Texas' abortion laws caused excruciating delay for Houston woman's pregnancy loss treatment

[Nevilledog]

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“You have to lay there and wait and have your life in the hands of an ethics committee, or a doctor that wants to help but can't." Texas abortion laws led to agonizing 3-day delay for woman's treatment

houstonchronicle.com
Texas' abortion laws caused excruciating delay for Houston woman's pregnancy loss treatment, doctor...
At 12-weeks pregnant, Kristina Cruickshank and her husband, John, found out their fetus...
8:41 AM · Sep 7, 2022

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/health/article/Waiting-in-vain-Texas-abortion-laws-stymie-17424262.php

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Kristina Cruickshank knew she had lost her unborn baby.

In her 15th week of pregnancy, a large fluid-filled sac surrounded the fetus, most prominently around the head and neck. Massive cysts, some filled with blood, covered her enlarged ovaries in a “spoke wheel pattern,” according to her medical records. Additional fluid had filled parts of her abdomen.

The 35-year-old Rosenberg woman was frail, vomiting and in pain when she and her husband, John, arrived at Houston Methodist Sugar Land on Friday, June 3. She needed an abortion. But according to Dr. Lauren Swords, the maternal medical director at the hospital’s childbirth center, no one at the hospital was equipped to perform the necessary procedure, known as dilation and evacuation. It also was not clear whether Kristina was exempt from Texas abortion laws, which threaten providers with felonies and lawsuits for performing abortions except to treat a miscarriage or a loosely defined “medical emergency.” Her fetus still had a heartbeat, and she did not yet need life-saving care.

So over the next three days, a sick and distraught Kristina was stuck in limbo, waiting in vain for a transfer to Texas Children’s Hospital, where Swords said Methodist doctors commonly transfer pregnant patients who need a higher level of treatment. Swords, the on-call doctor who cared for Kristina during the wait, believes the laws “had something to do with this unfortunate delay of care.”

Texas Children’s Hospital declined to comment.

“There's so much about these laws that people just do not really understand outside of healthcare,” Swords said. “This is a perfect example of how these laws that are in place can directly impact maternal health and care. And it's very frustrating to be a gynecologist in Texas.”

*snip*

[Biophilic]

1. That last sentence must be a huge under statement.

I can’t imagine being a caring gynecologist in any of these anti abortion states. Talk about not wanting to go into work.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

2. There are girls and women suffering right now because of radicalized Republicans.

Roe, Roe, Roe your vote
against theocracy!
Republicans revoke your rights
and kill democracy!

Donate to 38 House candidates: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217067267
Stick 'em up for a blue wave: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217078977

[pansypoo53219]

3. screw future fertility. medieval thinking.