Mylissa Farmer says Missouri's abortion laws put her life at risk: 'This can happen to anyone'
Last August 2, Mylissa Farmer’s water broke. It was much too early. At Freeman Hospital, in Joplin, her obstetrician told her that she had lost all her amniotic fluid. The news was devastating: The child she had carried for more than 17 weeks — already with a name picked out — would not survive.
“They informed me that our daughter was no longer going to survive, and that my life was in danger,” Farmer told St. Louis on the Air on Friday.
But what happened next would turn Farmer’s personal tragedy into the cause of an unprecedented federal investigation. Farmer recalled that a doctor discussed options, and that ruptures of her membranes called for a delivery — what in effect would be an abortion, since the fetus was no longer viable.
“Normally, they would be able to intervene,” Farmer said. “But because Missouri law was not clear, they recommended that I leave the state to get care.”
Farmer’s account is corroborated in a “statement of deficiency” issued to Freeman Hospital in April by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency which administers the government health care programs.
The statement, whose existence was first revealed last week by reporting from the Associated Press, concluded that the hospital violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA. The law prohibits hospitals that accept Medicaid from refusing to provide emergency medical service. It is the first time that a hospital had triggered an EMTALA investigation by denying an emergency abortion.
According to the statement of deficiency, hospital staff at Freeman diagnosed Farmer with a preterm premature rupture of the membranes. She was told the hospital could not perform a delivery “while (the) fetus has a heartbeat, even though the fetus is not viable.”
https://www.kcur.org/health/2023-05-08/missouri-abortion-ban-law-mylissa-farmer-emergency
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