fertility, and death."
Farmer initially went to a hospital in Joplin where doctors told her losing her pregnancy was inevitable.
RELATED | 'Nobody was willing to help us': Joplin woman reflects on life after Roe in Missouri, Kansas
Doctors at Freeman Hospital in Joplin advised she seek treatment out of state, and eventually she decided to go the KU Health System.
The lawsuit states that doctors at the hospital acknowledged she lost her pregnancy and that she was facing medical risks if she didn't receive an abortion but she was still turned away.
Farmer arrived at the hospital on the same day Kansas voters were deciding on abortion issue Amendment 2, which would've removed abortion as a constitutional right in the state.
Voters rejected the amendment, and the lawsuit alleges that the election factored into the hospital's decision to deny her the abortion.
"Consistent with those guidelines, TUKH provided abortion care to another PPROM patient just three weeks before Ms. Farmer’s ordeal," the lawsuit states. "But because, by tragic coincidence, Ms. Farmer happened to arrive at TUKH on the evening of the 2022 election determining the future of abortion rights in Kansas, and because the emergency treatment Ms. Farmer required was an abortion, TUKH chose to deviate from its own clinical standards."
The hospital refused the abortion on that evening because it was “risky” in the “heated” “political” environment, the lawsuit alleges.
Farmer was eventually able to receive an abortion out of state in Illinois.
READ | Farmer's lawsuit against KU Health System
Farmer is suing for two counts of violation of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor act and one count of the Kansas Act against Discrimination Violation.
KSHB 41 reached out to the KU Health System for comment.
Below is a statement on the matter:
The University of Kansas Health System denies the allegations and claims made in the lawsuit we have seen and intends to address those allegations in the appropriate forum. The University of Kansas Health System complies with all applicable laws and regulations in providing the highest quality of care to patients, regardless of how they come to our hospital. The specific care and treatment decisions made in a particular situation are guided by our exceptional practitioners and specialists and involve a number of factors, including the specifics of that patient’s condition, the appropriate treatments available at the time treatment decisions are being made, applicable law and sound medical judgment. While we cannot comment publicly on the specifics of an individual patient’s care, The University of Kansas Health System believes that the care provided to Ms. Farmer was entirely appropriate, non-discriminatory, and in compliance with all applicable law.
—
